Mournful coos rippled through the obsidian void that enveloped him. Swirling in his throbbing skull were shattered fragments of spacetime — a castle ripped into the exosphere, its tan princess trapped inside, his flailing form plummeting, into the abyss, plummeting—
Something soft poked his face.
"Urgh…" Toon Link groaned, eyelids fluttering awake. His splotched vision cleared, the tingling rush of sensation flooding back into his body. "Huh?" He jolted upright in a dizzying whirl. Glittering above him was a plump, snow-colored creature resembling a star, like one of the millions that speckled the heavens overhead.
"Finally, you're awake!" he chirped, twirling around the pint-sized hero clad in green. "Let's play!" The Luma morphed into a sparkling silver bunny, springing off a few feet before turning to face the discombobulated Toon Link. "C'mon, follow me!"
The little Hylian stumbled to his feet, blinking. Where in Farore's name am I? He stood in a bed of white and yellow blossoms, a ring of rocky pillars jutting out of the earth around him.
"If you catch me, I'll tell you about where you are!" the bunny promised. Enticed, Toon Link dashed after the critter — only for it to vanish in a puff of ivory smoke, leaving him alone on this verdant rock. He gulped, heart thundering in his ears. The serenity in the sapphire veil of stars above didn't soothe him, no, it merely brewed more panic in his quavering frame. He was caged in the lofty heavens, no longer on the terra firma of Hyrule. And the Princess...he knew not of her fate, nor where that red headed menace stole her away to. In this tremulous moment, all he could muster the courage to do was catch that pesky bunny, and maybe get an answer as to where he was.
Alas, his search commenced. Toon Link trod though patches of white, violet, and gold flowers nectar-craving butterflies flittered around, scanning the spherical horizon for any sign of the celestial rabbit. Twinkling meteors showered down onto the planetoid, spilling multihued bits of crystallized stardust. Boots splashing through a shallow pond, his coal-colored eyes caught glimpse of a scintillation emanating from a nearby shrub, one similar to the falling stars — and the fluffy beast he was hunting. Bulbous green sprouts surrounded the bush — he pressed through them and weaved into the greenery, and, to his heart's flipping, the bunny leaped out, bounding on swift feet across the asterisk-patterned earth, away from the tiny hero who was now locked in mad pursuit. Toon Link scampered after the hare till his little legs burned and his lungs puffed for air — no. He refused to collapse, to let answers slip out of his fingers. Pulse pounding, teeth gritted, he pummeled forward, skirting the tree stumps and bottomless craters his target led him 'round, triumphing over the ache in his screaming muscles until —
"Aw, you caught me!" the bunny squealed, wriggling free of the hero's grip and transforming back into his pillowy true form. "Maybe...maybe you really can help Mama." A glimmering blue beam poured down onto the crown of the planetoid's head, creating a circular stone platform that emitted a steady radiance. "She's waiting for you up there."
"W-wait, you promised you'd tell me about where I am!" Toon Link protested. Ire prickled through him.
"Mama will tell you!" the Luma replied.
The Hylian arched a brow. Still playing games, huh? Rendered choiceless, he huffed and hiked his way up to the platform, climbing up its winding, star-emblazoned steps until he reached the top, where every atom of him froze in utter transfixation.
Hovering in a bubble of coruscant ethereal light was a turquoise-gowned woman, her hair a gleaming platinum cascade that covered half her face and rippled down her back in choppy waves. Atop her head, a silver crown encrusted with rubies and sapphires shimmered.
"I've been watching you from here, this place known as the gateway to the starry sky…" she intoned. Toon Link's eyes widened. A palm rested on her star-shaped brooch, she continued in her tranquil timbre, "My name is Rosalina. It is my sacred duty to watch over and protect the cosmos. To save your special one, you'll need the power to travel through space." Special one. Flickers of a smirking, sun-baked girl kindled in his memory, along with the heart-scathing twinge that she was far from his reach, imprisoned and imperiled by that sinister swine.
With a flourish of her wand, Rosalina summoned the white Luma that first graced his sight when he resurfaced into the conscious realm. At this reunion, the floating creature released a gleeful coo.
"Luma can give you this power," Rosalina explained, "and so, I entrust you with his care."
Luma rotated in a glittering whirl, shedding iridescent sparkles before dive bombing into Toon Link's hat. A yelp fled his lips; he staggered, woozy from the flood of peculiar energy now flooding through his body.
"Disaster has struck us, just as it has visited you," the celestial lady lamented, "with your new companion, I hope that you can rescue the Grand Stars, and soon, your special one." Hope bloomed in his heart at the prospect of prying Tetra from Ganondorf's monstrous clutches, and now, he was one tiny step closer to doing just that.
"May the stars shine down on you…" Rosalina bid, rising into the starry heavens, her body dissipating. Emptiness wormed its way into his chest as he watched her heavenly ascension. Her aura radiated a pacifying maternal warmth, one he instantly missed as now he was truly alone —
Luma popped out of Toon Link's floppy cap, piping, "With my power, now you can spin! See that crystal over there? Inside it's a Launch Star! If you spin attack it, you'll break the crystal and launch yourself into the sky!"
In other words escape, Toon Link thought.
"Alright, what are we waiting for?" he said aloud. Luma darted back under his hat, and he approached the jagged crystal that encapsulated the bronze Launch Star. Sucking in a deep breath, he channeled the cosmic power Luma granted him and spun himself in a whirl that shattered the crystal, freeing his ticket off this stranded rock.
"Now, jump in the Launch Star 'n spin!" Luma instructed. He complied, leaping into the Launch Star, and, with yet another dizzying spin, catapulted himself into the uncharted fathoms of the star-peppered sea of space.