(I don't own LOZ characters or anything of its ilk. I wish I did.) Hope you enjoy this short-shot!
Starlight Wishes
His words filled the velvet night sky with paintings so vivid she could almost she could touch them. The blank canvas of a star-drenched sky became filled with the twisted dark spires of the sprawling castle as they towering precariously high into the molten heavens. She could almost feel the polished black stones of the walkway under her feet. Her skin almost tingled with the chill of the twilight air.
Lying on her back, the still warm grass tickling her soft skin, she gazed into a world beyond the stars. His words, so beautiful, made the night come alive. Their worlds had never felt so close though they were eternally apart.
It was not the first night they had lay on the grassy slopes of the rolling fields gazing up at the glittering sky. They lay side by side, his words the only contact between them, filling the space all around them with lyrics and magic. Sometimes silence would reign and they would sigh and gaze at the stars. Never was it awkward though many would say there had never been such an oddly matched pair. Their heritage did not matter to them on these calm, quiet nights. To her he was not a lowly goatherd, to him, she was not the Queen. They were just themselves. They were friends.
The tale ends and for a time there is silence between them. She knows him too well to thank him. For one of such honest humility, expressions of gratitude, no matter how well earned, are nothing short of repulsive. He does things out of the want of his heart, not of his need for recognition. She chooses instead to remark on the beauty of his words, and wonders at this other realm. She smiles at him. It is sufficient.
His attention is grabbed suddenly. He urgently draws her eyes to the spectacle - a shooting star. They are humbled and awed by its majesty as it bursts across the sky in an arc of silver, it is bright and glorious and then it is gone. For a moment they are silent, perhaps making a request of the gods; perhaps stunned by the miracle of the moment. The silence is broken by a question – 'Did you make a wish?' She turns to him and smiles, her face is softened by the pale glow of the moon and her eyes shine happily. Her whispered wish was for the happiness of all of her subjects.
He ponders her words in silence, gazing at the glittering stars as he does. 'Everyone? That is an awful lot of people.' He concludes. She smiles and declares her ambitions large enough to encompass the whims of all. She will strive for peace and harmony and justice for all who look to her for such things. The dreams of those who went before her have become hers. He studies her face in all its perfection and realises that he does not doubt the sincerity of her words, and as he looks at her, he cannot doubt her ability to accomplish all that she intends. But what of his wish?
It is testament to their understanding of each other that she asks the question with compassion rather than humour. It would be reasonable to suppose, to expect even, that one so poor would desire nothing more than the improvement of his estate. Wealth and status can be important to one who has so very little, but she does not consider this thought for even a moment. If it did cross her mind, it is swiftly and scornfully dismissed. To expect the usual of him is to expect the moon to rise at dawn, or the tide not to turn.
His wish is remarkably similiar to hers, only his is on a much smaller scale. He wishes for happiness, but when gently pressed for more detail, he admits that his ambitions extend to one single soul. He desires her happiness and nothing else. She remembers his stories of that realm beyond her own and represses a sigh. Perhaps she should have asked the Goddess for the courage to ask him the question that above all others torments her. She will content herself with a lesser query:'Does he miss her?'
Of course he does. One does not so easily forget so true a friend, but he is baffled. His wish for happiness did not centre around an impossible dream or love long lost. He does not live for the past, but for the present. He chuckles as he expresses his desire to see another shooting star. He wishes to clarify matters with the gods. Alas, the gods are not so merciful as to comply with a human's wishes. He laughs as he admits he wishes for the health and happiness of his queen, and as an addendum, he would like to serve (for a most extortionate wage) as her most loyal guard.
Are you not already my most loyal guard? She asks, turning to him. The breath in her throat catches as she sees that look in his eyes and she makes haste to turn away before he notices her blushes.
She does not turn back until she feels his hand shyly slipping over hers. His assurance that he is her most loyal friend for now and forever is spoken without words and without need of affirmation. She reads it in his darkened eyes. Perhaps she ought to amend her wish, she decides, she should seek something less altrustic. With a smile, she resolves that the next wish she makes will be one just for her.
This time the gods oblige. A spectacle more wonderful than ever they imagined lights up the sky. 'A wish. Make a wish!' Two wishes in one night - they are most blessed! And what did you wish? The answer is one they both blush over, and one that each is unwilling to declare yet, it is identical in its intention. It is testament to the bond they shared that their wish is not uttered aloud yet the other can hear. Perhaps it is inevitable that their lips soon meet in gentle union, the moment is long and lingering and so utterly perfect and though they do not see, it is blessed by the goddesses as the sky lights up once more.