Love and Birth

By Richie S.

Inspired by my poem fic "If I Never Knew You"

_1_

One of the great tragedies of the Twilight realm is the shattered heart of Queen Midna. She was known through the realm of Twilight for her many royal qualities, her razor-sharp intelligence, her astounding bravery, her endless determination, the captivating nature of her beauty and above all her it was her lingering melancholy? Why so? After her banishment at the hands of Zant she had returned triumphant, untold power was hers to claim from the fused shadows, not to mention the adoration and love of her people. The unity that resulted from the memory of the Shadow Invasion as it came to be known led to a golden age in the Kingdom of Twili with Midna riding the wave to a crest! Yet for those who knew here what was there to see? A tear brushed away in a reclusive moment, that slight downward glance and lips that were not quite a frown? She was the crown jewel of the Twili, surely she should have had glowing eyes and radiant smile! Yet it was not so, the great Queen Midna was as famous for her sadness as much as she was for her other qualities.

Except for certain times, when the realm of Hyrule was close at hand. For surely Hyrule and the Twilight Realm were as bound together as the moon and the tide, and every month the dimensional barrier between the two realms was weakest. Not just but on what is known as "Full Moon" on the Hyrule side there was but an hour per day; after the sun had set but before the darkness of night came where the distance between the dimensions could be breached not just by the Mirror of Twilight but by mere magic. On those days Queen Midna seemed to outshine the moon! Her joy was complete and soon the entire palace knew to expect a different queen during a certain waxing of the moon. Why? That of course would forever be a mystery to the citizens of the Twili. To know the mysterious mind of Queen Midna!

_2_

Midna of course knew the secret, she was able to see her love! Link, the most amazing person she had ever met, the pinnacle of the goddesses' creation! How she had despaired! For being from different worlds they surely could never be together, not as both desired, all was lost. Until she realized that while the Fused Shadow was no longer with her its lengthy association with her had permanently augmented her powers. Augmented them so much in fact that she decided to experiment with what she could do with traveling between realms. The first few experiments had her hear racing, she could very well cheat fate and see Link again! Then they were met with failure and she was devastated. Yet love is the most addictive of drugs and she tried again. Failure. Another attempt, profound failure. She was not through yet, miserable failure. All was lost, one night after depression had driven her to drink she tried one more time out of drunken frustration. Success! She had breached the realms and gotten through to Hyrule! More specifically the forests of Ordon Province. Now if only she could find her love!

_3_

The goddesses it seemed were not without a sense of humor. Link found himself drawn to the woods in the hour of twilight, especially when the phase of the moon found itself Full. Why? Well he had always enjoyed hiking and exploring the forest but this was a different matter all together. It was as if his heart was telling him that it was right. Verily his heart was correct and it was not the only heart yearning, Midna also found herself stalking the woods at night, yet only so for an hour. When the hour of Twilight ended and darkness came she was forced back to the Twilight Realm. Why wonder about the mysteries of heaven? The end result is the same regardless of whether or not one indulges in the frustration of fathoming the infinite. The end result was of course that Link and Midna met each other in the forest during the time of the Full Moon and the hour of Twilight.

_4_

How did they react to such a happy discovery? The usual ways the young express affection. There were tears, embraces, kisses and perhaps depending on one's gender either the most romantic or corniest response of all: the confession of love. The end result of course was the same, they ended up making love in the forest. What more is there to say, to beautiful, radiant young people, is there the slightest bit of surprise at this? I did not think so, for that hour they did live and there was happiness between them and in its own little way the old adage of "living happily ever after" was true. For a time anyway. Now what is the natural outcome for when a man and a woman make love? A child results. The interesting part of course was they were from two different species, what would that child be like? Midna was certainly surprised at her new guest; who knew that a Twili and a Hylian could do such thing. Yet she and Link had tried and succeeded. Link was equally surprised at the news and more than a little distraught, how could he do this to his love and still not be able to see her for the length of mere 7 hours portioned through a week when that week came but a month at a time?

Midna was even more distraught how could she go through a pregnancy without her love at her side to help her through this? Where could they go for comfort? Link found comfort with Rusl and family, since his mentor was already a father it helped, yet help did not come from Rusl alone. You see Midna was gone for so long and as a virile young man he needed release not only physically but emotionally. Ellia and he of course were close friends and one thing led to another… he went from having a love of his life to having two to heading back to the (Hylian) one… say sorry. Of course he was still going to be there for his child of course! Not that he needed to be.

_5_

You see the deepest gulf that can exist between two people are among those who are living apart. In the beginning Midna thought of herself as part of a family, Link, baby and herself. Yet Link was never around and honestly, he seemed a little strange lately, as if he was… ambivalent. In daily life it was just her and baby, and in the endless present all there was besides her swelling abdomen was a distant past of fond memories and a future so far away as if to be unreachable. She realized neither her or her baby would want for nothing and therefore not dependant on male support. Not to mention that it is difficult to be burning with passion when one's body is preparing for maternity. Her passion for Link cooled. Did she love him? Yes, probably. Did she like him? Maybe. In any event she had a baby to take care of. Now neither party needed to worry about melodrama occurring between the two, the royal mage of the Twili ended things before it got that far.

_6_

"Highness a word?" the mage asked the no longer slinky Queen Midna. She gestured a granting of permission. "I know you have consulted me on breaching the barrier between realms, even though I told you it was impossible you said you did not care, you were going to try. In light of recent events it appears that you have succeeded. However I have a warning, a prophetic dream." Midna's breath quickened, a warning? "I was visited in my sleep by the three Sol Spirits of the Twilight Realm, they told me that they had granted temporary passage to the one who had by strengthened by the Mirror of Tilight, but that that passage was indeed temporary and soon it would be revoked." Midna was shocked, would her child know a father? "How long" she demanded of the mage. "A matter of 1 or 2, highness." The mage replied, "I would not dare to venture a guess beyond that."

So did Link ever see his child? Indeed he did if only for one time. Sadly that was just as well as in the meantime he had just asked Ellia to marry him and in the loving aftermath of his proposal he had unknowingly impregnated her as well. Yet he was there for his first child! A strange lad if ever there was one, his Hylian ancestry was unmistakable as even at a very young age he uncannily resembled Link. Yet the boy's mother was also proud of her boy's Twili heritage as well. Neither had seen a baby with entirely black flesh before, just like the flesh of the Twili, but even Twili and have grey/turquoise mottling. Their son however was as dark as onyx save for the recently sprouting tuft of silver hair on the crown of his head and oddly red eyes. Link could not deny his paternal pride, nor Midna her maternal pride. Were the two of them over as Link and Midna, the couple? Without a doubt yes; but regardless they would always be this boy's parents!

For Link he could afford for this to be a fantasy, he had a family to move on with. Midna of course could not as this was her life. No worries, mutual affection for the baby nullified what would have been a rather bitter if not awkward parting. So long my love. Both parties at least took pleasure in there recent tryst, the child and their new family lives.

But what became of the boy? Well you can probably guess based on his anatomy that he will appear again in the legends of Hyrule; sadly in a more antagonist role than his brief appearance at the end of this tale. Why? Did he not have two parents who loved him? You say true, but he also grew to maturity without so much as meeting one of his parents a single time. Of course it was the parent of the same gender. What does that do to a boy? No other man in his life to teach him what a man is? How to work hard, make a living, to have that talk about women, how to teach him how to live? Well it does quite a lot.

Granted he had a mother and she tried so, for he was her dear son whom she loved. Yet there are something that a woman just cannot understand about what boys and men go through, just as fathers cannot hope to understand what girls and women go through. Sadly the privileges of royalty and an absent father were a grave disservice to this boy, say sorry. His name? Does it really matter? He would come to be known as Dark Link; but that is a story for another day