Chapter one

Link had a secret.

After the day was done, after the goat herding, after caring for Epona, after the council meeting for the village, after the wood chopping, after playing with the children, after weeding the garden, long after his usual afternoon chat with Ilia... Link would sit in the uppermost room of his tree house.

It was an embarrassing activity for him to think about. He was even a bit ashamed that he did it. He would sit on the floor alone, facing the window, just as the sun sank below the horizon. It was an appointment he would never miss.

Once, he hadn't been paying attention to the time while he was mending a villager's chicken coop. Link looked up from his work and noticed the sun had set. He literally "flew the coop," leaving the hole in the chicken coop wall unrepaired. The chickens inside escaped, and the villager was in grief. Link apologized the next morning, searched everywhere for the chickens, and paid the villager back twice the worth of each chicken that was lost.

This evening, Link sat on the floor of the top room, like usual. He was a little early, so he waited patiently for the sun to set. He took off his hat and shoes and make himself for comfortable. It helped him concentrate better.

It was time. Twilight. The time when the borders separating his world from her world were at their weakest.

This is how it was every night. Link felt a bit desperate as he placed his hands on his knees and began to meditate.

Link tried everything. He tried remembering what it felt like to transform into a twilight beast, he tried focusing on the feeling of what being a wolf felt like. He remembered his heightened senses, and the feeling of sharp fangs in his mouth. He recalled the rush he felt when howling, and the feeling of the fur bristling on his back when he growled. He thought about how the soil smelled after he had dug.

Link even thought about her, hoping somehow that concentrating on her would make her come. He tried his hardest to remember their adventures together. He tried remembering the feeling of her tiny weight while she sat on his furry back. He remembered how much she teased him and bossed him around when he first met her. He recalled her sarcasm, her teasing, her sense of humor, her anger, her amusement, her sadness. In his mind, he replayed everything he could ever recall her saying, every word she had said. He tried remembering her right before she left, too. How sad she had been. How beautiful she had been...

Link felt his face redden, and he pushed those particular thoughts away. He continued to focus his thoughts on crossing the border to her world.

He sat there until all the light was gone from the sky. It was no good trying now, the time of twilight was over. He sighed and climbed down the ladder. He lit a lantern and mindlessly ate some food that was lying on the table.

Link still couldn't forget her. He never would be able to, though. Half of him wanted to. Half on him wanted to move on with life, to stop these evening rituals.

But the other half held stubbornly to the dream of seeing her again.