A moan emanated from the darkness beyond.
The kids glanced at each other, unsure of what to do. Then it came again, the moaning sound. As if fate had worked in its own way, like Fahel had said, they suddenly got up and ran, almost flowing, as one, to where the poor figure was, blotted against the wall, his arms hanging uselessly at his sides.
Nalinda checked the man's pulse. "He's fading," she said. She grabbed his forearms, as if to help the man stay up in his last minutes. "There's nothing we can do." A tear slid down her cheek, shining in the darkness.
"Well... I can do something, but I need Link to help me," Tetra said suddenly, fumbling with her leather-cord necklace as she tried to get her pirate stone,hidden from under her blue vest. "Will you?'
Link, getting the thread of things, unwrapped his own turquoise amulet from around his neck. He remembered, so long ago it had seemed, that he'd been catapulted into the Forbidden Fortress, captured without his sword. Tetra had invented this way of them both together, but he didn't understand how they could help the dying man.
Tetra nodded and pressed her aqua-coloured pirate stone against the man's neck. Link pulled out his own and followed suit. They waited for a few seconds...
----------------------------------------------
...The man's body was envelopped in a heavenly celestial light. The azure light glowed bright around his skin, highlighting his features so that they watched in amazement as he melded smoothly from a dying older man to a tall, almost godly figure, eyes cast in shadow but glowing in the darkness.
Fahel.
"You have done well," the messenger said, and disappeared into the mist.
The kids glanced at each other, feeling their bodies lift as the prophecy was fulfilled and Fahel brought them back where they belonged.
But there was no prophecy. Fahel had been fluking. He did that often, the tall mysterious messenger, to get 'young ones,' as he called them, to show their true strength and courage, say, in the darkness of a cavern.
Even as they were transported away from the cave and into the light, a golden swath covered them. Link grinned, knowing that his dreams had flipped from fantasy into reality; he'd made some great new friends, and under no circumstances was he going to forget them or Datillo Island that easily.
