Offspring

Chapter 10: Confession

The process was taking hours. Granted, due to the rain, there was still no reliable way to tell the time without checking the sheikah slate, but regardless, the hours could clearly be felt dragging by. The most Link had moved that day beyond trying to rescue Murdoch was his trip to Crenel Peak that morning with the sisters, and even so, fatigue had begun slowly creeping up on him during the wait. With each passing moment, though, however long they began to feel, Noelani remained vigilant in her task. Her cloudy eyes almost never moved from where they were supposedly focused, and her hands continued working on her brother's body.

Murdoch did not wake up after she had successfully restored his proper heartbeat, but his breathing seemed to grow deeper and more relaxed. Once she had felt the correct rhythm pulsing within his chest, she shifted her attention to the other locations on his body where the electric blast had blown away portions of his skin. Likewise, with Murdoch's life no longer dangling perilously on the edge, she and Link had finally felt their stress diminish. After feeling her brother's missing fingers, though, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to restore them completely.

It had been a tough battle...leading up to the restoration of their precious guard captain's heartbeat. By staying next to her and keeping calm conversation with her, Link had tried to keep her feeling safe and supported during her period of immense pressure. He himself could not find comfort during the ordeal, but nonetheless, he kept a steady composure for his daughter. The last thing she ever needed to feel was urgency. He had failed to keep her from it at first, but it hadn't been long before he found his way. And now...it was beginning to pay off.

He had not been slow to notice the change in Noelani's behavior after she announced the recovery of Murdoch's pulse. Her posture seemed to relax considerably, her breathing seemed to slow down, and her voice seemed to become less...shaky. It was obvious that her quiet, steady tone before had been a well-constructed disguise, designed to mask the true, unstable nature of her emotions at the time. On the other hand, after the change, she seemed a lot more collected, and her tone seemed to reflect a clear sign of gladness and relief. Noelani's optimism was quite a virtue, and Link had no idea who she inherited it from, but even in the face of the death of a loved one, it had the power to persevere.

At the moment, Link was poised up against the side of the waterbed under the awning, drifting back and forth between sleep and wakefulness. Just a few feet away, out in the ongoing rain, Noelani continued her work on Murdoch in silence. It was hardly noticeable to the average observer, but the young Zora's eyes were slowly beginning to develop dark circles from her prolonged efforts. Her head bobbed a few times, and each time it did, the aura around her hands would flicker slightly. Even in her youth, lasting concentration like her own was difficult to achieve.

The sky had been growing darker the past hour, and if Link had to guess, he figured the sun was probably creeping toward the western horizon at this point. He only had a small portion of his conscious mind left to make this assumption, however. It had been a momentously eventful day, he had to admit, and the exhaustion was finally beginning to overtake him. Despite having only been earlier that morning, it felt like ages to the hero since he had awoken to his daughters sleeping in the waters of the East Reservoir. It was funny how, at that time...just hours ago...he hadn't even been aware that he had a son. Now, with everything that had happened...it was just startling. Startling...how much could one's life could change in such a short time.

He shifted a little bit with a lethargic groan as his ears caught a tiny blip of Noelani's gentle voice. It sounded on the edge of a whisper, and it most certainly was not being carried enough to be directed at him. He lowered his hands to his sides and pushed himself to a more upright position.