Luminescence

What's More Lonely Than the Moon

Twilight always made the weather strange. It didn't nullify it, by all means, but it did tame it. Where before the desert would have blazed with heat to the point of unbearable (especially in all his mail and thick hero garb), it was only stuffy in its warmth. The cold was chilly, but never bone frosting as it had been up at Yeto's mansion (there his tunic hadn't been nearly thick enough). Nevertheless, after an hour or so of galloping along, his tongue hung out of his mouth and he longed to tear off the fur from his body. The Twili behind him followed him without a complaint. Luna's scent blazed white before him.

By now he had gotten over his ecstasy and had begun to notice something strange with Midna. Usually she would have snapped something sarcastic to him about how he ran or about her circumstances, but she was unnaturally quiet. She hadn't even complained about jogging this whole distance, though it certainly was a sight to see those long legs put to work. He wondered if it had something to do with the long-armed Twili running besides her. More than once he caught their doleful eyes watching him as he trotted along. It made his fur prickle.

But Luna's trail was growing stronger. He didn't have time to worry about what could be going on in the twilight realm. They were growing closer. He must not have been out for too long. Heart pounding, he lifted up his nose from the ground to focus further ahead, hoping he could catch a glimpse of them, but nothing yet.

Midna glanced behind her.

They crested a mound of sand—and he saw them, trudging along in the distance in all their black glory. In their midst was the white form which was Luna.

With a loud howl he threw himself off the hill, flung his inhibitions to the sands, and let his paws fly down to them. Jaws agape, wind whipping past him, he only had eyes for the whiteness between them. If even one hair on her head was harmed, he'd have no qualms for showing just why he was the chosen hero of the gods.

He fell upon them in a fury of gnashing teeth and claws. The abnormally large Twili quickly turned on him in equal fury, dropping Luna to the ground with a dead flop. He weaved through a barrage of black claws. He leapt at a few throats, skidding back when he was blocked by limbs. There had to be only three of them, but he felt outnumbered nonetheless. If only Midna were on his back, stretching out her magic to hold them fast while he—

A bright, jagged flash of orange-pink light struck the nearest Twili, jumping to the others. All three monsters froze, hands in the air. Out of instinct, he shot forward, slicing teeth against throats and launching off torsos. He caught a glimpse of Midna with her hand outstretched. A smile warmed him. She hadn't forgotten her stuff then.

It still didn't stop the sick feeling he got in his gut when he saw the normal Twili besides her and remembered what he had just felled. People. Not just monsters or animals. He brushed it away as quickly as he could by rationalizing that he had to protect Luna.

All three masked Twili fell, unmoving, un-rattling. A second later they burst into familiar, square tiles and flew into the air with the rest of the flaking earth. He looked up into the shifting black and gold sky and wondered where the Twili flew off to before remembering Luna.

She laid unmoving, wings askew and hair dyed tan by the sand. Whatever Zelda had done to the back of the nightgown to hold it together had been torn and her bare back was smeared with wet sand. His heart gave an awful pound. Fear rushed through him, quick and icy hot. He made to move to her side.

"Stop!"

Automatically, he stilled, but didn't spare Midna the look he knew she'd interpret as annoyed, wolf or not. A smile played on her purple lips. The prickling feeling of 'wrongness' ran down his spine once more.

"I see you haven't lost your efficiency in the least, Link."

He frowned and turned back to going to Luna--

---to find a black fist coming towards his face, alit with broken lines of green. For the briefest of seconds that seemed to stretch on, he felt an ugly sort of surprise, like missing a step down a staircase in the dark. He barely had the beginnings of a yelp on his tongue before all went dark, and he had no space to think, feel, or know anything.

The last thing he saw was the golden sky tingeing with green.