A/N: I may have discovered the flaw in writting things out ahead of time, I simply don't have the patience to space out chapter updates xD
Epilogue: Twilight Heart
"So it's true, you're leaving then", a quiet voice called as Link dropped the rest of the way to the ground from where he hung. The last few feet of the ladder that led up to his house seeming to disappear faster than usual, as if gravity itself were eager to speed him on his way.
Though more likely it had something to do with the very full saddlebags he had slung over one shoulder.
Hitting ground with a grunt, and bending his knees to absorb the tremors that ran up his shins, the blue-eyed boy turned to regard his visitor as he strode over to where Epona waited. The rust coloured mare whinnied and stamped her hooves impatiently as he threw the bags over the back of her saddle, securing them under her belly with thick leather straps.
Link smiled and patted her mane, whispering quiet words to the horse to sooth her.
"She's like that because you don't exercise her properly you know", Ilia spoke again, a slither of the gentle affection he remembered hiccupping in her voice.
"…", the sandy-haired hero kept working, checking fastenings, opening bags and rifling through the contents and shifting in clothes he hadn't worn for far too long, trying to remember the best way to set the light chain mail beneath the tough green stitch work so that it didn't bunch.
"… What happened Link, what changed? Was it us, the village?", the setting sun cast lengthening shadows that hid her face as she spoke, even from his eyes.
"…No", he breathed at last, the generally inarticulate young man struggling to convey the complexity of the realisation he'd had out in the woods the previous night, waiting for Russel and Bo to find him.
Misunderstanding. That was the crux of the matter. They'd attributed malicious intent to something that was simply trying to survive, and help another do the same, because it was a creature that moved freely in a world where they were restricted.
He'd done something similar, tried to force the thing inside, the inner shadow, to live in the world of light, denied who and what he was for far too long, and refused to give voice to the anger that sparked in his true nature.
The events of the year past hadn't given birth to this anger, hadn't changed him, they'd given him a place, and the freedom to express it, to use it to make himself stronger and protect those dear to him.
And when he'd tried to force the shadow back inside, to restrict himself to a world that had never truly suited him, the anger returned, but stronger, closer to the surface.
The blue-eyed beast wanting to tear across the plains unhindered once again, to be what it was meant to be.
It wasn't to be feared, it wasn't to be repressed, it was as much a part of him as anything else, and that's why he was leaving.
He would always hold this village dear in his heart, and those therein, so to express his gratitude, he would leave them in peace, safe in the light he'd help restore to the world.
As the wind whistled through the grass in the fading light of day, Link though for an instant, he heard a distant giggle rise from the shadows, one strong and fond.
Against his chest, hidden by his tunic, a small black crystal clinked against tiny white links of steel, rattling for a moment on its cord, much like a band of steel had once rattled as its barer had torn across the land.
"This is the right choice" he murmured, piercing blue eyes turning back over his shoulder to regard Ilia, the slight wisp of a girl now just another shadow.
Climbing up onto Epona and swinging his feet into the stirrups, the sun, now just a blazing red ball clinging to the horizon at his back, Link set off.
"Time to move on wolf-boy", a playful voice whispered in his ear and he smiled at the memory, his heart beating strong as he heeled Epona into a light trot.
The woods gave way to forest, the forest to open grasslands as far as the eye could see, the towering mountains that the Goron's called home rising up in the distance like stone fingertips grasping for the very heavens themselves.
As he and Epona raced over the plains, the wind threatening to steal his cap and tugging at his hair, link let out a peel of laughter, clear and loud as they whipped by thickets and across small streams, the spray catching his boots and streaming behind them in a liquid trail.
For the first time in over a year, the former hero felt at peace, even as his blood raced, and the wind and the drums wailed in his ears.
He was home at last, and perhaps, he thought as the gentle kiss of day's last light stretched out over the land and the shadows came out; dancing with the fading sun for the briefest of times, he would find a friend once more.
In the twilight.
A/N: Now, as promised,a little bonus, the source of my inspiration to begin this ficlet[will insert youtube link to TP: Animal Link has Become music video on youtube when the site actually works again