Midna had just barely finished her devious plan to finally get Erantaur kicked out of the council for good when she had arrived at the meeting chambers. Each and every member of the council gave a look of accusation, in one form or another, at Midna. But, she never had a feeling of guilt or regret, not one bit. She sat down on her rightful throne in the meeting chamber and awaited one of them to speak up. It was, after all, the first step to get her plan rolling.
However, as confident in her plan as she was, her hands were trembling. It was finally beginning to sink in, the fact that Link had come back to her… The one person that had haunted her for the last two weeks, the one person that she thought she would never see again, she had touched with her own hands, laid her eyes on him. This only meant that she had to do her best to remain calm while her plan played itself out so he could stay, as opposed to being thrown off the cliff into the endless abyss below.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" Erantaur spoke up, breaking the silence. It felt good knowing that he had put his own demise into motion. She enjoyed the irony.
Midna merely gave him a simple blank stare before she gave her answer.
"Absolutely nothing," she said. She appeared relatively calm, but the tension was beginning to eat her up inside. It was a simple plan, but she had to rely on how well she knew him and his terrible fits of anger. He narrowed his eyes down at her.
"Nothing? NOTHING? YOU HAVE NOTHING TO SAY! A LIGHT DWELLER is in the royal palace, more specifically in your PRIVATE CHAMBER and you have NOTHING TO SAY AT ALL?" His face was seething with anger, and not a single face on the council held approval for his outburst at the princess. 'Well,' thought Midna, 'he did it.'
The entire council watched and waited for Midna to start yelling at Erantaur, as it always went. However, the rebuttal never came. Her large amber eyes merely stared back at him calmly. This was more self-control than Midna had ever employed, but it didn't show one bit.
"Are you quite finished?" she asked Erantaur politely. He just sneered at her, waiting for another response that he could possibly overreact to.
"You should be informed that the light dweller happens to be the Hero that saved us all," she stated, "The blue-eyed beast, to be more specific." The entire room fell silent over her words, and it stayed that way for about half a minute. Finally, Arawynna, who could no longer stand the silence, decided to speak up for all of the council.
"You mean to say, your Highness, that this young boy is the one who bested Zant?" asked meekly, her face very timid, very child-like, yet very hopeful. The same could be said for the others, save for Erantaur. Midna merely nodded. If step one of her plan could sway the majority of the council, the rest could be convinced in a snap. All she needed to get rid of Erantaur was for one more of his outbursts...
He, of course, bursted out.
"Lies. All LIES!" Erantaur hissed. "No being of the light could be the sacred beast with blue eyes. Plus, why should YOU care about him? Even if he was, he is nothing more than a tool of prophecy!" He ranted on. The anger was boiling up in Midna and she desperately wanted to put Erantaur in his place. He was more than a tool, he was a person with a good and loving heart, something much more than Erantaur could say about himself. But she knew she couldn't say anything because if she blew up now, or if she showed any sign of weakness towards Link, she'd lose the council for sure. Then, Link would be a goner. Not even her royal status would be able to save him, so she desperately needed for this to work.
"Why couldn't he be the sacred beast?" she explained. "After all, not one in our realm has eyes that could slightly even resemble the color blue. Also, I, for one, have seen his transformations. If all of you were to bear witness, surely you would believe so," All of the council members nodded in approval, except Erantaur. Midna had gotten everyone who she needed to agree with her side, and then some. It was time to bring down this plague to the Twilight Realm once and for all.
"Erantaur, of course you wouldn't believe me. I mean, why trust the princess, right? She's just going to screw up and take the kingdom down with her, right? You, however, have been stacking your cards up to take over my position! Taking in bribes and threatening political parties just to have your way!" The other member of the council looked shocked, while Erantaur looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Midna hoped that the evidence she got was enough. It was the absolute perfect time to bring all of this to the table, now that the council is starting to doubt Erantaur. It was all about to go down the drain for him.
"Those accusations are preposterous! How dare you even claim such a thing!" Inside himself he was cursing and wondering how she had found out. Midna, on the other hand, was already much too far ahead of Erantaur for him to be able to do anything about it anymore.
"Don't deny it! You know those claims are true! I think these letters and documents are sufficient evidence," Midna had held up a stack of letters and passed them around. For the first time in his life, Erantaur was speechless. The other six members looked angered at him. Scratch that, anger wasn't enough to describe what they were feeling. They felt betrayed. Yes, that would describe them quite perfectly right now. Midna internally smiled as she finally got them to be on her side, at last.
"I was doing what was best for the council! What was best for the Twilight! If I hadn't, the royal family would have never been trusted again. Your ruling is unreasonable and why they picked you to be their princess is beyond me!" he raged.
Midna was angry, but she was done yelling at this slime. Now was the time to bask in her victory over this tyrant.
"You, my disgusting parasite, are no better than Zant. It's scum like you that give the royal family a bad name in the first place. You've done it now, Erantaur. You can kiss your hopes of ever getting near a powerful position goodbye!" The air around Midna cracked with magic, manifesting itself as black lighting that struck the air around her as she finally lost her temper. Some invisible force began to drag Erantaur towards the door, but his planning had been done much farther ahead then Midna's.
"You shall regret not placing me as your king! You will! Cruciamentum!" He called out, but nothing appeared. "Cruciamentum!" he yelled again. Silence. Then, from out of nowhere, Link came crashing through the door, holding a disgusting, warped skull that somewhat resembled that of a lion's.
"What, you mean these?" he asked, throwing it down to the ground and smashing it, sending shards everywhere. Everyone in the room was in awe. Jaws dropped. Even Erantaur had stopped being forced out of the door. Link stood triumphantly, his sword in hand and his shield in the other.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said sarcastically, "Were these yours?" he picked up a shard of the skull and shoved it into his palm, sharp side down, so that a good sized bit of it was lodged in his flesh. Purple blood began to seep out of it. "Let the scar that remains be a reminder to never try to hurt Midna again."
Then, with seemingly no effort, he picked up Erantaur, struggling and kicking desperately like a child, and drew back his sword. "Midna?" he asked, "What do you want me to do with him? I can put him anywhere you like."
Midna was totally speechless.
"The… the dungeon will do just fine," she stuttered. And so, he threw Erantaur to the ground and did a couple of quick motions with his blade. Suddenly, the tyrant broke into a million little black pieces and was gone. Midna bowed to the rest of the council shakily.
"Meeting adjourned," she said as she grabbed Link by the arm, rushing him up to her chambers, kicking aside the bones of the tormentors as she ran past.
"You stupid beast," she said, looking at him in anger and surprise as they entered her room, "I told you to rest! How did you do all of that when you were so weak?"
Link, dropping his strong and warrior-like air, suddenly began to feel very dizzy and he collapsed like a rag doll, holding his side. Midna caught him just as he began to fall.
"Very painfully…" he muttered as he moved his hand to his eyes so he could see. Red blood covered his hand like paint. Midna gasped and pulled Link's shirt up to see. There were large bite marks just above his kidney, piercing all the way through his chain mail where a Cruciamentum had probably hit him. Blood was coming out like a river, and she didn't know what to do. She looked around at anything that could help, and then she saw her bed sheets. She tore a good sized piece off, shifted his tunic and chain mail shirt up and began to press on the wound with as much force as she could.
"Wh…what are you doing?" muttered Link faintly.
"I'm saving your life, you idiot. Why did you come to the council room? I told you to rest!"
"I just…felt like something was wro…" His last word was cut off as he choked on blood. It began to spill out of his mouth onto the ground, making a little red pool. Midna gasped, but continued to put pressure on his wound.
"Help!" she yelled, sounding helpless, "Help! Somebody!"
One of the servant girls came by and looked at Link and took a sharp intake of breath.
"You!" she yelled, putting on her tough persona again, "Get some medical help, now!"
The girl nodded and ran off just as Arawynna raced in.
"Midna, we found some sort of strange red fluid on the ground…" she looked at Link. "Oh... Oh my god…"
Link looked up at Midna, then slowly he closed his eyes, passing out. Just as he did a medical team made up of five Twili raced in and looked at Link. The one farthest behind muttered to Arawynna and she nodded and ran off. They could only guess at his physiology, but they knew at least to stitch up the wounds. They took another piece of the bed sheet and started pressing, but Midna snatched it from them and did it herself. Nobody touched him besides her unless it was absolutely necessary.
"We'll take him to the medical room," said one of the medical team, "We can't do much more, but we can watch him from there…"
"NO!" Midna exclaimed, not even trying to hide her panic, "He'll sleep on my bed! I will watch him."
"But princess," he went on, "He's only a…"
"I don't care who he is," she said, "he's sleeping right there!" She pointed at the messy, torn, yet regal bed. The medical team shrugged at each other and picked him up lightly, then placed him on the bed.
"There is nothing more we can do, so we will leave you with him," one of them said, bowing, and then they all left the room through the smashed doorway.
She crawled on the bed and looked down at her sleeping hero, so afraid that this was the last time she would lay eyes on his living figure. However, just as she closed her eyes in dismay, Link took her hand which was folded across her lap.
"Midna…" he whispered, "I'll be okay, don't worry."
Midna looked at him once again, into his beautiful blue eyes, his warm smile. She felt so comforted whenever she looked into them; they just took all of her worry away. She bent down and gave him a light kiss on the forehead, not making a second thought as to what she was doing. Link smiled as her lips gently touched him, and he relaxed his head on the pillow.
Midna lay down on her side, facing him, smiling. She was so glad he was safe here. She wasn't worried about his surviving, she knew he would. The blood had stopped flowing out of his wound, and he was strong, a ferocious yet noble beast. She just lay there, staring at him, taking in his form. Finally, after a long time when she was absolutely sure he was asleep, she scooted over closer to him, lifted her head over his, and lay a soft, light kiss on his lips. Link stirred a little as she withdrew, but his breathing stayed light, as he remained in his unconscious state. She gave a small smile as she slowly moved back to her side of the bed and closed her eyes, drifting off into sleep.
"Link…" she whispered just before she lost consciousness, "…Please don't leave. Please…"