Luminescence

The Price of a Voice

By the time he reached the other side twilight had come and gone. His energy had been spent insomuch he barely had the strength to drag himself onto shore. For the better part, his emotions had been spent as well and he felt a blessed null.

That was until he realized his hat was missing.

He cursed, but swearing didn't make him feel any better. Nor did the growl of his stomach. Grumbling to himself, he forced his shaking legs under him and trudged up the small hills of grass where a small spring fed by a waterfall stood. As he thought he would, he found some fish. But then he realized he had no flint to start a fire with even if he did manage to catch them. He groaned. Why did he have to be so stupid? Now he was starving and stranded without food. Sure he could swim back—he looked back across the lake and groaned again. Yeah...swim back. On an empty stomach.

He collapsed into the grass, hands digging through his soggy, hatless hair.

"Din, what is wrong with me?"

A lone cricket played its legs in the grass somewhere around him. The grass felt cold and dewy underneath his drying, sunburnt skin. As night came on he rolled onto his back and watched the stars peep out one by one, then in droves, filling up the skies in multi-colored clouds. For a long time he thought and he thought, scanning himself. He couldn't act like this. He couldn't be this way. And yet the frustration wouldn't leave. It made him want to roar all over again, but he didn't, even though he was alone. He was just too tired and too disappointed in himself. Zelda probably thought him a bloody jerk, now. And poor Luna, what if she hadn't been deceiving him? She hadn't deserved that. Nor had Ilia deserved his lashes either.

A breeze blew across his face. A familiar thump sounded beyond his feet. He didn't bother to look over as Luna crawled into his view, wings tucked in tightly and her expression open and sorry---so very, very sorry. He felt his stomach twist as she cautiously curled up next to him, leaving only a bare centimeter between actually touching him.

"Luna?"

There was a small choking noise and for a minute he thought she had begun to sob again.

"Oh no, Luna, don't..."

"I-I-I'm sorry."

The beauty of the sound, though strained, knocked the breath from him. It boarded on inhuman and even unearthly, and even those short two words sounded like a song.

It took him a bit to find his breath again, let alone coherency of thought.

"L-Luna?"

"H-hurts...to speak."

"Godesses, that's really you? That's your voice? Oh Farore..."

"I'm so s-s-sorry, I'm s-so sorr—" she coughed and whimpered.

Link sat up to see her better and put a hand to her forearm. "Don't be, I...I was a, okay, I was a real jerk, I should be the one who is sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me of late. I...did you fly here? Is Zelda all right?"

She nodded, hand still to her throat.

"You probably never spoke because it hurt, right?"

Sitting up, she bit her lip and looked to the side. Then he noticed a wad of green cloth gripped tightly in her hand. As though feeling his eyes, she offered it to him. It was his hat, a bit crumpled and wet, but unharmed. He beamed at her. She met his eye nervously, and in the dim light of the stars her whiteness glowed and even her sky blue eyes had a sort of luminescence to them.