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Triangle 21 - Nightshift Nightmares.

Later that night, I'm staring out of the caravan window wondering if Burnl and the twins are asleep yet. It was such a good day, today. I hadn't even realized I still had some sort of hang up over it all, but I do feel as if I was able to move forwards in my personal life for the first time in…

Well, it's gotten really hard to calculate time objectively ever since I got into this Hero business but…

Anyways, it's been put off too long.

It was during this time that a piercing scream broke me from my revelry. It's Lillian, and I know that particularly type of scream.

I'm beside her quickly, shushing her, and she grips my hand as if she's on the lip of a precipice.

I brush sweat-matted hair from her highborn forehead. "Nightmare?"

She nods silently. "The... the w..."

A frightened expression. A wide-eyed, smooth face. Trembling lower lip.

"Wolfos, right?" I ask.

She nods.

Farore. She's so...

She reminds me, perhaps, too much of my forest friends.

I... was always a bit too protective of them.

In a flash, I see Mally there, her image fresh from this morning, telling me about the nightmare she had just had.

In the village, only me and Mido took up the sword. It was our duty to protect against the wolfos. It was Burnl's responsibility to keep the deku-baba away.

But the deku-baba could be reasoned with while the wolfos were quite frightful.

And when I learned the sword, I became popular to deal with nightmares that... that seemed to be hundreds of years old.

After all, it was me or mido, and mido was...

Well, mido was a mido.

So I've seen this scene before. 'The wolfos.' They would whisper.

"I... I remember." She whispers. "The Wolfos. He was b-big. So big. With teeth as big as my arm. And your blood pouring out of his mouth without a care in the world. It was so very frightful!"

I close my eyes and sigh. Had she been having nightmares since that time? I hadn't noticed, but then I had never stayed up as late after she had gone to sleep. "Oh." I whisper. "Right. You were there, weren't you? You saw when me and the Alpha crashed in to this caravan." You can still see the patch-job where the hole was, in the other room. "But I'm surprised at you. You seemed to empathize with it, after. You sang to it, remember?"

"...Yes. Well, he had died. Poor thing. But then he came to kill us, didn't he? He had come to this caravan for me, didn't he?"

"No." I shake my head. "No. Wolfos are wild, but they are smart too." I wince, feeling a still-lingering phantom pain in my left arm from the fight as I recall just how smart they could be. "There are certian rules they follow." I look to her eyes. Curious eyes. "They can feel when someone is strong, and they won't raid the den until they kill the one protecting it. Yes, he would have gone after you, but not before dealing with me. They sneak around to kill each-other, not to kill the cubs. So don't worry. They will always try to go through me, first."

"That's... that's... not... I don't want you hurt." She whispered to me. "You're my only true friend."

A chuckle bubbles up from me. "It's okay. It's my job to be the tallest tree in the forest, when it comes to wolfos. I'm what the lightning strikes first, both here and in the kokkiri village." Well, I had been the second biggest tree. If I go back now, I wonder who would win between Mido and I?

"But he hurt you so terribly." Lillian argued. "That blood I saw was yours, wasn't it? And your shoulder was ripped to shreds. You were so..."

"Don't mind it." I tell her. "I'm used to it. 300 years old, remember? And I'm not dead yet." I joke. Perhaps I can make some use out of my cover story. "Just take this, okay? It's a kokkiri charm." I tell her as I snap my fingers and magic up a deku-nut. "Grasp it tightly, and you will feel it in your dreams. But whether in your dreams or in the real world, if you throw it I will come to you. Understand?"

"I... truly?" Lily asks in awe, staring at the unassuming Deku-nut.

"Yes. You're my friend and you're under my protection - why do you think I'm splitting this caravan with you? For the comfy cushion I get to sleep on? Believe me, a good pile of dry moss? Five times better."

She giggles, before a crestfallen look crosses her face. "B-But then you... you'll have to fight it again."

I close my eyes as if a physical flash hits me.

"Link? But your training only just finished, didn't it? You don't even have your own sword and shield yet. We -can't- take this." The Milly twins, wide-eyed in their shared double-bed, tried to push the charms back to me. "You could be hurt!"

I open my eyes slowly, half-expecting a twin to stare back at me.

It might as well be. That pure concern and hesitation is just the same.

Yes.

Definitely.

-Way- too kokkiri for my own good.

"I see." I sigh. "Then give it back."

She flinches, gripping the deku-nut tightly. "I... yes." She says, slowly. "Y-Yes, you're right. Here."

"Good." I take her open palm, and wrap her fingers over the charm, myself. "Good for you. You have displayed great courage, and respect for the life of another of farore's children, and now the magic will be twice as strong."

"R-Really?" She asked, excited at what she has accomplished. "But-"

"Hush."

"You -"

"Hush!" I insist. "Behave. Go to bed."

"Wou..." Lillian begins, blushing. "Would you sleep with me, Sir Link? Just tonight?" She smooths the sheets next to herself. "There is excess room enough here, I think. I would feel much better if you were next to me. I understand that it's no patch of dry moss," she smiles cheekily, "but I hope that my bed can exceed your cushion."

"I..." I swallow, thickly. "I shouldn't." I like her. I do. She's a good friend. A good person.

Too good.

I need to be careful. I have secrets I need to keep and I have to remember that our fates lie in different places. We can be friends. But not quite best friends.

I'm already too close.

"It wouldn't be right." I tell her. "I'm older than I look." Where did that come from? What an awkward excuse to use.

Where did that -come- from?

I don't want to know.

"Oh." Her smile drops immediately, but her cheeks flare up. "I. Oh. Y-Yes, of course. That would be... improper. Of course. I... I'm sorry. Don't break up our friendship, please?"

I sigh, and experience an inexplicable urge to palm my own face. "Hush." I beg. "Go to -bed- already."

"Right! Yes, of course!"

"And anyway Lily," I say, "you don't have to worry about me being too far. Remember, I am only a stone's throw away."

She smiles, gratefully and whispers: "Thank you."

A/N: D'aaaw.

Character fluff. This might be one of the best fluff I've written. Not everyone will agree, of course. But then I am not really known for my fluff. I have to practice my fluff, if this story is to be successful.

I love the kokiri. I love dealing with kokiri back-story. I hope to do more kokiri backstory. I wish more people would do kokiri backstory.

I'm not entirely sure how it exactly is for the reader, but the personal inflection on the narration using fir person POV and the pure non-omniscience of it is just adorable for me. I'm falling in love.

Review a song campaign: 1 review of my BETA's song = next chapter within a week (or so.) See my author's page for details. Otherwise, don't worry: I'll see you when I eventually make time for stuff.