A/N: *trumpet noises* And at only about 14% of the way through this fic, we have crossed the 100k threshold! (Excluding author's notes.)
Sorry this chapter was over a day late. I've been overachieving in Camp NaNoWriMo this month, drafted the rest of Part II, and got way too obsessed with writing the excitement and drama that is Part III of Book 1. There are 22 chapters left of Midlink romping through Twilux (and Zelda-Sheik's solo shenanigans). This fic is a parasite to my sleep schedule (affectionate and derogatory).
Ho boy, hope you like cats, because there are a lot of cats in this chappy! Time to explore how the light invasion has negatively impacted the lives of sweet, innocent little cats. (My god this fluffy chapter has the opposite tone of the chapter I'm currently drafting.)
There is a referenced pregnancy-related cat death here. If that hits too close to home for you, feel free to skip the second/last scene.
The Light Invasion
PART II - LIFT THE LIGHT
Region by region, dungeon by dungeon, trial by trial, Link and Midna build a fragile trust.
Chapter 20 - How to Care for Your Canine
Luca Prima, once a city of naught but stone and shadow, had undergone a miraculous transformation, like a fairy healing a hapless soul from the brink of death. Link limped through the streets as they became ever crowded by Twili emerging from their shadows. They peered at the sky with such reserved hope, and their shoulders unravelled when those dark clouds drifted across their lamplight eyes. He envied their joy. This was exactly how the people of Hyrule would react once the sun rose anew.
Many people were already on their knees or against the wall, sobbing in relief. Others pranced and danced and sung in the streets. Two loved ones who had been lost in shadow flew into each other's arms and spun and spun, tears of joy buried deep in each other's necks, until they toppled over laughing.
The people had been restored, and so too had the luminescent beauty that the light invasion had stripped away. Luce Prima's lower ring was not a city of drab grey stone after all. That served only as a canvas for blooming, pluming, booming murals that glowed like a rainbow of sunset fireflies. Green and yellow and purple and blue and indigo and orange with sparing accents of red. The brushstrokes curved and converged into clouds and stars and grass and warp portals and sparks and Twili dancing. Scenery melted into the abstract. It wasn't all comprehensible, but by the gods of this world, it was beautiful, and it put Hyrule Castle Town's grandeur to shame.
"Close your jaw! You're practically dribbling on me," Midna hissed beneath him.
The jolting reminder that he was a part of the scene, and not some incorporeal observer, snapped his jaw shut and cast his eyes upon the cobblestone. He felt them now. The stares. Heard them whisper, too. "Lusca bestia?" they echoed over and over. Another shower of gratitude might be nice, but this were were the people he had almost led an army to… to… These people didn't sense that he was a soldier from an enemy world, did they?
Urgh, he wanted a quiet place to just be. Each step sparked pain in his hind, and the cuff chaffing his front paw was no help, either.
Locating Nova's Vet Clinic was a hassle and a half. Midna, for whatever reason she hadn't the decency to explain, insisted on whispering directions from his shadow, but even with his heightened hearing, her directions were often lost to the bustle of the city.
Did their heart-to-heart in the forest mean nothing to her? Well, he had promised to have a little more faith in her way of doing things. Just this once, he'd give her the benefit of the doubt, as long as she didn't continue to act in these stupid ways without reason.
No matter how much he glared at his shadow, it refused to answer for itself. Laughter bubbled from the side. Link halted. Two children scurried through his path in a game of tag. They must be 8 years old, if Twili children grew like Hylians. Puppy fat on the shorter one, and knobby knees and elbows on the other. Flat chests, no hips, and taller than Midna.
How old was Midna? Not a single Twili, young or old, looked like she did. She had the knowledge of an adult and yet the temper of a child. He added that to the list of things to ask her when he was human again. Said list was growing like weeds.
After passing it several times, Link finally stood before a 'door' of sorts. It was latticed by the same cyan light as the platforms that took people from island to island, and it was see-through, too. There wasn't much new to be seen aside from a framed certificate painted in glowing cyan light on the opposite wall. "Ooh, looks like they have doctorate," Midna whispered. "I've left you in good hands."
Well, she wasn't the most helpful getting him here, but at least she succeeded. Eventually.
But what now? What if the person who lived here didn't recognise him and refused to tend to his wounds without a guardian? What if they did recognise him and chased him off with a broom? A tame wolf was less imposing than a human with a pouch of deku nuts.
"Hurry up!" Midna hissed.
Link lifted a paw, claws drawn, and raked at the door. Only trails of light and a soft ringing. Nothing like the scraping of wood.
"Link, I am begging you to not make me do this for you," Midna whispered. It was spiced with her usual sass, but there was a twinge of desperation, like she really was begging. Well, there was no way around it. Time to be a public nuisance.
Link barked at the door, soft and gruff. Nothing. He barked again, louder this time. Something clattered against the floor, followed by a squeak, but still, there was nothing. Perhaps they didn't want to be disturbed. Perhaps he should turn away with his tail between his legs and hope that his wounds didn't fester in infection.
Midna would scold him in their first moment alone, though. "Just wolf-up and get bitchy. Real dogs don't give a damn about good manners." That's exactly what she'd say if she wasn't shying away in his shadow. So he raised his muzzle skyward, and howled an ear-piercing lament. Onlookers groaned, shrank away, and shielded their ears. Link folded his own and offered the crowd his best guilty puppy eyes, but then some shuffling from within the house sent his tail wagging.
The occupant called something out impatiently. Announcing she was on her way? A plump figure cast in shadow shuffled across the doorframe, then shuffled back across it with less shadow coverage as she tied some kind of robe around her waist. She scuttled back, tapping a pair of plush slippers on her grey feet. Shadow under her cyan tattoos looped steeply from her ankles, behind her knees, and back around her generous thighs. They disappeared under a short loungewear robe of black silk.
She snapped her fingers –grey and stubby with cyan lines running down them– and with a soft ring, the door faded. She was around his human height. Breasts leaning over the high waist of her robe. Crinkled orange hair tossed into a ponytail under her pointed ear. She looked human enough, aside from the eyes. Yellow lamplights. Just like the Twili who had captured him back in Ordon.
Those eyes bulged at him, and though he shrank away, she dropped on him, assaulted him with… scratches behind the ears and strokes down his back. She cooed, in Hylian no less! "Oh, you're such a cute doggie! Such a sweet and handsome doggie! Who's a good doggie?"
And it felt so good, like an itch being scratched just right. His leg thumped against the cobblestone. Link raised his chin so she could scratch under there, and he fell onto his back so he could experience that bliss on the sweetest spot: his belly. This must be what those luxury massages Bo got at Death Mountain felt like.
One of his ears had flopped against the pavement, and Midna snickered into it. A sour reminder of exactly how he looked. He was acting like a… a… dog. But he wasn't a dog. He was a human. Or he would be soon once he got patched up by this… absolute master of a patter.
Nope. Nope. Get up! You have dignity to maintain. Link scrambled to his feet and sat as politely as he could.
Nova (presumably) remained on her knees. "Okay, okay, I see you've had enough. My name is Nova, she/her, and I'd love to know why the," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "legendary blue-eyed beast has come to my clinic."
Link rolled onto his side and raised his injured leg. Nova gasped. "You poor thing. Let me look at that straight away."
Well, that was easy. He had barely raised himself when Nova scooped him up. "Oh no, no, no. No more walkies for you." How was she doing this? He was about her size, and almost spilling over her chubby arms, and yet she carried him the way Link had carried Link the Cat back in Ordon.
She hefted him through a doorway on the left of the hall, and then through a cosy room with three stools and a small table spread with books. They arrived at their destination: a room the size of Epona's stable. Strong white light emitted from crystals fixed in the ceiling. Link's eyes watered, and he barely made out the runes on the floor carving out and raising a bench of hard light. Had he not seen those floating platforms between islands before, his jaw would be hanging open.
She rolled him on his side, injured leg up, and his head and paws pressed against the opposite walls. "Aww, I'm sorry this bench is too teeny," Nova cooed with another rub of his belly. "Usually my patients are smaller than you."
What kind of creatures did grace this cramped room? There was a warm, musky scent in the air; one that he knew, but couldn't place. Something about it made his heart ache for home.
Nova snapped into her hands an odd ball of wire on a stand and a small square of cloth. Strange tools for a bleeding wolf. Why not (shudder) needles and thread like what Pergie would use whenever Link got split by a goat or a tough oak branch?
"Now if you could just scootch back a bit," Nova said.
Link shuffled until his spine pressed against the walls too. On the narrow strip of bench now free, Nova lay down the cloth and set the trinket atop it. The light from above cast a circle of crisscrossing lines upon the cloth, but why decorate the table as a wolf bled atop it?
"Now before we begin, I'd like to talk you through what I'm about to do. First, I'll feed you some minced meat. It'll have a few drops of midnight tonic in it, which will dull the pain of step two." Nova snapped a small bowl of raw mince into one hand, and a vial of dark tonic into the other. She added two drops and then held the bowl to Link. He sniffed. A bitterness cut through the meaty aroma. He hesitated, but at the grumble of his stomach, he gobbled it up in two bites.
Nova smiled, snapped the bowl and vial away, and continued her lecture. "I'll use these shadows as my treatment tools," she traced a few of the lines cast by the sphere, "to clean and patch up all the wounds that I see. Even with the tonic, it will sting a little, and it will feel like you're being pricked by a needle or like bits of your flesh are being tied into knots. Do you understand?"
Yes? Uh… Well, patching up a flesh wound was never painless even with a red or blue potion, but why the 'tying flesh into knots' part? He couldn't just ask for clarification from this strange, shadow-wielding doctor. He couldn't even ask her to keep her shadow magic far away from him, since the last time he was here, she had lashed out at him with it. Even if it was sort of justified…
Nova didn't sigh or proceed, though. Instead, she smiled and leaned down to his level. "Sorry, this must all be really confusing for a light dweller." She recognised him?! So that's why she spoke Hylian. (Made all that puppy talk even more embarrassing.) "All I need is for you to relax and do a special favour for me. Can you do that?"
Doing one 'special favour' for Midna had locked him into a breadcrumb trail. Though the little imp had loosened the leash on him as of late, who's to say that Nova wasn't about to scam him into some other ridiculous fetch quest? Still, that leg really needed patching, so he nodded.
"Good boy." She rewarded him with a scratch under the chin. "I can tell you're smarter than any other patient I've had on this table, so I can ask you to stay still, right? No matter how much this may hurt, it's all to make you feel better."
Stay still while she tied his flesh into knots. Why had he agreed to this? Why was he feeling almost okay with this? Was it because –despite the blankness of her lamplight eyes– the joy and friendliness in her perked shoulders and dimpled smile set him at ease?
Link nodded again. No good reason for it. He just did.
Nova clapped her hands together. "Wonderful! Let's get started."
The shade of her hand swept towards the circle of crossing shadows and plucked a few strands free. It was so seamless and so without spark or flash that he just blinked at it. It was something you'd expect was a trick of the light, but she had those strands in her pinch –or her shadow did– and she was drawing them to his punctures and blood-matted fur. "Now let's just get these cleaned first." She 'released' the shadows and then they did something that made his tail curl: they wormed over his wounds and swallowed the blood from his fur. No texture: just absorbent, scrubbing pressure. Gave him tingles.
Nova gently stroked his fur away from the wound. "My, my, that looks like a nasty bite," she said. "I don't suppose the creature who bit you was venomous?"
He shook his head. Nova furrowed her brow. "You sure? I'd like to hear a description of the creature to be safe."
How in Hylia's name did she expect him, a wolf, to explain? Oh. She wasn't staring at him; she was staring at his shadow. "Please, I didn't want to say anything before, because I'm sure you have your reasons for hiding, but if you're there, I could really use your help treating this darling wolf."
One, two, three seconds passed with no answer, but on the forth, the spikes of Midna's hair rose, and then not one, but two narrowed eyes, but she didn't rise any higher. She was still in her shadow cloak, but her helmet was nowhere to be seen.
"I get why you're cautious," Nova said.
"No, you don't," Midna deadpanned.
The doctor continued as if Midna's tone didn't nip. "The twilight is back. You don't have to suffer in sonder anymore." Sonder? What did that mean?
"I… think I'll take it for a bit longer, thanks."
"Hmm." Nova 'plucked' the cleaning shadows from the wound (noticeably thicker and darker) and dropped them on the cloth. Blood seeped from the shadows and into the fibres. "How about a deal? If you come out of that shadow, I'll wave the bill for your furry friend's treatment."
"You were going to charge?!" Midna exclaimed.
A smugness tugged at Nova's kindly smile. "Of course. I went to the Royal Luce Prima University for five orbis to become a qualified doctor. I expect to be compensated accordingly, but more importantly, I expect you to take care of your own psych."
"And why should a vet lecture me, hmm?"
"Because you don't have to be a people doctor to know that what you're doing right now is unhealthy."
"But–"
"Oh, give me a second. How many digits are there on the bill again?"
"Okay, okay!" Midna sprung from the shadows, full flesh. Without her helmet, the lower third of her head was shaved, and another tattoo glowed between the roots. It pulsed as her ponytail twisted into a hand and pointed between Nova's wide eyes. "But don't you dare tell a single soul about me."
The uncanny thing about Nova's pupilless eyes was that there was no way to tell if she was tracing every ridge and curve and burn of Midna's midget form, but after a solid second of maybe/maybe-not gawking, Nova drew the pinch of her fingers along her lips, sealing them shut. Again, she gestured to the punctures on Link's ankle.
Midna crossed her arms with a sigh. "He fell, and I had to catch him."
"With what?" Nova asked.
"With this." Midna snapped the fanged grapple into her hands.
Nova stilled the swaying tip and traced a finger down one of the blood-crusted fangs. "Oh sols, you must have been desperate." She let go and plucked a few more shadows from the circle. "But what a blessing! No venom means I can patch him up in a jiffy."
She stung his wounds with alcohol and looped the shadow through his torn skin. He winced, he twitched, and he jerked despite himself. Nova sighed after his third big blunder. "How about some chatter to keep you distracted?" He nodded.
Nova smiled and hunched over her stitchwork again. "Great! Now perhaps your companion could help answer my first question: What might your names be?"
Midna pressed her lips into a thin line, but there was the inkling of a smirk. "The name's Midna. She/her. And this rascal? Muffin." Link growled at her.
"Spot."
Another growl.
"Fluffy."
Growl.
"Teddy."
Growl.
"Tree Bark."
Growl.
"Coochie Coo."
Growl.
"Scuddle Butt."
Growl.
"Tussy Mussy."
Growl.
"Dog Breath."
Too far! Link barked. Nova settled his head back down with shushes and stroking.
Midna rolled her eyes and sighed. "His name is Link."
He wagged his tail. Nova giggled and took his left paw. "It's nice to meet you… Oh no, what happened here, Link?" She lifted his paw, examining the broken chain hanging off his cuff.
Midna gnawed her lip. Without his voice, she had the stage to share how she 'valiantly rescued him from his cruel captors' and he'd hardly be able to challenge her, but she didn't make a peep.
Nova waved it off. "You don't need to explain." She tried to wriggle her finger between cuff and ankle, but couldn't go deeper than the tip of her nail. "I just need to know how long this has been on him."
"A few hours?"
"Hmm." Nova tied off her shadow-stitching. "I think you should stay the night," she said to him. "Stay off both of those legs." But his front paw was fine?
Midna inhaled sharply. "But–"
"No charge," Nova cut in. "Rumours spread quickly, Midna. By now, half of Luce Prima knows exactly what this wolf has done for us, and someday, I hope they'll know what you've done for this wolf. Therefore, under my roof, you may both stay at absolutely no charge."
Midna crossed her arms and shrank back. "You read us like an open book." Her voice croaked a little, as if Nova had just threatened to blackmail her.
Nova plucked the last of the shadowy strings from the circle and hunched over Link again. "Well, when you work with animals as often as I have, you learn to listen to what words don't say."
It had been so long, too long, since Midna had tasted anything. So long since she had touched and smelled anything, too. The soft cushion of Nova's reading nook, the heat of the cup on her fingertips, the earthy aromas, and the mellow taste of green tea were just… it made her eyes tingle a little. The tea wasn't even that good compared to what she was accustomed to drinking in the palace (and Nova may have burnt it), but sols, was it wonderful to just feel something for once. To exist in the world as something more than a phantom.
Nova was right. This was good for Midna. Good for her to feel and smell and taste, because there was none of that in a Twili's shadow form. It was a starvation not of the stomach, but of the senses, and Midna, like every other Twili who had been trapped in the shadows, was famished.
But she and Link had only saved one portion of the twilight realm. In the provinces of Tenebria and Arudici, people still starved in the shadows. That was precisely what Midna tried to explain to Nova when she had 'prescribed' a whole decem of rest in her home. That was ten days in the light world! And when Link's puppy dog eyes didn't sway Nova to cut his stay short, he resigned himself to it all too easily.
It was nice here in the twilight, though. If Midna didn't ache for her true form or the people she had let down, she might be more willing to rest. Alas, she was stuck here. With the chipper peasant reading at the dining table. With that hulking wolf beside the kitchen bench, scratching at the door.
Link whined at Nova again, and at last, she gave in. "Alright, alright. Do you promise to be careful?" Link nodded, tail in a frenzy. Well, Midna was a little curious about what had her hound so transfixed. Perhaps that door was a food cupboard, or a crusty laundromat, or a place to store all of Nova's embarrassing junk? The kind of filth a dog would love to roll around in.
Nova closed her book, smoothed out her long wrap skirt, and shuffled over. Her crinkled hair bounced as her chubby legs swam between the slits. Once she reached the door, she scratched under Link's chin. "Just sit down and let them come to you, alright? They've never seen a wolf before." Link dropped his butt without protest. Gee, sure would be nice if he was that obedient with Midna. With an approving nod, Nova snapped at the door and it slid aside.
A rolling chorus of squeaky, juvenile meows resounded, and that sent Link's body rocking and his front paws trotting, like he could barely contain himself. Sweet Ora, he had the emotional regulation of a toddler.
But when the first tiny little kitten ambled out of the room, with eyes still closed and ears still folded and belly still swollen, Midna bit back a squeal of delight. The tiny creature kept mewling until Nova nudged it Link's way.
Link whined, but in a very stifled manner. Five more kittens had emerged, and they were clamouring around him, sniffing. Some were black, some were ashy white, and some were both. One with a white underbelly climbed onto his twitching tail, and the moment its weight settled upon it, Link's self-control snapped. His tail wagged, and the poor kitty was flung across the room. Nova yelped. Midna swooped. She caught the kitten and held it close. The room breathed a sigh of relief.
Its head nestled into her chest. To think it was still blind and deaf. This kitty was deprived of the only senses Midna got to retain in her shadow form. How maddening life must be for this tiny little creature. Touch was its only comfort, and for now, it was Midna's comfort too.
Then the beast started kneading her chest with its claws! Midna hissed and held it far away by the scruff.
"Hey, careful, careful," Nova said in Twilit. She swiped the kitten off Midna. Bunching up her skirt, she sat down let the kitten knead that instead.
Midna crossed her arms and slumped back on her cushions with a huff. When it came to animals, she was short on talent.
Link whined again, but this time with a positive ring. He was lying on his front, and all the other cats had snuggled atop his fur coat for a nap. It was —for lack of a more deserving word— adorable, but gooing and gushing without irony or sarcasm was below Midna.
"Isn't it sweet?" Nova said. "He's probably the closest they've felt to a maternal presence. The shock of the light invasion made the mother very sick when she was pregnant, and there was only so much care I could give her from the shadows. Passed away in childbirth about a circum before the twilight came back. Thought I'd have to watch the newborns die of neglect."
Midna said nothing. Just took a long draught of her tea. Yet another story of suffering to pinch at her guilt. The animals, the people, and nature could all be suffering a little less if she had chosen to wear her crown earlier.
When she finally lowered her (long empty) cup, Link was gazing forlornly at the bookshelf. Nova giggled. "Suppose it is quite boring to sit still and do nothing," she said. "Midna, could you be a dear and pick a book for Link? They're all in Twilit, so the more pictures, the better."
Asking the princess of Twilux to wait on her servant? The things Midna must do to hide herself away. She reluctantly set down her mug and hovered to the shelf. Near the top were some bold titles. Rather saucy romances between women. Love Across Worlds was a title Midna used to swipe from her mother's shelf and read upon the balcony. Then Zant became her regent, and she could only read it under the covers.
The third and fourth shelves had books on treating animals, but the fifth and final shelf had the miscellaneous titles, including an illustrated encyclopedia of Twilux. Perfect! She needed Link to be more worldly for the journey ahead. She wriggled the book free, set it before him, and opened the hard cover. He nodded his thanks and used his paw pads to turn the title page over to a map.
Just as she hovered back to her cushion to keep nursing her empty teacup, Nova called her in Twilit. "Hey, come sit." She patted the stool beside her.
An invitation to 'come sit' was never, ever good. It always precluded an 'intervention', where one or more people would pick apart Midna's 'concerning behaviour' until she was in pieces. They never had the decency to put her together again.
But if Midna didn't do as this peasant asked, that might doom her and Link to a good few circums on the street. So that was why she hovered to the stool with crossed arms, stared it down, and settled upon it with a huff.
"So," Nova began. "I've noticed some tension between you and your wolf."
Midna failed to contain the roll of her eyes.
"It's quite normal, you know. Twili and animals have a difficult time understanding each other as is."
"But he isn't an animal. He's a–"
"Light-dweller, we know, but the point still stands. You're having a hard time understanding each other." Understatement of the orbis, and whose fault was that, exactly? Link was acting awfully innocent. Nova smirked. "Now you have to tell me, what mischief has he gotten himself into lately?"
She shouldn't just vent about Link to some stranger willy-nilly, but Nova had asked, and Midna had to get some things off her chest, and she had to appease her host. "Well, do you want me to start from before or after he tried to steal from you?"
The more Midna explained, the more she complained, and the more she complained, the more she ranted. That wolf was none-the-wiser, paging through the book and making doe eyes at kittens as Midna dragged him in Twilit. He joined the Hyrulean military, gave them a slur for the Twili, almost smashed her out of his shadow with a deku nut, tripped over branches like an idiot in Malogra Village, celebrated the death of the Sphaera Forest, and almost killed the last of the endangered keese!
At the end of it all, she was fuming and gripping the edge of the table. If she was in her true form, she might've caused it to crack and flicker. Only then did Nova speak. "Wow, that does sound frustrating." Midna's breath caught. Those words were like a touch-starved child receiving a pat on the head. This was the first piece of sympathy she had ever received since the light took over– no, since Zant took over– no, since Mother passed away (aside from one notable exception and friend).
Nova scratched under the chin of the cat in her lap, who leaned so far into it that they fell on their side. "I'm still holding out hope for you two."
Why? Midna and Link had made slight progress in the forest, sure, but if either one of them ever had to leave each other for dead to meet their own ends, they most certainly would. Well, maybe he wouldn't, but she would. Not that she wanted it to come to that.
"You never implied that he was malicious: just clueless," Nova continued. "We can work with clueless."
Midna raised an eyebrow. "We?"
Nova smiled. "Allow me to give some How to Care for Your Canine advice: the best way to deal with an unruly animal is to assume that everything it does has a reason." She said that last part in Hylian, clearly to mortify her, and Link perked up at it. With his eyes locked on Midna, he nodded 'knowingly'. The lack of self-awareness! But… maybe he had a reason. Maybe he hadn't caught the context, and happened to think that Midna and Nova were talking about actual animals, which he had plenty of experience with as a rancher. Far more than her.
Perhaps taking a moment to slow down and explain things to him as they agreed was just the beginning of a productive relationship. She needed to go deeper, needed to understand the depths and shallows of the understanding he had of the world. It would make them a better team, and that would mean completing this quest sooner, and defeating Zant sooner, and finally going their own separate ways. Yes, there was some merit to Nova's advice.
Only under one solid condition, though: under no circumstances would he ever come to know her just as deeply. This was about moulding a hero; not exposing a disgraced princess.
A/N: Thank-you to Marthmanx from the Midlink Discord for sharing the hilarious dog names her friend uses. I very much appreciated it. Also to my friend Storm Skyress on FFN for suggesting "muffin" XD
Yay my first OC who isn't morally dubious at best! (What can I say? I love my canon good guys and OC villains.) So... what do you think of Nova? How do you think she'll further help our heroes on their journey?
