.oOo.
Title: Shadow's Light
Chapter: 10
Author: Hikari no Vikki
Genre: Romance/Action/Adventure/Angst
Parings: Slight Link x Dark Link
Disclaimer: Dark Link, Link, Zelda, and Nintendo are not mine.
Description: There is a light within every darkness. You need only to search yourself to find it. But what if you are the darkness? How do find your light, if you are the shadows themselves?
Author's Notes-Oh, a review! Thanks so much to Anonymous Sister of the Author. I know you were the teensiest bit disappointed with my changing of the paring, but the story that this ties into has sort of been in the works since I was ten.
But!
I will give you a gift; a sort of 'what if' ficlet. I hope when I'm done with it it'll make you happy.
EDIT: Giftfic will have to be put on a VERY long hold. Trying to finish up all my other fics first. Also made some minor edits to this chapter.
.oOo.
Shadow's POV
That was the best night of my life.
No, we didn't get intimate that night – get your head out of the flippin' gutter! It wouldn't have been bad even if it did; she was an excellent kisser despite the fact that she seemed shy and careful with her kisses.
She was too caught up in trying to figure out why this was happening.
As was I. Moments ago I had myself convinced that I was too worthless to be loved, and now here I am desperately trying to do all I can to take in this woman that is shrouded in nothing but mystery. She is… much like Link in her own right. I can't seem to see the innocence he has, but hers is much more preserved; still fresh, if that were at all possible.
She kept looking at me, blushing furiously every time, and I couldn't help but smile. It was too cute to me, almost puppy-like.
We talked that night, both of us scrambling for answers about one another.
"What were your parents like?"
I was sort of stunned, but came up with a safe answer. I wanted her to know the truth, but I knew that I had to be careful how much of it I gave away.
"I don't know. They were murdered when I was very little, and I was raised by a man that I thought was my father, who loved me for a time but grew… oh, what's the word I'm looking for…"
I rubbed my chin furiously as I thought.
"Ah… hostile. That's it. He grew hostile toward me. I managed to escape his grasp only a short while ago, which is why…"
"Why you're so reluctant to love me."
I nodded at her quick figuring of my situation. She seemed to almost understand completely.
"My parents are dead too, well, I know my mother is. I don't know what happened to her, but I think she died in the fire that burned Kakariko seven years ago. My father… he disappeared that same day."
She looked almost forlorn.
"I had siblings too," she told me, "but they… I don't know if they died, but I'm pretty sure they did."
"May I ask what happened?" I was hesitant; I didn't want to bring back bad memories.
She looked into my eyes and smiled. We were sitting on a stone bench, looking at the remains of the setting sun of Lake Hylia. Twilight would fall soon, bringing a few stars.
"It's all right," she said softly.
"It happened when I was nine," she began, "and we had planned a picnic that day by Zora's Waterfall. My little brother Nathan was playing by the waterfall, trying to touch it when…"
She stopped and bit her lip. Her silence and sullen mood didn't seem to fit her usually cheery but wary personality.
"He fell?" I supplied, gently.
"Yes." She nodded, no tears falling yet. Her expression still troubled, she went on saying, "After that, my twin Sapphire went after him. My father saw the way they went, and my mother told him to follow. He did so, and I followed him."
She paused then to catch her breath.
"I ran ahead of my father somehow, and saw that Sapphire had gotten a hold of an unconscious Stephen, and was calling out to me, frantically. At a slower part of the torrent, our hands almost touched, but we missed. The last thing I heard her say to me was my name, and then it disappeared into the wind."
Her right hand was up in the air, half-heartedly reaching out for the sister she never reached. It had obviously been a traumatic event for her.
She slowly put her hand down, looking off to the side.
"I stopped then. My father went ahead of me, but never found them. I had nightmares for weeks. They stopped eventually, about two months before my tenth birthday, but it was still… it still hurt."I nodded. I never had any brothers or sisters, but I could imagine what she felt, to a certain extent.
"I'm so sorry I brought that up. My life seems like sunshine and daisies compared to yours." Again, to a certain extent.
She smiled at me, a smile that felt like it could melt anything, forget that fact that she could apparently use fire magic. "Probably, but I'm too stubborn to want to be pitied."
Her forlorn expression morphed into an annoyed tiff, but it didn't matter,
"I'm not trying to pity you," I said simply.
She looked back at me with another one of those smiles.
"I know. I'm just… you know, letting you know?" I chuckled. She was a strange woman, but I couldn't help but feel close to her at the thought of finding someone so similar to myself.
Her naïveté behavior was very similar to Link's when I first met him, but still not as rough. Hers was more gentle, and quiet. I suspected that was how she behaved around others, too.
We talked long into the night, not just about family, but how we saw the world.
"What do you think of the stars?"
I asked her this once twilight had gone, and night had fallen, the bright specks of light shining brilliantly in the sky above us.
She looked at me, then at them. She was quiet for a very long time. Then, at once, so suddenly she nearly startled me, she spoke.
"Mortals wish they could reach them, deities don't think much of them, and the stars themselves gave at us more often than we think they do, never mind know they could."
Wow. None of that made much sense, but I assumed it did to her, given the fact she had thought for so long.
"I'm sorry if that didn't make much sense to you, but it does to me."
Yeah, go figure.
"What about you?" "Me?" "You. You asked the question in the first place didn't you?"
Yes, yes I did.
I chuckled. "Well remembered," I said.
I made a note to myself to remember I did not have the best memory remembering what I said. Speaking of speaking, she made conversation so easy to me. I could now start a conversation, and also end it, rather splendidly. Perhaps she had that effect on people.
I looked up at them then, thinking. After awhile, I looked back at her.
"I think they're other worlds, dimensions mortals can only dream of visiting. I'm sure what I said is much easier to understand than what you said."
She chuckled.
"Is that really what you believe?" she said coyly.
"Yes," I replied, slightly annoyed, but in the friendly way. "Of course I believe that. I didn't always; I just used to think they were put there for us so that we didn't have to be afraid of the dark. It's completely ridiculous how some people are so terrified of it. If they have a story good enough, it's rational, but sometimes…"
I shook my head, sighing.
She chuckled softly.
"I know what you mean. I used to be afraid of it when I was little. I grew out of it at some point, though." A gentle grin played on her soft lips.
And then I said the stupidest thing I could possibly say at that moment.
"Can I kiss you again?"
And I immediately regretted it.
She laughed a little, clasping her hands and holding them at her mouth, trying in vain to not let sound pass through. Her shoulders shook a little, and she shook her head looking at me with a new sort of smile. Her brilliant red eyes looked up at me with a strange parent-like wisdom.
"You don't always have to ask, Shadow."
I smiled back, gently.
"I know. Force of habit."
A few heated kisses later, we went back the entrance of the cave, and began the trek back to my cottage. Is you bloody head still the gutter? For the last time – we did not have sex!
We wouldn't have made it out of that little observatory even if we had planned it. You know how those things get.
We – I repeat – talked. That was all I could let myself do that night.
And kiss. What lovely kisses… they were very unique, much like the one Link and I shared. No food or smells to add something to it; it was just her.
"Are you hungry?" I asked her on the way back. I wasn't sure when she had last eaten.
"Oh, I'm ravenous! I didn't even have lunch…"
Caught up in all that excitement, she probably forgot. I was hungry too, seeing as that sandwich I'd eaten at the ranch was probably long gone.
"I'll make you some fish. It's kind of all I have right now…"
I chuckled, embarrassed.
She giggled. "It's all right. Do you have any bass? I heard their eyes make a wonderful puree."
I stopped, and looked at her a second.
"Their eyes? Who did you hear that from, a Zora?" She giggled again.
"No, my boss. The guy who owns the bar in Kakariko." Oh. That explains it. Really strange guy, short lump of a man. Makes me wonder if Zoras raised him.
I made her a late dinner that night, and we talked through most of it, trying to finish it before either of us fell asleep.
She fell asleep before me.
When I looked at how serene, how stunning she looked even in sleep, it jolted me into reality. I shouldn't stay here. If Ganondorf finds me here with her… he'd kill her.
I quickly wrote her a note telling her I had to go and… settle some things.
I remember giving her a quick kiss before I left, hoping I would see her again.
I left my horse there so that she could use it to get back home; with the money to pay back the ranch girl for the rental, if she didn't insist on paying.
I walked around the edge of the lake slowly, the shore waters lapping at my feet.
The night felt so still, like the air could be cut with a knife.
I almost took mine out to see, but quickly put away the idea; of course it couldn't. Figures of speech surely hated me. And love. Life. But not everything hated me. Perhaps not even Link.
My feet were boot-clad, and made footprints in the sand that were washed away every time the water came on shore.
When I got to the fishing house, I looked back at my own, wondering if I was doing the right thing. Then it came to me; what was I doing? I honestly had no clue. Protecting her? Me? Link?
I shrugged, turned around, and kept walking.
Now I had my hands in my pockets, looking down at the ground like a little kid in trouble. Why was I like this? I honestly couldn't say.
I was by the double set of fences when I realized something didn't feel right.
Maybe I was doing the right thing leaving her like that.
I looked back at the lake and realized something.
No monsters. Where were they? No Tektites, no Guays… no nothing. It was very creepy. Usually people rejoice when they see no monsters, but this was Gannondorf.
He was planning something.
Cautiously I climbed over the fences, more than wary. Fear caused bile to rise up in the back of my throat, but I forced it back down. Weaponless or not, I had to face my fears.
I walked slowly past many seedling tree look-a-likes, and few good young trees when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I froze.
I knew what it was.
And that he was standing right behind me.
I did not turn for a while, trying gain some kind of fierce composure that I knew would disappear the moment I met his eyes.
When I felt I had waited long enough, I turned.
There was nothing there.
Then someone grabbed me from behind, a hand masking my mouth with a musky bloody scent. I knew who had me.
The last thing I heard were the words, "It's time to pay up, boy."
And then everything went black.
.oOo.
Yes! It is done! I know, I know, not much action until till very end, but you'll see a good fight next time! It's also all Shadow's POV... hehe.
I give cookies to those that catch both the Stardust and Tsubasa Chronicles references! (I don't own those either… (blows raspberry))