Author's note: After the previous drabble's angst, some lightheartedness was in order.
This drabble came into being with the help of a roleplayer on the boards Sages of Chaos, to whom I credit a good deal of Midna's character. Once this was written up, Dephanie was kind enough to proofread it for me. Thanks to you both!
To readers, like always, enjoy!
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Sand was everywhere in the Desert Colossus. Link wiggled his fingers by his side discreetly, trying to dislodge the sand storing up inside his gauntlets without distracting himself too much from his surroundings.
The old desert prison was actually quite macabre in interior appearance; nearly all monsters seemed to resemble dead humanoids of some sort. Link didn't know how they had come to be, or what had made them the way they were, and even his persistent farm-boy curiosity wasn't eager to find either of those things out.
In fact, while he knew all too well that it was critical to maintain a constant awareness of his surroundings, Link was ignoring as many details as he could get away with ignoring. He knew that he was potentially missing clues and possible lucky finds, but he wasn't quite ready to search corpses and the objects that had killed them just yet, in spite of a lurking feeling that he might have to later. After all, even after what seemed to have been months of adventuring and traveling his compassion and empathy for living beings hadn't been quite jaded away. It was true that these emotions were inevitably replaced by a survival instinct and the thrill of victory while in battle, but when the fog of adrenaline was lifted, all he could do was resign himself to a seeping feeling of nausea. A feeling which Link was presently struggling to ignore, scanning the room superficially for any non-violent forms of distraction.
It (the distraction) came in the form of his shadow suddenly swerving around and in front of him, collecting into an imp-shaped form and leaping into the air. Link focused on it gratefully; distractions from Midna were not only informative, they had been considerably less sharp since the incident in the Lanayru Light Spirit's spring.
"Is something wrong, Link? " Midna's arms floated at her sides like pieces of clothing hanging from her shoulders.
Link blinked. "Ah, no—why?"
"You've been just standing there. Are you waiting for every monster here to get bored waiting for you to kill them so they'll come to you instead? Because they might…" She grinned.
Link shrugged his shoulders to relax them, shaking his head. "Sorry," he said ruefully. "Thinking."
"Ah." Midna glanced around the room, as though half-wondering if there was something they could do while they talked. She didn't want to discourage anything that might deepen their friendship, but at the same time she wasn't eager to be standing around doing nothing. "About what?" she said all the same.
"Sand." Link replied, twisting his hand to let more grains sprinkle out of the gauntlet around it. "It's everywhere. There's no light in here, either…"
"That can be fixed," Midna pointed out, looking over his shoulder. "There's a torch by the door behind you. If you light it and that torch over there," she points to the torch on the other side of the door for a moment, "it might make the metal bars over the entrance lift like before."
Link turns to face the door, nodding. Like a magician's parlor trick, he conjures his own lamp from behind his shield, striding across the shifting sand to the solid footing along the opposite wall. Midna floated leisurely after him, arms still trailing alongside her as though sweeping back in a current.
Link focused on his lamp for a moment, moving his hand around it in an almost ritualistic adjustment that only he seemed to understand, and a cheery orange flame blossomed into view at the lamp's heart. He leaned towards the torch for a moment, elbows momentarily obstructing Midna's view, and when he drew back there was a faintly hissing flame flaring into view.
Midna's eyes widen for a moment, and it seemed as though the flame emulated an idea forming. "Hey, Link?"
"Yes?" Link glanced up, taking a step to the side and lighting the other torch without looking. It flared into life just as easily as the first.
"How do you light that?"
Link doused his lantern's flame just as inexplicably as he lit it, stowing it away just as magically. "With my lantern." He started to look somewhat confused, as though concerned as to why she'd ask such an obvious thing.
"No, no," Midna shakes her head, pointing an accusing finger at his empty hands. "The lantern!"
Link glanced down at his hands as though they were guilty of some crime, before looking back up at her. "Oh, that. You don't know?"
Midna folded her arms and legs, seeming to lean back against thin air. "I have a pretty good idea, thank you, but I've never seen you use a flint. Don't you need one?" Maybe she was just missing it?
Link turned his head to the side slightly, as though trying to tell whether she's joking or not. "Flint? Striking it myself? That would take forever, especially if I'm in a hurry."
"But I thought people could do that quickly."
Link shook his head. "You need two hands to strike a flint and tinder, and sitting down and finding them takes too long. There's also the danger that you might get attacked while your guard's down. Besides, this lantern's much easier." His hands disappeared again, and the lantern reappeared with practiced ease. Without lighting it, he held it up for her to see, and in spite of herself she sat up, leaning forward for a closer look.
"See this?" He tilted it back slightly, pointing with his free hand at an inconspicuous knob near the lantern's base.
"So you just turn it?" Midna said.
"Sort of. First you need to turn the knob to the right, but you tilt it this way--" Link points, adjusting the job without turning it, "--because there's a flint and tinder inside that get stricken without you needing to hold it. And if you don't tilt it, the chances of it actually lighting lessen. And when you turn the knob, there's this metal thing for the oil--" Link pauses to point again, not glancing up to see if she's following, "--that gets moved out of the way, because if the covering isn't there the rest of the time, the oil spills out, and the covering is what helps put the flame out when you're done. That's why when you're done you jiggle the knob, tilting it this way--" he points, "--twisting it this way--" again, "--moving it out so that the metal slab inside doesn't catch here--" and again, "--and then moving back in so it does catch, and..."
"Stop, Link, or you'll make your lantern explode." She holds her hands up in a placating manner. "I get the idea. I'm also glad I can see in the dark right now, because that's just too much information for me to want to keep track of just to get a flame."
Link blinked, looking up at her. "… Midna… It's just a lantern…" Simplicity incarnate.
Midna shook her head, folding her arms. "If it takes that much effort to get any light in this world, I'm amazed you've managed it at all!"
Link looked baffled. "But… It's—it's just one knob! And…" He looked from her to the lantern, to her again, as though either of them might explain. "And you just need to turn it!"
"You gave me about a dozen steps, Link!" She pointed out.
"No, I gave you two steps, with a dozen bits of advice."
Midna looked at him skeptically, turning sidelong for her visible eye to be closer to him than the other. "That's not what I heard. Even if it was, magic's much simpler anyway. I'll just stick with that."
"Really? Tell me, how does Twili magic work, then," he challenged, holding the lantern with both hands—protectively, almost.
She let out her trademark giggle at that. "You've watched me do it. It's all about concentration, and maybe a few hand gestures. And practice, and study." That was about as simple as she could put it. Of course, she also had something she could distract Link from pointing out how unsimple that was with. "I can do more with my magic than you could with that lantern, though."
Link's eyes narrow, and by his tone he seems to be answering some challenge in her words. He lifted up the lantern a few inches for all (though mostly him) to see. "… And what makes you so sure of that?" Midna stared at him for a moment, before dissolving into giggles at the ridiculousness of his words. Link frowned back, starting to turn faintly pink around his cheeks. "Hey, stop laughing, I'm serious!" He lowered the lantern self-consciously, looking at the contraption in question. "If I had a big enough lantern, I'm sure I could …" By the way his voice trails off, and his eyes seem to start staring into space, there were no doubt dozens of possible ideas going through his head, each as 'simple' as the one before it.
"You could burn down Faron woods, maybe. It's a lantern, Link, not a magic lamp." She crossed her legs, sitting down in mid-air again, not about to actually try enquiring about the ideas she could almost him thinking of using that lantern for. That poor little modern convenience…
Link reluctantly stowed the lantern away, seeming almost crestfallen. "But…" His expression was still dolefully hopeful, as his ideas made valiant attempts to stay alive.
"But nothing. Anyway, shouldn't we be moving? The metal grate in front of the door lifted while we were talking."
Link heaved a deep, woeful sigh, nodding slowly. "Yes… we should…"
Midna nodded, floating forward to put a hand on his hat. Now that he was human the gesture was a little strange, but as a wolf it might have constituted an attempted comforting pat. "I'll go back into your shadow until you need me again."
Link nodded, absently checking to make sure his sword was loose in it's sheath, ready to be drawn at an instant's notice. While he turned towards the door Midna's form flattened and wavered, diving back to the ground at his feet. When the human went through the door, there was no one there but him and his shadow.