Luminescence

Missing Sky

They took her to the nearest thing to a physician they had: Bo. There was a reason why Ilia's father had become the unspoken leader of the town besides the obvious. The man knew things. Among those things was a respectable amount of knowledge about fixing people up. Link could have done a good deal for the strange girl as well, having had to deal with wounds more times than he cared to count on his own adventures, but he was not stupid enough to offer his help with the girl mostly naked and all. Ilia wouldn't even let him carry the girl, even though he knew he was probably stronger than the much older Fado. The whole way he could catch her peeking over at him suspiciously. He wasn't that immature. Why did everyone think he was? Saving Hyrule does merit a bit of personal growth, for Farore's sake!

Nevertheless, she continued to keep a watchful eye on him until she disappeared behind a curtain with her father. The last think Link saw of the peculiar girl was her train of feathers vanishing behind the rug. Fado left there after (probably to yell to the whole town that they had found a freak), and Link was left in relative peace.

That was, however, until three of the Sorens boys came down from the stairs with a hoot a second later. For the next nerve racking half hour he had to deal with the three of them whistling and making jibs at the fact the girl had been naked. They didn't seem to catch the fact she had wings. If they did, they didn't care. Boobs and butts were far more interesting. And they insisted on nagging him for details that would make the most corrupted man blush.

Again—they called him immature?

Link considered himself a patience fellow. Sitting and waiting on goats most days demanded patience. But by the time their weary mother finally came in from outside, his hands had already risen to throttle the guy nearest to him. The boy had the worst acne he had ever seen and he had already imagined squeezing the kid's neck so hard every pimple would burst. Despite the entrance of their mother, the two younger boys behind him started up a war chant on how Link was gay—and not just normal gay, but gayer than the gayest man alive, for he obviously lacked the capacity to appreciate the art of a naked woman.

He couldn't help but snarl. Irritating, annoying, idiotic bastards...

"Now boys," said their mother as stern as her hoarse voice could handle, "please, for once, can you control yourselves? Your father needs you north of Jaggle's tree. They've managed to get a rather big buck and they need help cleaning it up."

At the mention of blood and guts the boys crowed for joy and crowded out the door. In their rush Link thought to throw in a punch, but conveniently missed. His chest rumbled with growls.

Mrs. Sorens apologized profusely, but the words were over-used and tired. His sympathy for her sapped away his anger and he a grunted 'it's fine'. During all the hubbub he had had no time to worry or wonder about the winged girl. Where had she come from? What was she? And what had happened to her?

At the thought he moved his hand to the hilt of his sword at his hip and squeezed it. A familiar sense of foreboding tickled the back of his mind.

Quite some time later, Ilia walked out, blood flecked on her sleeves and hands. Her anxiety wore on every line in her face.

"What do you know of the healing powers of the spirit at the spring?"

Link raised an eyebrow. "I take it she's not doing well?"

She bit her lip. With a jerking motion, she shook her head. He could feel his gut clench and stood up without another thought.

"Let's take her to the spring. I don't know whether Ordona will feel obligated to heal her or not, but if nothing the waters should help."

Ilia nodded and went to the curtain. Moments later, Bo came out grimly carrying the limp figure of the girl with her large wings folded about her like a cocoon. She had been clumsily dressed in one of Ilia's nightgowns, though they had left the back unbuttoned for her wings. Bandages crisscrossed her arms and legs as well as one, great wing. The sight of her once more stunned him, and for a moment he merely stood there and stared. Amidst all the feathers he could make out a bit of her face. It was smooth and pale. He recalled her big blue eyes.

It didn't take long to walk to the springs in the night. Crickets sung all about them and he could smell the growing dew in the air. Some of the villagers watched from their doorways as they passed. All stared unabashedly. It made his skin crawl for some reason.

"Just...how bad is she?" he asked Ilia.

Again, she gnawed on her lip. "Bad. She's lost a lot of blood and the gash on her side is pretty deep. Also one of her wings is broken. But...goddesses, Link, she's so beautiful. You should have felt those feathers. They're softer than anything I've ever felt."

He looked up at Bo to see said feathers peeking out from his arms.

"Do you know what she is?" she asked.

"No. But I..."

"But what?"

"I think I've sort of...seen her before."

"How can you 'sort of' see someone? Honestly."

He hesitated, debating on stopping while he was ahead. However, he remembered Ilia's complaint of him never opening up to her, and forced the truth through.

"I had a dream about her last night. I think."

To half his surprise and half his expectation, she smirked.

"Was it love at first sight?"

"By Farore, isn't it weirder to you that I actually dreamt about her?"

"Not really. You are the fancy chosen one and all. Doesn't that just come with the job?"

He wondered if being kidnapped by bulblins and getting smacked with amnesia had killed her sense of the strange.

"Aren't you in the least bit weirded out by all this?"

"Of course I am! But at the moment all we need to be concerned about is helping her through." she glanced back at the lights of the village they were leaving behind.

Link, his attention on what he could see of the girl around Bo's arms, silently agreed. Then, in the light of the lamp he carried, he noticed something peculiar. The forest around them was dark. Too dark. Heart picking up a notch he looked up into the sky to find it black as well. Only a few stars shown strong enough past the light of his lamp. Ilia frowned at his expression.

"What are you looking at?"

"The moon." His eyes narrowed. "There's no moon."