Rumors

[Schrödinger's cat]

"The mask man? Wait, you two know him? What exactly is that man and what does he want from us?" Lien asked, perking up when Kotake mentioned the Mask Man.

[Azrael/Iris]

"You youngesters ask too many questions! One thing at a time!" Kotake said to Lien.

"Stand right there, werewolf." Koume said, pointing to the middle of the room.
Artie did as she said and stood where she pointed.

"You two might want to back up a bit." Koume warned Lien and Oarashi.

[Schrödinger's cat]

Lien pouted when he didn't exactly get an answer from the twin, but was pulled back gently away from Artie by Oarashi when the sea chief had obediently obeyed Koume's orders to stand back. But of course there was no questions that the young dark dragon prince still wanted to know more about this mysterious Masked man.

[Azrael/Iris]

"Your fairy might want to join your friends while we preform the spell." Kotake said to Artie.

"Go ahead, Sky. I'll be fine." Artie said to his fairy partner.

She nodded and flew over to Lien and Oarashi. She floated by the Dark Dragon Prince's head and watched.

"Ready Kotake?"Koume asked, getting into position behind Artie and pulling out her wand.

"Ready Koume!" Kotake chimed up, pulling out her own wand and taking the place infront of Artie.

They both pointed their wands at the werewolf and started to chant in a forgotten language...known only to those who practice the arcane magics.

[Schrödinger's cat]

Oarashi watched on in awe, having never seen magic being preformed by the use of wands. Lien eyed as the fairy flew near his head, but advert his attention to the young Sea chief, then back to Artie and the twin witches.

[Eldrin/Vai]

Eldrin arrived just as the ritual began, slipping in nonchalantly. Under his Purloined Mask he wore a massive smile and in his hand he held a beautiful lock of hair. The thick strand of hair glowed as gloriously as the fairy from whence it came.

The thief stood next to Lien and took in the situation with lofty curiosity. His eyes grew wide, then narrowed as he noticed the old hags. With a shifty glance around the room he chuckled nervously. As the ritual progressed, Eldrin thanked the goddesses that he was still wearing the Purloined Mask. Pushing Koume and Kotake to the back of his mind, Eldrin focused on Artie instead.

[Azrael/Iris]

The werewolf features started to slowly vanish from Artie as the ritual progressed, the fur started to slowly vanish, the hair on his head started to return to it's natural dirty blonde and the claws started to shrink back into nails.
Artie was wincing and keeping himself from yelling out in pain...this wasn't exactly painful.

He ran his tongue across his teeth and could feel them becoming flatter and less sharp.

[Azrael/Iris]

Artie let out a howl which quickly turned into a scream and the fur was vanishing more quickly as the witches started to speak their words faster.

For what seemed like an eternity...the spell stopped and Artie was on his knees on the ground.

[Schrödinger's cat]

Ignoring Lien telling him to stay back, Oarashi went to Artie's side before stopping a foot away from him, slowly taking tiny steps to him. "Hey, you alright now?"

[Azrael/Iris]

Sky flew over and floated next to Artie, inspecting him.

After a few minutes, Artie stood up and looked at his hands.
"Alright? Oarashi...I'm...Artie turned around to reveal that the spell was successful in banishing the curse of the werewolf.
feeling great!!" He finished, his human smile showing for the first time in almost a year.

"It worked!!"Sky yelled, bobbing all around Artie's head in happiness.

[Schrödinger's cat]

Oarahi just simply let out a sigh in relief. "That's good, I thought surely you must have been in some sort of pain after watching the transformation."

"It's good to have you back though Artie."

[Azrael/Iris]

"It's not exactly painless in changing the form from a werewolf to a man...that was some serious dark magic we reversed." Koume explained to Oarashi.

"Thanks, Lien. It feels great to be back." Artie said to the Dragon Prince, he looked down at his clothing and found it had been restored.

"We managed to repair your clothing with magic...now it won't be invincible...but it seems your clothing absorbed some of the magic and you'll be a bit more resiliant to magic and physical attacks....but, don't get too reckless...you can still die."Kotake explained.

Artie nodded and looked at his right hand, the glove covered the Hero Mark and he looked back at Kotake.
"What about..."Artie asked, but stopped mid sentence.

"We have also restored your ability to transform into a wolf...don't worry...you're just like you were before being bitten by the werewolf." Kotake said.

"Thank you very much!"Artie thanked and bowed to the twin witches.

They returned the bow and Koume turned to Lien and said "Now...what did you want to know about again, dear?"

[Schrödinger's cat]

Lien, once wearing a face of relief when he heard that Artie is 'semi' back to normal, frowned flatly as he turned to look at Koume. "The Happy Mask man, who is he exactly? I don't remember seeing him and yet, not only does he know my past, but he knows the past of other people too. Is he. . . . some sort of powerful Entity that Hyrulean Scholars had failed to write about? Or is he someone we should keep on our wits about?"

[Azrael/Iris]

"Ah...I havn't heard that name in a while..." Koume said, turning to look at Kotake.

"Oh my...he hasn't used that form since the Hero of Time saved this land from the Skull Kid." Kotake said in a worried tone.

Artie looked up in a curious way and listened in on what Lien asked Twinrova.

Koume sighed and went to the back room, some shuffling noises were heard and she returned with a rather large book.

"The man you ask about...well...he isn't entirely a mortal man."Koume explained, setting the book down and opening it.

Artie walked over to the book and looked at it while Koume flipped through it and landed on a page with an illustration of a dragon that circled around an hourglass.

Koume placed a finger on the illustration and said "This is the Happy Mask Salesman's true form. He is the God of Time...which is why he knows all of your pasts...he knows all there is...what happened...what is to happen..what is happening...what would have happened and so on and so forth. His true name is Zaman."

[Schrödinger's cat]

"Zaman . . . Is he someone we should be worried about? Can we trust him?" Lien murmured, still looking at the picture. Strange how he had never heard of this before, but there is still alot of things left unwritten or unsaid from the Hyrulean legends.