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Description
Masked Memories

Written by Nitrinoxus and Throne Zwei
Edited and Formatted by Nitrinoxus

Chapter 5

The first thing Gardus realized as he woke was that he'd fallen asleep, the sliver of silver light from the half-lit moon overhead bathing the lake in a soft glow; he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as the gentle lapping of waves along the shore reached his ears. Why was he even awake at this hour?

Silver woke up not long after, and seemed just as curious as to what woke him up from sleeping in the water. There hadn't been any loud noises, animals, or anything of the sort. Trudging to the shore, he looked at Gardus. "...you're up too?"

"Yes," the Goron replied drowsily. "Why are we awake...?"

"Because it's time to play another game, that's why!"

Silver groaned in frustration as he turned to the source of the voice - it was the one from.... before? There was a vague sense of hatred running through his veins towards the shadowy figure. "Game? Why? Why do we need to play a game? I just want to find my brother..."

"Why do you keep tormenting us?" Gardus groaned, glaring up at Majora's seat atop a nearby post. He remembered the little imp's name, and that he really despised him, but at the moment he was too tired to try striking him. "Why can you not leave us alone?"

"'Cuz you're too much fun!" Majora grinned down. "C'mon, our game's all tied up. I won one, and you won one, and I can't just leave it hanging like that!"

Silver grumbled as he looked up at Majora, obviously hostile. He didn't want to play a game. He didn't care about a tie. "Just... leave us alone! I don't want to play any damned game with you!"

The spellcaster drooped for a moment, grin faltering and then twisting into a derisive smirk. "Aw, why not?" he teased. "Whassamatter? Afraid ta lose? You're just a coupla big Cuccos!"

Suddenly, the world fell away, both teens filled with a momentary sense of weightlessness as the lake shore abruptly doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled in size; they landed with a pair of light thumps, righting themselves as quickly as possible and looking around them. Given that their eyes were now closer to the sides of their heads, their field of vision far wider as a result, it took but a moment to see what Majora had done. Small feathery bodies, one brown, the other a silvery grey; short yellow beaks and deep red combs; scrawny, scaly legs and short wings that could barely fly...

"And now your bodies match your behavior!" Majora grinned. "Still want me to just leave you alone? I'm sure being a Cucco ain't so bad... especially once you start thinkin' like one!"

All the silver-hued Cucco could do was squawk angrily at Majora. He was tired of this, but they had to play the game - he didn't want to be stuck as a Cucco for the rest of his life.

Majora giggled. "I figured you'd come around," he said; with a snap of his fingers, the shore raised up, lifting the two birds and the demented imp high into the air over the lake. "Okay, I'll be honest: I swiped this game from some of the local con artists," he said, leaping up into the air; as he came down, his form shifted and shrank, and soon a shadowy Cucco with Majora's eyes was standing before the duo. He nodded down below, to an artificial island floating on the lake; the five-tiered pyramidal structure and the rotating platform above it were daubed in bright, festive colors, a part of a game long before Majora came along. "The different levels of that island are worth different amounts," he said. "All ya gotta do is get more points than me in five rounds, and you win! Oh, but there's one thing..." Majora's smirk joined his demonic eyes on his avian face. "Every time we finish a round, that island sinks another level. And if you touch the water even once, you get no points... and that's as good as a loss!"

"You're playing too?" Silver actually looked surprised - or as surprised as a cucco could be.

"Well, yeah!" Majora replied, flapping to the edge of the earthy platform. "I can't win if I don't play, and I can't play if I'm not a Cucco."

Cucco-Gardus sighed. "I guess that makes sense... Let's just get this over with."

Cucco-Silver grumbled and sighed - this wasn't really how he wanted to spend the evening, but with Majora being so insistent, along with the threat of them being Cucco-brained for good, he had no choice. He looked to Gardus for a moment. "...wish me luck."

The brown Cucco nodded, and on Majora's overenthusiastic count, they jumped. The bird flapped frantically as he fell, leveling out and gaining his bearings with surprising speed; soon, he felt as though he'd gained a solid amount of control over his new, hopefully temporary body, but had little time to maneuver before he landed. He looked up as Cucco-Majora flapped his way down onto the stable platform two tiers above him. "100 points for me, 25 for you!" he crowed.

Silver flapped down two tiers below Gardus, landing awkwardly and sprawling clumsily across the wide wooden platform. "And 5 points for the klutz!" the shadowy Cucco added.

"Oh, shut up... I'm a Zora, not a damned bird!"

"You don't look like one!" Majora clucked. Before either of them could point out the reason behind this fact, they were suddenly back on the starting platform, high above the lake; as they watched, the level Silver had landed on dropped beneath the water's surface, disappearing from view as the landing zone grew smaller.

"Okay, Round 2!" he cried, and suddenly the trio was falling again. With another mad flurry of flaps and a series of turns in varying levels of grace, they had soon landed -- Majora on the same high platform, Gardus just below him, and Silver on the level closest to the water. "And now the score is: 200 for me, 75 for the brown bird, and 15 for Mr. Not-a-Fish!"

Silver wasn't sure what was worse - trying to fly in some demented game in the middle of the night, or the running commentary from Majora, which only seemed to make things worse. His anger was probably affecting his flying as well - but they just needed to win... even if it meant playing dirty. He began formulating a plan in his mind as the next round was set up.

With a cry of "Round 3!" the trio was once again slowly falling towards the smaller target zone. Finally, Gardus was getting the hang of the style of slow plummet that passed for Cucco flight, and when he touched down it was right alongside Majora on the 100-point platform; Silver plopped down on the 25-point tier Gardus had hit earlier, recovering in time to not tumble into the water. "300, 175, 40," the brown Cucco said, beating Majora to the punch.

The black bird ruffled his feathers indignantly. "Yeah, well, don't get cocky! You're still losing!"

"Don't get cocky yourself! We haven't lost yet!"

They jumped suddenly back to the ledge, and another tier sank below the loss-inducing waves. "Round 4!" And they were off again, falling and flapping and landing again before they knew it. Majora glared at Gardus as he landed next to him again, then at Silver as he scrabbled against the edge of the 100-point zone; that glare gave way to a grin as the silver Cucco's talons failed to find purchase, and he dropped to the wood on the 50-point tier below. "400-275-90!" he cried quickly. "Hope your birdseed tastes good!"

The silver Cucco just glared - it was time. He'd hoped he wouldn't need to try this at all, but they were desperate. He knew Gardus didn't know about it, but... it needed to be done. "Just keep talking, jerk."

Majora laughed as they were whisked back, watching as the pyramidal island sank until only the 100-point platform and the tiny revolving target above it remained. "No, really, you might as well just give up!" he grinned. "That little spinny platform's only worth 200 points. Even if Rocks-for-Brains here hits that, if I land on the 100-point level, I still come out 25 points ahead! I can't lose!" He gave a victorious crow. "...Listen, just do yourselves a favor and jump down into the water. I'll be sure to give you two to a nice farming family!"

"Grrrr.... let's go. The game's not over yet, egg breath!" Silver grumbled - at this point, Majora was just ASKING for something bad to happen to him. And happen it would...

"Suit yourself... Round 5!" The three birds dropped into the air, the platform they stood on crumbling away as their talons left it. There would be no returning to it now...

The spellcasting Cucco flapped lazily through the air as Gardus dropped, flapping like mad as he carefully aimed his body... and with a soft thud and the scrabbling of claws against wood, the brown Cucco landed atop the spinning platform, shooting a defiant glare up at Majora. If I must lose, he thought, it will be a valiant effort.

"Not a bad landing!" Majora crowed down. "You got some strong wings! I'm sure you'll produce a lot of fine fliers!" He cackled, flapping down towards the stationary 100-point level. The silver one wasn't there... "Huh. Must've given up. Smart bird."

"Surprise!" It was about then that Silver came careening into Majora's flight path, knocking the ebon-colored Cucco completely off his target. He'd lose too, but if it meant taking that smug shadow down with him... he'd gladly make the sacrifice.

"Wh-what are you--" But before Majora could finish, he and Silver splashed down just off the shadow Cucco's intended target; the island bobbed up out of the water, bringing the two sopping birds back onto the wood as the game ended.

Gardus flapped down from his perch, coming up next to the soaked silver Cucco. "Silver!"

"I'm okay! Just couldn't take any more of his taunting." The Cucco gave a clucking chuckle at this. As much as he hated to admit it, Majora had gotten under his skin and feathers but good.

"Grr..." The two glanced towards Majora, who glared angrily at them from where he stood, dripping and soaked through. "No fair, no fair!" he shouted, stamping his talons against the platform in rage. "You cheated! Cheater cheater cheater!"

"Maybe you shouldn't have pushed me, did you think of that? This entire time, all you kept doing was talking, taunting, teasing! I had to shut your smug little face up! I'm tired of playing this game! All I want to do is find my brother! Is that too much to ask?" If looks could kill, then the glare Silver shot Majora certainly would have done the trick. His patience was well past its limitations, and he just couldn't take it - the shadow's hissy fit over losing a... a game of all things had been the last straw.

Majora shifted back to his humanoid form, crossed his arms and turned away from the two Cuccos. "Well, you didn't play fair, so I'm not gonna change you back!" he pouted. "Nuh-uh, you gotta beat me again, best 3 outta 5!"

Silver squawked angrily, throwing his small body talons-first at the dark creature. Before his attack came anywhere close to its target, though, the world quadrupled in size again, his grey feathers diminishing into bright yellow fuzz as his grown body shrank into that of a newly-hatched chick; he landed almost inaudibly against the wood, tumbling to a stop and looking up with a frightened "Peep..."

"I WAS going to stop all this at three games," Majora growled darkly, suddenly pinning the tiny chick beneath a shadowy thumb and glaring into his beady eyes. "But you two have really pissed me off, so now you're gonna need to keep playing."

Gardus clucked and charged as well, and suddenly found himself tiny, yellow and pinned opposite Silver. "Really, you two don't have any choice in the matter," Majora continued, his childlike demeanor masked beneath the darker side that had taken command. "Either you keep playing along, or I keep you like this as a penalty for quitting early and drop you off someplace, with or without your minds intact." His grin widened into a vicious crescent. "But perhaps you'd prefer taking your chances with the latter... because I'll tell you right now, I'm done playing around with you two. Now, I'm playing for keeps."

"...fine, FINE. We'll keep playing your damned game. Just answer me this... WHY us?"

Majora just kept grinning. "Because I feel like it," he replied. "Now, since you're not going anywhere at the moment, let's get started on the next game."

Silver gave a tiny sigh and a hateful glare. That wasn't an answer! The shadow was avoiding the question, but he doubted answers would be forthcoming. "...fine."

The weight of Majora's hands suddenly vanished from the chicks' backs, and as they stood the world began to shrink again, smaller and smaller... and smaller and smaller, as the two grew past their earlier avian forms' sizes and then past even their Zora and Goron heights; soft feathers yielded to toughened flesh as the duo's wings grew broader, their crests flattening and hardening into a dense layer of skin as their beaks and talons grew longer and sharper.

The two new Kargoroks looked at each other, then at the spot where Majora had sent them. They now stood on a rocky perch above a rapidly flowing length of familiar river, looking up the rushing incline towards the water's source; a short ways away, a hoop sat suspended in the air, with still more presumably lining the river's winding route.

"This is a race," Majora said from wherever invisible perch he hid in when he watched their performances. "But it's not against me, it's against time. There's 10 of these hoops set along the river, 4 grey, 3 red and 3 blue; you both must fly through the grey, Gardus will be flying through the red, and Silver will take the blue. You have to fly through all of them and reach the mouth of the river before time runs out."

"That's all? Just a race and a time limit? No vanishing platforms, no... anything else?" Silver sounded skeptical as he tried to find where Majora was, but gave up before long. This seemed simple enough.

"Needless to say, you'll want to finish as quickly as possible," Majora said. "I don't need to add anything else to make sure you lose this one."

"Why, do we get a better score if we run this quicker?"

"You'll see once you start the race," the imp replied.

The Kargorok gave a skeptical look but took his place at the start line - the sooner they got this over with, the better.

Gardus gave an annoyed screech, but followed Silver's lead and stepped to the edge of the cliff. At Majora's signal, the two dove from their perch, flapping hard to avoid the rushing current below them; unlike their Cucco bodies, the bodies of the Kargoroks they now resembled were designed for flight, and soon the two of them were soaring into the misty air and through the first of the hoops. They flew together, gently banking left and down, then up and across a stretch of old scaffolding and down through another hoop; Gardus veered left and up through a red-hued hoop, while Silver stayed right and soared through a blue hoop before rejoining his comrade and dashing through a shared target.

As the two Kargoroks crested the watery rise and rose into a spacious stretch of river flanked by unfinished woodwork on one side, Gardus began to slow, his wingbeats growing labored as fatigue began to seize him; unable to push further, he aimed for a rocky ledge amid the waters, turning as he heard Silver coming down next to him. "Are you fee--!" The words caught in his throat. His voice didn't sound right, even considering the unfamiliar species he was; from the sound, he would've guessed his voice belonged to a young teenager! "What--!" His words caught again as he saw Silver; the bird's hide was markedly less toughened than it had been when they took off, and his wingspan and flight muscles looked smaller!

"I'm tired... don't feel right... why is that thing so mean?" Silver knew something was wrong, but his increasingly younger mind couldn't even muster up the will to be outraged, merely put-upon, his tone almost pouting as he took a few breaths. He couldn't fly for very long without being tired, and he wasn't even sure why they were doing this.

Gardus shook his head, the fatigue vanishing from body and mind in the wake of his panic. "No! Gotta keep going!" he ordered himself, taking off from the perch with Silver reluctantly behind him. But after another two sets of red and blue hoops, fatigue set in again, and the Kargoroks were forced to land again atop a rocky arch; the former Goron looked over at his companion, a fearful look in his eyes. "Nuh... no, we gots'ta keep... keep flyin'!" he said breathlessly. "We... we just... gots'ta win!"

"Win... dun wanna lowse... so tired... sweepy..." But even Silver's attempt to motivate himself was failing - he was starting to wonder why that mean shadow was making them do this. Why was it mad at them? He hadn't done anything wrong, had he? But he'd try to continue on, if only because it was all he knew to do at that moment.

With their energy and resolve fading and their time running out, the two young Kargoroks stubbornly half-flew, half-jumped to the next patch of dry land, and again as they passed through the penultimate hoop and landed on a tiny nub of rock at the bottom of the last leg of the race. They looked up, their dwindling beaks gaping at the hurdle that stood in their way: across from their perch, several hundred feet up and away, hovering over the lip of a colossal waterfall far out of their reach, was the last hoop.

"Within sight of the goal line, and you just can't make it to the end," Majora's voice taunted; as the duo's regression reclaimed their flight and left them stranded on the steadily larger perch, the world froze, the timer hanging on the last second and the friends on their last month. "Do you understand now? You can't win against me. I've won this round, and I'll surely win in the end."

All Gardus could do was squawk feebly in reply. He understood Majora's words, but could not form a response with his stubby, dull-edged beak; his dexterity had fled not long after his flight did, and even if he could move his mouth the way he wanted to, his ability to form sentences in his head had diminished almost entirely as he reached an avian infancy.

Silver's response was likewise a barely audible squawk. He couldn't talk - he understood, but he couldn't respond. The feeling of helplessness and of that smug shadow taunting him angered him greatly. He just couldn't stand it... but he was tired... so very tired.

"I'll ask you one last time," Majora sighed. "Knowing your attempts at beating me are doomed to failure, will you agree to concede defeat? You would've been better off dropping out earlier... at least adult Cuccos aren't used for target practice by the Royal Guard's archers, unlike adult Kargoroks. Still, growing up and living your lives as Kargoroks is likely a preferable fate to what will happen when you lose for a third time... So, what do you say?"

The tiny Kargorok shook its head. He didn't want to give up... he didn't know why, but he didn't want to give in.

A sigh echoed off the rocks as time resumed. "So be it..."

Suddenly, the world became clouded, murky and yellow for the two chicks, their bodies dwindling further within the thick, clear-shelled eggs that had formed around them; the golden-hued shells clicked and clacked as they rolled off the curved rock they stood upon, splashing into the river below and sinking beneath the waves as the current carried them downstream. As their eyes closed and sealed and the world faded to black, a voice echoed within their heads:

"Noon tomorrow. Wherever you are, I'll be there... and the games will come to an end."

XXX

"Gaaah! I don't want to... wait..." A piscine form bolted awake by the riverbed as Silver sat up. His nightmares had been especially demented - filled with impossible races and taunting, jeering faces and a feeling of helplessness and despair that filled the Zora with dread and shame. Plus, some kind of warning... but why? What was tormenting him and his friend so? All he wanted was to find his brother. "Gardus!"

The Goron was already awake, a hand pressed against his broad chest in a bid to stop his racing heart. "...Y-yes, Silver?"

Before the Goron could say or do much else, Silver was hugging him in relief, eyes still shut in fear of his own memories. "Y... you're okay... you're okay!"

"Of course I am okay," Gardus said. "Why would I not be okay?"

"I... just had nightmares. Horrible nightmares... at my age... heh... embarrassing, but... they just seemed so real. Like I was never going to see my friends or family again...."

Gardus gave a slow, understanding nod. "I have them too, Silver. But in the end, nightmares are just nightmares. Your dreams cannot hurt you."

"Thanks... and you're right... let's get moving, though. If Delan isn't here, maybe he's gone.... I'm not sure where else. If I remembered him more... maybe I'd know his likes and dislikes..."

Gardus rubbed his chin. "Perhaps we should try Castle Town?" he suggested, climbing to his feet as he spoke. "Even if he is not there, perhaps someone has seen him and knows where he might be."

The Zora nodded as he emerged from the water - Castle Town was supposed to have a lot of knowledgeable people there, and was a place that almost everyone passed through at least once. "Yeah... perhaps he's there looking for me, even."

"It is possible!" Gardus nodded, looking to the glow on the western horizon. "And perhaps we can find some breakfast while we are there. We were so busy searching yesterday, I think we forgot dinner!"

Description
Masked Memories

Written by Nitrinoxus and Throne Zwei
Edited and Formatted by Nitrinoxus

Chapter 5

The first thing Gardus realized as he woke was that he'd fallen asleep, the sliver of silver light from the half-lit moon overhead bathing the lake in a soft glow; he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as the gentle lapping of waves along the shore reached his ears. Why was he even awake at this hour?

Silver woke up not long after, and seemed just as curious as to what woke him up from sleeping in the water. There hadn't been any loud noises, animals, or anything of the sort. Trudging to the shore, he looked at Gardus. "...you're up too?"

"Yes," the Goron replied drowsily. "Why are we awake...?"

"Because it's time to play another game, that's why!"

Silver groaned in frustration as he turned to the source of the voice - it was the one from.... before? There was a vague sense of hatred running through his veins towards the shadowy figure. "Game? Why? Why do we need to play a game? I just want to find my brother..."

"Why do you keep tormenting us?" Gardus groaned, glaring up at Majora's seat atop a nearby post. He remembered the little imp's name, and that he really despised him, but at the moment he was too tired to try striking him. "Why can you not leave us alone?"

"'Cuz you're too much fun!" Majora grinned down. "C'mon, our game's all tied up. I won one, and you won one, and I can't just leave it hanging like that!"

Silver grumbled as he looked up at Majora, obviously hostile. He didn't want to play a game. He didn't care about a tie. "Just... leave us alone! I don't want to play any damned game with you!"

The spellcaster drooped for a moment, grin faltering and then twisting into a derisive smirk. "Aw, why not?" he teased. "Whassamatter? Afraid ta lose? You're just a coupla big Cuccos!"

Suddenly, the world fell away, both teens filled with a momentary sense of weightlessness as the lake shore abruptly doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled in size; they landed with a pair of light thumps, righting themselves as quickly as possible and looking around them. Given that their eyes were now closer to the sides of their heads, their field of vision far wider as a result, it took but a moment to see what Majora had done. Small feathery bodies, one brown, the other a silvery grey; short yellow beaks and deep red combs; scrawny, scaly legs and short wings that could barely fly...

"And now your bodies match your behavior!" Majora grinned. "Still want me to just leave you alone? I'm sure being a Cucco ain't so bad... especially once you start thinkin' like one!"

All the silver-hued Cucco could do was squawk angrily at Majora. He was tired of this, but they had to play the game - he didn't want to be stuck as a Cucco for the rest of his life.

Majora giggled. "I figured you'd come around," he said; with a snap of his fingers, the shore raised up, lifting the two birds and the demented imp high into the air over the lake. "Okay, I'll be honest: I swiped this game from some of the local con artists," he said, leaping up into the air; as he came down, his form shifted and shrank, and soon a shadowy Cucco with Majora's eyes was standing before the duo. He nodded down below, to an artificial island floating on the lake; the five-tiered pyramidal structure and the rotating platform above it were daubed in bright, festive colors, a part of a game long before Majora came along. "The different levels of that island are worth different amounts," he said. "All ya gotta do is get more points than me in five rounds, and you win! Oh, but there's one thing..." Majora's smirk joined his demonic eyes on his avian face. "Every time we finish a round, that island sinks another level. And if you touch the water even once, you get no points... and that's as good as a loss!"

"You're playing too?" Silver actually looked surprised - or as surprised as a cucco could be.

"Well, yeah!" Majora replied, flapping to the edge of the earthy platform. "I can't win if I don't play, and I can't play if I'm not a Cucco."

Cucco-Gardus sighed. "I guess that makes sense... Let's just get this over with."

Cucco-Silver grumbled and sighed - this wasn't really how he wanted to spend the evening, but with Majora being so insistent, along with the threat of them being Cucco-brained for good, he had no choice. He looked to Gardus for a moment. "...wish me luck."

The brown Cucco nodded, and on Majora's overenthusiastic count, they jumped. The bird flapped frantically as he fell, leveling out and gaining his bearings with surprising speed; soon, he felt as though he'd gained a solid amount of control over his new, hopefully temporary body, but had little time to maneuver before he landed. He looked up as Cucco-Majora flapped his way down onto the stable platform two tiers above him. "100 points for me, 25 for you!" he crowed.

Silver flapped down two tiers below Gardus, landing awkwardly and sprawling clumsily across the wide wooden platform. "And 5 points for the klutz!" the shadowy Cucco added.

"Oh, shut up... I'm a Zora, not a damned bird!"

"You don't look like one!" Majora clucked. Before either of them could point out the reason behind this fact, they were suddenly back on the starting platform, high above the lake; as they watched, the level Silver had landed on dropped beneath the water's surface, disappearing from view as the landing zone grew smaller.

"Okay, Round 2!" he cried, and suddenly the trio was falling again. With another mad flurry of flaps and a series of turns in varying levels of grace, they had soon landed -- Majora on the same high platform, Gardus just below him, and Silver on the level closest to the water. "And now the score is: 200 for me, 75 for the brown bird, and 15 for Mr. Not-a-Fish!"

Silver wasn't sure what was worse - trying to fly in some demented game in the middle of the night, or the running commentary from Majora, which only seemed to make things worse. His anger was probably affecting his flying as well - but they just needed to win... even if it meant playing dirty. He began formulating a plan in his mind as the next round was set up.

With a cry of "Round 3!" the trio was once again slowly falling towards the smaller target zone. Finally, Gardus was getting the hang of the style of slow plummet that passed for Cucco flight, and when he touched down it was right alongside Majora on the 100-point platform; Silver plopped down on the 25-point tier Gardus had hit earlier, recovering in time to not tumble into the water. "300, 175, 40," the brown Cucco said, beating Majora to the punch.

The black bird ruffled his feathers indignantly. "Yeah, well, don't get cocky! You're still losing!"

"Don't get cocky yourself! We haven't lost yet!"

They jumped suddenly back to the ledge, and another tier sank below the loss-inducing waves. "Round 4!" And they were off again, falling and flapping and landing again before they knew it. Majora glared at Gardus as he landed next to him again, then at Silver as he scrabbled against the edge of the 100-point zone; that glare gave way to a grin as the silver Cucco's talons failed to find purchase, and he dropped to the wood on the 50-point tier below. "400-275-90!" he cried quickly. "Hope your birdseed tastes good!"

The silver Cucco just glared - it was time. He'd hoped he wouldn't need to try this at all, but they were desperate. He knew Gardus didn't know about it, but... it needed to be done. "Just keep talking, jerk."

Majora laughed as they were whisked back, watching as the pyramidal island sank until only the 100-point platform and the tiny revolving target above it remained. "No, really, you might as well just give up!" he grinned. "That little spinny platform's only worth 200 points. Even if Rocks-for-Brains here hits that, if I land on the 100-point level, I still come out 25 points ahead! I can't lose!" He gave a victorious crow. "...Listen, just do yourselves a favor and jump down into the water. I'll be sure to give you two to a nice farming family!"

"Grrrr.... let's go. The game's not over yet, egg breath!" Silver grumbled - at this point, Majora was just ASKING for something bad to happen to him. And happen it would...

"Suit yourself... Round 5!" The three birds dropped into the air, the platform they stood on crumbling away as their talons left it. There would be no returning to it now...

The spellcasting Cucco flapped lazily through the air as Gardus dropped, flapping like mad as he carefully aimed his body... and with a soft thud and the scrabbling of claws against wood, the brown Cucco landed atop the spinning platform, shooting a defiant glare up at Majora. If I must lose, he thought, it will be a valiant effort.

"Not a bad landing!" Majora crowed down. "You got some strong wings! I'm sure you'll produce a lot of fine fliers!" He cackled, flapping down towards the stationary 100-point level. The silver one wasn't there... "Huh. Must've given up. Smart bird."

"Surprise!" It was about then that Silver came careening into Majora's flight path, knocking the ebon-colored Cucco completely off his target. He'd lose too, but if it meant taking that smug shadow down with him... he'd gladly make the sacrifice.

"Wh-what are you--" But before Majora could finish, he and Silver splashed down just off the shadow Cucco's intended target; the island bobbed up out of the water, bringing the two sopping birds back onto the wood as the game ended.

Gardus flapped down from his perch, coming up next to the soaked silver Cucco. "Silver!"

"I'm okay! Just couldn't take any more of his taunting." The Cucco gave a clucking chuckle at this. As much as he hated to admit it, Majora had gotten under his skin and feathers but good.

"Grr..." The two glanced towards Majora, who glared angrily at them from where he stood, dripping and soaked through. "No fair, no fair!" he shouted, stamping his talons against the platform in rage. "You cheated! Cheater cheater cheater!"

"Maybe you shouldn't have pushed me, did you think of that? This entire time, all you kept doing was talking, taunting, teasing! I had to shut your smug little face up! I'm tired of playing this game! All I want to do is find my brother! Is that too much to ask?" If looks could kill, then the glare Silver shot Majora certainly would have done the trick. His patience was well past its limitations, and he just couldn't take it - the shadow's hissy fit over losing a... a game of all things had been the last straw.

Majora shifted back to his humanoid form, crossed his arms and turned away from the two Cuccos. "Well, you didn't play fair, so I'm not gonna change you back!" he pouted. "Nuh-uh, you gotta beat me again, best 3 outta 5!"

Silver squawked angrily, throwing his small body talons-first at the dark creature. Before his attack came anywhere close to its target, though, the world quadrupled in size again, his grey feathers diminishing into bright yellow fuzz as his grown body shrank into that of a newly-hatched chick; he landed almost inaudibly against the wood, tumbling to a stop and looking up with a frightened "Peep..."

"I WAS going to stop all this at three games," Majora growled darkly, suddenly pinning the tiny chick beneath a shadowy thumb and glaring into his beady eyes. "But you two have really pissed me off, so now you're gonna need to keep playing."

Gardus clucked and charged as well, and suddenly found himself tiny, yellow and pinned opposite Silver. "Really, you two don't have any choice in the matter," Majora continued, his childlike demeanor masked beneath the darker side that had taken command. "Either you keep playing along, or I keep you like this as a penalty for quitting early and drop you off someplace, with or without your minds intact." His grin widened into a vicious crescent. "But perhaps you'd prefer taking your chances with the latter... because I'll tell you right now, I'm done playing around with you two. Now, I'm playing for keeps."

"...fine, FINE. We'll keep playing your damned game. Just answer me this... WHY us?"

Majora just kept grinning. "Because I feel like it," he replied. "Now, since you're not going anywhere at the moment, let's get started on the next game."

Silver gave a tiny sigh and a hateful glare. That wasn't an answer! The shadow was avoiding the question, but he doubted answers would be forthcoming. "...fine."

The weight of Majora's hands suddenly vanished from the chicks' backs, and as they stood the world began to shrink again, smaller and smaller... and smaller and smaller, as the two grew past their earlier avian forms' sizes and then past even their Zora and Goron heights; soft feathers yielded to toughened flesh as the duo's wings grew broader, their crests flattening and hardening into a dense layer of skin as their beaks and talons grew longer and sharper.

The two new Kargoroks looked at each other, then at the spot where Majora had sent them. They now stood on a rocky perch above a rapidly flowing length of familiar river, looking up the rushing incline towards the water's source; a short ways away, a hoop sat suspended in the air, with still more presumably lining the river's winding route.

"This is a race," Majora said from wherever invisible perch he hid in when he watched their performances. "But it's not against me, it's against time. There's 10 of these hoops set along the river, 4 grey, 3 red and 3 blue; you both must fly through the grey, Gardus will be flying through the red, and Silver will take the blue. You have to fly through all of them and reach the mouth of the river before time runs out."

"That's all? Just a race and a time limit? No vanishing platforms, no... anything else?" Silver sounded skeptical as he tried to find where Majora was, but gave up before long. This seemed simple enough.

"Needless to say, you'll want to finish as quickly as possible," Majora said. "I don't need to add anything else to make sure you lose this one."

"Why, do we get a better score if we run this quicker?"

"You'll see once you start the race," the imp replied.

The Kargorok gave a skeptical look but took his place at the start line - the sooner they got this over with, the better.

Gardus gave an annoyed screech, but followed Silver's lead and stepped to the edge of the cliff. At Majora's signal, the two dove from their perch, flapping hard to avoid the rushing current below them; unlike their Cucco bodies, the bodies of the Kargoroks they now resembled were designed for flight, and soon the two of them were soaring into the misty air and through the first of the hoops. They flew together, gently banking left and down, then up and across a stretch of old scaffolding and down through another hoop; Gardus veered left and up through a red-hued hoop, while Silver stayed right and soared through a blue hoop before rejoining his comrade and dashing through a shared target.

As the two Kargoroks crested the watery rise and rose into a spacious stretch of river flanked by unfinished woodwork on one side, Gardus began to slow, his wingbeats growing labored as fatigue began to seize him; unable to push further, he aimed for a rocky ledge amid the waters, turning as he heard Silver coming down next to him. "Are you fee--!" The words caught in his throat. His voice didn't sound right, even considering the unfamiliar species he was; from the sound, he would've guessed his voice belonged to a young teenager! "What--!" His words caught again as he saw Silver; the bird's hide was markedly less toughened than it had been when they took off, and his wingspan and flight muscles looked smaller!

"I'm tired... don't feel right... why is that thing so mean?" Silver knew something was wrong, but his increasingly younger mind couldn't even muster up the will to be outraged, merely put-upon, his tone almost pouting as he took a few breaths. He couldn't fly for very long without being tired, and he wasn't even sure why they were doing this.

Gardus shook his head, the fatigue vanishing from body and mind in the wake of his panic. "No! Gotta keep going!" he ordered himself, taking off from the perch with Silver reluctantly behind him. But after another two sets of red and blue hoops, fatigue set in again, and the Kargoroks were forced to land again atop a rocky arch; the former Goron looked over at his companion, a fearful look in his eyes. "Nuh... no, we gots'ta keep... keep flyin'!" he said breathlessly. "We... we just... gots'ta win!"

"Win... dun wanna lowse... so tired... sweepy..." But even Silver's attempt to motivate himself was failing - he was starting to wonder why that mean shadow was making them do this. Why was it mad at them? He hadn't done anything wrong, had he? But he'd try to continue on, if only because it was all he knew to do at that moment.

With their energy and resolve fading and their time running out, the two young Kargoroks stubbornly half-flew, half-jumped to the next patch of dry land, and again as they passed through the penultimate hoop and landed on a tiny nub of rock at the bottom of the last leg of the race. They looked up, their dwindling beaks gaping at the hurdle that stood in their way: across from their perch, several hundred feet up and away, hovering over the lip of a colossal waterfall far out of their reach, was the last hoop.

"Within sight of the goal line, and you just can't make it to the end," Majora's voice taunted; as the duo's regression reclaimed their flight and left them stranded on the steadily larger perch, the world froze, the timer hanging on the last second and the friends on their last month. "Do you understand now? You can't win against me. I've won this round, and I'll surely win in the end."

All Gardus could do was squawk feebly in reply. He understood Majora's words, but could not form a response with his stubby, dull-edged beak; his dexterity had fled not long after his flight did, and even if he could move his mouth the way he wanted to, his ability to form sentences in his head had diminished almost entirely as he reached an avian infancy.

Silver's response was likewise a barely audible squawk. He couldn't talk - he understood, but he couldn't respond. The feeling of helplessness and of that smug shadow taunting him angered him greatly. He just couldn't stand it... but he was tired... so very tired.

"I'll ask you one last time," Majora sighed. "Knowing your attempts at beating me are doomed to failure, will you agree to concede defeat? You would've been better off dropping out earlier... at least adult Cuccos aren't used for target practice by the Royal Guard's archers, unlike adult Kargoroks. Still, growing up and living your lives as Kargoroks is likely a preferable fate to what will happen when you lose for a third time... So, what do you say?"

The tiny Kargorok shook its head. He didn't want to give up... he didn't know why, but he didn't want to give in.

A sigh echoed off the rocks as time resumed. "So be it..."

Suddenly, the world became clouded, murky and yellow for the two chicks, their bodies dwindling further within the thick, clear-shelled eggs that had formed around them; the golden-hued shells clicked and clacked as they rolled off the curved rock they stood upon, splashing into the river below and sinking beneath the waves as the current carried them downstream. As their eyes closed and sealed and the world faded to black, a voice echoed within their heads:

"Noon tomorrow. Wherever you are, I'll be there... and the games will come to an end."

XXX

"Gaaah! I don't want to... wait..." A piscine form bolted awake by the riverbed as Silver sat up. His nightmares had been especially demented - filled with impossible races and taunting, jeering faces and a feeling of helplessness and despair that filled the Zora with dread and shame. Plus, some kind of warning... but why? What was tormenting him and his friend so? All he wanted was to find his brother. "Gardus!"

The Goron was already awake, a hand pressed against his broad chest in a bid to stop his racing heart. "...Y-yes, Silver?"

Before the Goron could say or do much else, Silver was hugging him in relief, eyes still shut in fear of his own memories. "Y... you're okay... you're okay!"

"Of course I am okay," Gardus said. "Why would I not be okay?"

"I... just had nightmares. Horrible nightmares... at my age... heh... embarrassing, but... they just seemed so real. Like I was never going to see my friends or family again...."

Gardus gave a slow, understanding nod. "I have them too, Silver. But in the end, nightmares are just nightmares. Your dreams cannot hurt you."

"Thanks... and you're right... let's get moving, though. If Delan isn't here, maybe he's gone.... I'm not sure where else. If I remembered him more... maybe I'd know his likes and dislikes..."

Gardus rubbed his chin. "Perhaps we should try Castle Town?" he suggested, climbing to his feet as he spoke. "Even if he is not there, perhaps someone has seen him and knows where he might be."

The Zora nodded as he emerged from the water - Castle Town was supposed to have a lot of knowledgeable people there, and was a place that almost everyone passed through at least once. "Yeah... perhaps he's there looking for me, even."

"It is possible!" Gardus nodded, looking to the glow on the western horizon. "And perhaps we can find some breakfast while we are there. We were so busy searching yesterday, I think we forgot dinner!"