Luminescence

Sunburn

She groaned. "Oh, Din...ow..."

"Goddesses, who was that?" his words came out a dry croak.

Pounds came through the ground to his freshly cleared ears. Wincing and aching, he forced his head up to look to the side. Hooves met his eyes. Past those hooves hung white feathers, their tips just meeting with the ground. A jolt ran through him and he forced himself onto his knees.

"Epona..." he stopped as he took in the state of his horse. Her sides were slick with sweat and her eyes rolled. A bit of foam crusted the corners of her black mouth. The horse hung its head down to him. Feeling weak with sympathy, he stroked her wet muzzle and heaved himself to his feet with a half born cry. His skin hurt. Like a...his eyes widened and he moved his fingers to his face, wincing at the touch.

Sunburn.

"He said take a wild guess." Zelda said, then she too recognized the feathers atop Epona and gasped. "Luna! Oh gods, Luna! Is she all right? Ah! It hurts to move..."

He painfully made his way to the side of Epona. "Luna? Luna, speak to me." he mentally face palmed himself (knowing his burnt face would hate him if he actually did it). "I mean, you don't need to. Just move or something. Are you all right?"

A wing twitched. Tremulously, she lifted her shag of white hair just enough before slumping once more over Epona's neck. She slid down it a bit. Ignoring the pain, he carefully scooped under her arms and guided her down to the ground, where he turned her over. Her eyes were closed. Zelda had managed to make it to her knees and was staring at him. Whatever bare skin she had was bright red.

"Link, you're human again."

He brushed aside the white hair, revealing Luna's pale face. Quickly he noticed a deep scratch running along the length of her cheek. The nightgown just barely clung on by the curve of her breasts and the pinch of her arms. He could see a large bruise blooming over her entire right shoulder.

"Luna?"

Her lashes flickered. They were long, thick, and white. Her lips quivered.

"You going to be okay?"

Her blue eyes shifted up to him. As she took in his face, a soft, tender smile broke across those not-quite-ripe strawberry lips.

His heart gave a pound. But noooo, she had to be fond you...echoed in his head. Instead of wondering what Luna's relation to this bright and burning person, he found himself stuck on those words and he didn't know why. Fond. She was fond of him.

I know you...You are why I am here.

Why had she come for him? And where had she come from? As he watched her give a shaky breath and close her eyes, he lifted his head to the sky where the bright orb of the sun sat. All he could see left of twilight was a faint amber glow in the distance towards the castle. He touched his sunburn, thinking hard.

"Is she okay?"

Zelda was leaning over him, gazing down at the bundle of wings in his arms.

"The sun."

She gave him a very confused look. "What?"

"It was the sun. If there's a moon spirit, why can't there be a sun spirit? And if the moon spirit guards the borders of twilight, why can't the sun guard the borders of the land of light? That would explain how it-he-whatever could dispel the twilight and provide enough light to transform me back."

For a moment she just looked at him, and he could see the pieces snapping together in her head.

"But—but what does that mean about Luna? Why would the sun care about..." her eyes widened, "unless the light spirit was wrong."

From the quiet rhythm of Luna's breath, he guessed she had passed out. The stone on her head had dulled to an almost imperceptible glow. He brought up the image of her in twilight: bright and luminescent like a Sol. He thought of the coincidence of the moon vanishing the very night after he found her.

It couldn't be a coincidence. And yet...

"It just doesn't make sense."

Zelda furrowed her eyebrows, wincing when it aggravated her sunburn. "What doesn't make sense? Everything fits!"

"Yes, but...if she's the moon spirit, why is she here? And most importantly, why is she mortal? The moon spirit is suppose to be, well, an immortal being. Luna's the complete opposite of that. She's fragile and innocent and unknowing and—well, she can't even talk! Why's that?"

An emotion he couldn't read crossed over Zelda's face. For a moment they just looked at each other's sun-crisped faces. Then, she looked to the side, gaze downcast.

"You have a point...and if the moon-spirit has the ability to help keep the separation between twilight and light, everything that just happened wouldn't have. But, Link, I don't think that's the answer. It's just too much of a coincidence." she looked up at him. "She has to be the moon. Even her wings hint of her true origins: the sky. What else could she be? I think what we should really be asking is how or why she is even in the form she is now and why twilight has re-entered this land."

But Link already had a good idea what that was. The thought made his insides squirm and his mind spin. You are why I am here...

None of his feelings made sense anymore.

"We should get to Lanyru's spring. We can assess what we can do for Luna there, and the water would help our burns."

Zelda glanced down at the burnt skin showing above her gloves. "Oh, yes..."

Easing Luna onto his back (his horse deserved a rest), and keeping his teeth clenched against his smarting body, he signaled to Epona to follow, which she did with her head hanging. He turned to the side where a wooden walkway led down into the lake. Each step hurt and he tried not to think too much about just how much further he had to walk. This only made a space in his mind for disappointment, however, as he realized he had finally made it back to twilight, but not only had it not been what he had hoped to be (what was he expecting?), he hadn't been able to meet Midna at least one more time.

"Link...?"

"Yes, your highness? Do you need any help?"

"Oh, no. I can take care of myself. It is just...it's about Luna."

"I'm listening."

"I don't think she's completely mute."

This gave him pause, but not enough to stop walking. The sooner he got to the springs the better. Stupid sun. If only there was something he could wear to counteract that Din awful heat.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, back in twilight—back in the castle—I think she said something while we were defending ourselves against the Twili. It was..."

At the sudden quiet he glanced over his shoulder to see what was wrong. Zelda had a dreamy expression on her scarlet face. She sighed.

"It was the most beautiful sound, Link. You had to have heard it...didn't you?"

Feeling strange again, he turned around. Yes. Yes he had heard it—and more than once, whispering to him on the edge of sleep. He had thought the voice too musical to be a real. But if she could speak—and so beautifully so—why didn't she? Why had she acted as though to struggle speaking while she could speak all along? Wouldn't that have made it easier? And if she had been hiding her voice, had she been hiding her memories as well?

And why?