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Nearly all the council members decried the union as one bound to fail. The palace physician predicted a childless future for the princess if she took a light dweller as her husband. Even her closest advisors and friends besought her to reconsider in favor of a match that would be sure to produce heirs; everyone wanted to avoid another disaster like the one with Zant.
Midna, however, remained unmoving in her resolve. "He chose me over all in his world, and I choose him over all in my world," she said, with a flash in her eye that dared anyone to argue with her.
Even though he was a light dweller, Link was held in reverence by most of the Twili. Countless numbers of them he had rescued in the corridors and courtyards of the palace and the surrounding environs as he had battled his way toward the usurper king. And since then he had become a favorite with the children, playing with them, teaching them simple defensive skills, telling them stories of his home and the light world, and even transforming into a wolf and letting them ride upon his back. His supporters were many, but he needed none but Midna.
They were married in the traditional ceremony in which they stood in the fountain of sols, exchanged bracelets instead of rings, and pledged their vows before the high priest. Fifteen months later, they were blessed with the birth of a little girl with her mother's hair of fire and her father's serenely blue eyes. They named her Dulcimea and the whole of the Twilight Realm rejoiced for days.
Dulcie was loved since her first second outside her mother's womb, when she opened her tiny mouth and screamed. Each new breath seemed to give her more strength and the louder she wailed, while her parents hovered over her. Midna cuddled and gently shushed her as the baby's lips sought out and found the first taste of her mother's golden milk. Link hung over his wife's shoulder, unable to hide the huge, proud grin spread across his face. Her eyes closed, their little daughter gripped his finger and fell asleep.
From a very young age, Dulcie knew her parents were a bit different from those of the other Twili children. Her mother was the ruler of the realm and wielded great magic; Midna was, of course, as pale of skin as a sol, just like all Twili, but there was an air about her that was unlike anyone or anything else of that world. Her father, on the other hand, had skin which was darker and more robust than everyone else's, and he had eyes much deeper and bluer than anything that could be found in the Twilight Realm. The aura which Dulcie could so faintly sense about her mother completely surrounded her father and thrummed with every beat of his heart.
She loved her parents with the arduous, though sometimes fickle heart of a child. Her mother would never let her get away with anything and always knew when Dulcie had misbehaved, but Midna also had such a tender way of kissing her daughter and drawing her close for a hug. She could entertain the little girl merely by making magic lights dance in the air above her hand, and she could even float in the air and take Dulcie with her with no added effort.
Link, on the other hand, often got himself and Dulcie into trouble for silly things, such as climbing the tree at the back end of the palace and making the floating platforms go so fast that she almost threw up. He was very brave too, for he had defeated a horrific beast which had threatened them when Dulcie was three. Watching him practice with his sword was mesmerizing; his movements were smoother even than the tribal dancers who would perform at huge celebrations. He would give the laughing, giggling little tyke piggyback rides and tickles. In his more serious moments, he helped Midna in ruling the Twilight Realm. Why, he could do anything…except bamboozle Dulcie's mother.
Sometimes Link would get a faraway look in his eyes and stare off into the horizon, where the rose, purple and orange glow swelled and ebbed, being swept over by dark wisps of cloud. Midna would notice his quiet withdrawal and she would stand by his side. If they said anything out there on a high balcony of the palace, no one knew, as the servants and advisors knew better than to disturb them. And sometimes Link and Midna would disappear for a while, only to return a few to several hours later with that strange air intensified about them.
Little Dulcie had considerable magic flowing through her as well, perhaps heightened because of her particular parentage. She could usually locate her parents with ease by focusing on their auras. This skill could be a bit sketchy, on occasion leading her astray. Then there were also those few times that she couldn't find either of their auras no matter how far she reached. She would try several times without success, but later she could locate them just fine.
This sense of hers was like being able to touch, hear, smell and see all rolled into one feeling and heightened by her magic. It was like reaching out for her parents when they were rooms or even miles away. This surprised either or both of her parents on more than one occasion when they would turn around and see that she had toddled in. Her other magical abilities had yet to surface, however; one time she had attempted to copy her mother, but she couldn't even lift a dusk apple, let alone a table, and she could do little more than create a few tiny sparks in the air instead of the swirling lights of Midna's.
She was an intensely curious child as well. Aside from attempting to create magic, she would stare, poke and prod at one the realm's nearly translucent flowers until the poor thing was in tatters and she was no closer to figuring out what it was made from. She would stand under a floating platform in an attempt to find out how it worked, and oftentimes someone would have to pull her out of the way before she was hurt. When she learned how to operate the twilight time pieces, she would monkey with them and prolong her bedtime. She was very pleased with this until her nurse discovered her scheme and put a stop to it. She would lean in front of a mirror and touch the glass, wondering how she could get the little girl to come out, until she learned with her father at her side that those were merely their reflections looking back at them. Then she would ask why they were the only two in the whole realm who had blue eyes. He would sweep her into his arms, lift her high in the air and tell her it was because she was special.
One day, Dulcie had just escaped from her nurse and tutor with a burning question for her parents. Her tutor had begun teaching her to read and at that moment she was frustrated with trying to make sense of it all. She wanted to know if she could learn how to use magic so she could incinerate her schoolwork, warp all the books and her tutor's equipment to a place where he'd never find it, and transform into a scary beast who didn't have to learn things.
She located her parents on a balcony on the southern side of the palace. They were standing very close, leaning against each other and hands intertwined. She stopped when she saw them thus, suddenly wanting to know what made them so different from everyone else. She hid behind a pillar but only succeeding in hearing the last of their quiet words.
"Come with me, Midna," her father said, gazing intently into her mother's eyes. "You know you want to. Leave the politics behind for a while!"
"Are you tempting me, wolfie boy?"
It was such a strange thing for her mother to call him, but Midna said it with a happy, almost gentle expression that it couldn't be anything bad. Dulcie took one tiny step closer, leaning around the pillar so she could see them better. They didn't even know she was behind them.
"It's been months since we last went there. I'm itching for a romp under the sun."
"You're sure it's not fleas?"
"I've never had fleas and you know it," he huffed, giving her a look. He pulled at her hand. "Come with me. It won't be the same without you…"
A second passed in which Link held his breath and Midna eyed him with a mischievous gleam in her eye. Deciding she'd prolonged her answer long enough, she grinned impishly and said, "…Fine." She almost sounded to Dulcie like she was annoyed, but the way she leaned her head on Link's indicated something else entirely.
A sudden thought seemed to occur to him. He looked up at his wife and said quite seriously, "Only if you're up to it, though. You can't be too careful, you kn—"
But she cut him off. "I'm fine, Link! You're such a worrywart! If we're going, then let's go!"
Still evading notice by her parents, the little girl watched as they left the balcony; she followed them as they went down to a small courtyard. That particular place was well protected by magic, that no one but Midna and her hero might enter it. Dulcie had the blood of both in her veins and she didn't even know the protective barrier existed. She hid behind a tree and watched with great curiosity and amazement as her parents stood, still holding hands, before a wall that swirled with glowing circles that were at first quite larger and then gradually grew smaller. Each series of circles alternated in clockwise and counterclockwise directions, and they were intermixed with letters. Seconds later, her parents dissolved into miniscule particles that were drawn to the glowing circles and then vanished.
She darted forward, forgetting caution in her concern at what had happened to her parents. "Mummy! Daddy?" she called, but no one answered. She reached out, trying to feel their auras which had disappeared with them. "Where are you?" she whimpered. Tears sprang to her blue eyes and she pressed her fists to the wall with the glowing circles. Seeing the spinning letters so close made her feel dizzy and she closed her eyes.
Suddenly she was overcome by a peculiar sensation. She seemed to be weightless, like when her father lifted her high into the air, when she rode on a floating platform or levitated with her mother, and it was a feeling a bit like the time she'd fallen from a tree. This time, however, there was no jolt at the end. The sensation faded and she slowly opened her eyes. Nothing in her short life could have prepared her for what she saw then.
She was in a large, round space with curved walls that rose high above her. Everything was so bright, so unlike her beloved home, and yet she hardly took any time to become adjusted to it. Behind her was a stone slab with the same spinning circles and glowing letters she'd been before in the courtyard. She was on her hands and knees in some peculiar, granular stuff that wasn't anything like the soil in the Twilight Realm. Some of it stuck to her fingers, reminding her of the sugar that the palace cook would sprinkle on things sometimes. She put her fingers to her mouth and tasted, immediately spitting out those few grains of sand.
When she tilted her head upward, the breath caught in her throat; unlike the rosy purple hue of the heavens in the world she knew, this sky was a serene, deep blue, just like her father's eyes…and her own. A blindingly bright sphere in the sky shone warmly upon her through one of the gaps in the towering walls around her; though she did not mind the intense light, she could not look straight into the source of it. Everything around her smelled and felt like that air about her parents that she never understood.
So wide-eyed and stupefied was she as she examined her bright new surroundings that she almost forgot that she'd been looking for her parents. She picked herself up and climbed onto the pedestal on which stood a large mirror with the reverse of the same symbols in the rotating circles on the stone slab. The mirror glowed with a faint light of its own and she could not glimpse her reflection in its surface. Her parents, however, were absent.
"Mummy? Daddy?" she called again. "Where'd you go?"
She could feel their auras but had no idea how to find them in that place which was so much unlike the serenity of the twilight as… well, as much as her father was different from her mother. Her curiosity was greatly heightened and if she wasn't worried about her parents she might have forgotten everything else in pursuit of exploration. She wanted to feel her mother's arms around her more than anything. As little tears slipped from her eyes, she concentrated on Link and Midna as hard as she could. She was again taken over by that weightless, almost dizzy sensation as the ground seemed to drop away from her.
Seconds later, she felt whole again and once found herself on her hands and knees, this time on some not quite soft stuff that was even greener than the tunic her father occasionally wore. She was on the edge of an open area surrounded by what looked like trees, except they were rather different from the trees she knew. These had trunks which were gray or brown and they stretched so high overhead that they seemed to her to be taller even than the palace itself. She could still see a little of the blue sky overhead, but it was partially obscured by the canopy of thousands upon thousands of green leaves. She'd never seen so much of the verdant color in her short life!
Then she became aware again of the very near proximity of her parents' auras. She turned her back to the immensely intriguing trees and she saw Link and Midna over on the other side of the clearing. At least, she thought they were her parents, for neither of them were in their usual forms, but they did have the same auras. Relief swelled in her heart and she dashed toward them.
"Mummy! Daddy!" she cried.
They turned to meet her, surprise and consternation evident on their faces. Dulcie threw herself into her mothers arms, and yet it was very strange because Midna was so much smaller than she normally was. Yet the little girl knew it was her mother, by her scent, her aura, her eyes, and the comforting way with which she hugged her and said Dulcie's name. Even as the ruler of the twilight held her daughter tightly in her arms, she grew to her normally accustomed size. Her father patted her awkwardly on the back; he was saying something to her, but aside from her name she didn't quite comprehend it through her sobs and relieving tears.
When Dulcie had calmed down, her mother pulled back just enough so that she could wipe away the little one's tears with a corner of her robe. Midna was gazing down at her daughter, her brows lowered worriedly.
"Sweetie, how did you get here?"
Dulcie glanced up at her mother, realizing fully for the first time that Midna was her usual, tall self again. The little one glanced around and saw that her father had also returned to his natural form.
"I followed you," she replied, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. She touched her mother's arm and then pointed at Link. "You were different! I saw you!"
"Oh, you mean like this?" he said, his blue eyes twinkling at her.
He suddenly dropped to all fours and morphed before her very eyes. The change complete, he stood before his small family as a large, gray-white wolf. He looked so different! But when she gazed into his blue eyes, she knew once again that he was still the father she loved. Leaving her mother's grasp, she reached up and threw her arms around his neck, which she could actually reach while he was in that form.
"Daddy!" she cried with no small delight. "You're a really big doggie!"
Midna snorted with laughter.
He grimaced slightly, but then his grin returned. "You just wait till your turn," he told his wife. His voice was mostly the same, but it had a slightly deeper, more growly sound to it.
Dulcie stepped back and put her chubby little hands on her hips. "You didn't tell me!"
He really looked sheepish that time. He transformed again and pulled his daughter close. "Well, you see, Duskie," he explained, using his pet name for her. "One time I scared one of the other Twili children. I promised myself I wouldn't ever do that again…and I was, well…I was afraid my wolf form might frighten you, at least before you got to be very old. That and there aren't as many reasons for me to transform these days."
She put her arms around his neck again. "I wouldn't be afraid of you, Daddy," she said, her words lightly scolding. "Not ever!"
Placing his strong arms around her, he gently returned the hug. "I'm glad of that."
Then, pulling away, the little girl again faced her mother. "Mommy, you were different too."
Midna's lips curved downward slightly. She opened her mouth, but the right words escaped her.
But Link, knowing his wife's discomfort, jumped in. "You see Duskie, years ago, before you were born, your mother and I were… We had to go on an adventure together. In a way, we were both cursed and forced into different forms. While mine was more easily lifted, hers took until the end of our adventures. Sometimes we like to assume those forms and relive some of the better parts of that time." As he finished, he again took to his wolf form.
The ruler of the twilight released a slow sigh of relief. She was still ashamed to let anyone but Link see her take her former cursed state. But Dulcie had her wide eyes fixed upon her; Midna took a deep breath and let her magic course through her body, taking the form she had once hated for so long.
Dulcie clapped her hands. "Mommy, you're like me!"
A slight smile came over Midna's face like the sun coming from behind wisps of cloud. Her proportions were not the same as her daughter, who was as normal as any other child, but it was true that she was hardly taller than her little girl. Seeing Dulcie so excited helped ease the embarrassment she felt. After all, she only took her impish form so she could ride her husband's back during their occasional romps in the world of light.
After marveling and exulting over her parents' transformations, Dulcie looked down at the ground which tickled her bare feet. Then she lifted her gaze to the verdant canopy attempting to take over the sky, or so she thought. She'd all but forgotten about her bright new surroundings after what she'd just witnessed.
"What is this place?" she questioned, hardly able to take her eyes off the greenery.
"This is where I come from," Link replied, a gentle fondness creeping into his tone. "This is the world of light. It's where your mother and I met on our adventures."
"We wanted to wait until you were just a bit older before we told you about it," Midna explained, her eyes earnestly upon her little daughter. "You see, the Twili cannot live in the light. Without magic to protect them, they would die if exposed to the light of this world."
Dulcie's wide eyes fixed themselves on her mother, her suddenly frowning mouth opening to express her concern. "Mommy…"
"Don't worry, sweetie. My magic protects me. You see? I'm fine, aren't I?"
The girl looked her up and down for a long moment before she nodded.
"We didn't want to risk letting you come here until you could control your magic," Midna said. "Just in case the light was bad for you."
"But here you are!" Link added with a wolfish grin. "You're safe and sound, flourishing under the sun like a pumpkin!" He nosed her bright orange hair.
"Did you follow us into the courtyard, sweetie?"
Dulcie lowered her gaze to the ground. "Yeth," she lisped.
"We're not mad, sweetie. We're only relieved that you're safe," Midna assured her, putting one of her small arms around the girl.
"That's right," her father said, his tone quite serious. "Though I have to wonder… How did you get here? The mirror is a long way off."
She glanced up at him and then at her mother, the worried tilt of her eyebrows lessening as she realized they weren't angry with her. She shrugged her little shoulders. "I thought about you. And I got here."
Link and Midna exchanged looks with each other. Perhaps, when the three of them were back home, they would have to see to the cultivation of her magical powers. This was by far the most she'd yet exhibited them.
"I want to see more," a distracted Dulcie declared, her eyes again on her surroundings.
"Hop on," her father said, lowering himself on all fours.
Her eyes whipped toward him, a large grin splitting her lips. With a delighted "Ooh!" she wasted no time in straddling his warm, furry back. She leaned forward and hugged him again.
Link turned to his transformed wife. "Don't you want a ride too, Midna?"
She crossed her arms across her chest. "You can't be serious."
"I'm deadly serious, you know that. If you're worried that you and Dulcie will be too much for me to carry, forget it. Anyway, you can make sure she doesn't fall off. I can go faster that way."
She stared at him for a moment, muttering something about "stupid men who think they're so strong." Then she uncrossed her arms and said in a normal tone, "All right, fine." Floating the distance between them, she too plopped on his back, placing her arms around her daughter.
"All set?" he asked, tilting his head back toward them.
"Go, Daddy, go!" demanded Dulcie, gripping at his fur.
"Try not to trip all over your feet this time. You're carrying doubly important cargo, you know," Midna admonished him playfully.
He growled just a bit under his breath. She wouldn't let him forget that, would she? There had been a couple of times during their visits to the light world that he'd missed a step, but he insisted it was only because it had been months since he'd last transformed. It would certainly not happen this time around.
He began trotting at a quick little pace, gradually increasing it until he was going at a full pelt. On his back, Dulcie shouted and laughed in such glee at the feel of the world rushing past her. The wind in her father's world was different; it carried the scent of so many things and was both cooler and warmer than the occasional breezes of the Twilight Realm. The wind felt to her like so many things in that world which was so new to her, untamed, free, restless, and bursting with secrets that it whispered to her.
Riding on her father's back was almost like floating. Though his paws pounded the earth, he had such rhythm that he did not jar his passengers. With him below her and her mother behind her, she felt warm, well-protected and most of all, thoroughly elated at the experience. However, after a while, she realized the world was going by too quickly for her to really be able to see it. Her grip on her father's fur slackened and she tilted her head around, trying to get a better look at her surroundings.
About a minute later, Link's pace slackened and he gradually slowed to a stop. He panted and his tongue lolled between his teeth as he smiled faintly. Midna floated from his back and helped Dulcie down. They were still in the woods and the little girl couldn't seem to take her eyes from it all. She began wandering over the forest floor, casting her eyes up to the impressive canopy over her head, or bending over to examine something that had caught her attention. Her parents followed in her wake, simply enjoying watching her unbridled delight at everything.
She couldn't take it all in fast enough! There was so much for her to see; the plants were so green, the flowers so colorful, and everything was so brightly saturated with hues she'd never imagined before. She could hear birdsong in the trees, and the rustling, chattering, and skittering of little creatures in the woods. To her everlasting delight, she saw a chipmunk, a couple squirrels, a fox, a badger, and a few different birds, but they all scampered or flew away before she could get very close. She stomped her foot, made a face, and complained to her parents that the animals didn't like her, but seconds later she had flitted to something else.
"Look at that, Duskie," her father said, crouching behind her and putting one hand on her shoulder while he used the other to point.
She glanced up from the latest flower she'd plucked and added to little bouquet clutched in her small fist. They'd come to a beautiful little secluded part of the forest with a pure, gentle stream trickling between great gnarled tree roots and cascading in a short fall over a few large rocks. The water, clearly glinting with the lowering sun's reflection, pooled at the base of rocks and from there gradually flowed away downstream.
"Ooh!" she cried, enraptured.
She trotted toward that wonderful sight, already forgetting that she was going to pick one of the curious, upside-down u-shaped flowers. As soon as she stepped into the sparkling, glasslike water, which didn't quite reach to her knees, something began to happen. A huge drop of water, perhaps as large as her head, plopped up from the surface as if defying gravity before it sank again. From that spot swelled a glowing circle of light, expanding slightly and then rising from the placid part of the stream.
Dulcie stared, her mouth agape and her eyes as wide as twin blue moons as the sphere of light drifted upward until glowing hands reached out of the air, took hold of it and held it fast. After all the forest animals had scattered before her in her rushed attempts to make friends, she didn't know what to think when a giant, luminous shape of an animal appeared before her. Its flesh and immensely long tail were a blinding white, with gold shimmering and swirling throughout. It had long ears which stuck out over its head and a face which, as her father would later tell her, resembled a monkey.
"Greetings, Little One," the spirit said, and even its voice sounded ethereal and golden. "You who has two bloods flowing through your veins has two worlds as your heritage. You are much blessed."
Dulcie did naught but stare open-mouthed at the apparition, understanding very few of the lilting words. Her parents came up behind her, respectfully keeping silent as the spirit addressed her. They too bore expressions of wide-eyed surprise, coupled with the proud feeling that Faron had recognized their daughter.
"You will always be welcome in this world. Never forget that. Light and twilight exist in you as one, forged by great love." Here the spirit lifted its eyes slightly to rest on Dulcie's parents. "Hero Chosen by the Goddesses, Princess of Twilight, your bond is thrice blessed. May you and your children flourish with power, wisdom and courage."
The spirit looked at all three and then faded from sight, the sphere of light it had been holding returning to the spring whence it had come. All they could do for about a minute afterward was stare at the spot where the spirit had been, their hearts throbbing and swelling with varied emotions. Dulcie moved first, turning to her parents with the amazement still dancing across her features.
"What was it?" she asked. "So pretty!"
And so her parents explained about the light spirits that guarded the provinces of Hyrule. They drank from the stream and drifted slowly from the spirit's spring. Link found another forest stream with a deep, gold and green pool, grinned broadly and snapped out his fishing rod. About two seconds later, he had cast his line into the tranquil waters and had gone quite quiet, making even his breaths shallower.
"What are you doing, Daddy?"
He placed a finger from his right hand to his lips, while with his left hand he kept a firm hold on his rod. "Be very quiet, Dulcie. You'll scare the fish," he whispered, his tone hardly audible even to her excellent ears.
She peered closer. "I want to see them," she declared, and succeeded in knocking some dead leaves into the water. The sleek, silvery shapes in the water darted away.
Midna, rolling her eyes, drew Dulcie away and murmured, "You shouldn't scare your daddy's fish, sweetie."
"But I want to see them!" the child insisted, stubbornly curling her lip in a familiar fashion.
The Twili recognized her daughter's cranky signs. Being a mother had caused her to learn patience the hard way. "You can't, not right now. You know why? He's going to catch us some fish for dinner. You're hungry, aren't you, Dulcie?"
She nodded and cast her eyes back toward the stream. But her mother kept hold of her hand to prevent her from going off again. Midna led her a bit further into the forest again.
"Let's hunt for some berries and things for us to eat. Won't your father be surprised then?"
Dulcie was reluctant at first, but as the new activity took over she forgot the previous one. Her mother took her to some berries she remembered Link saying were safe to eat, and showed the little girl which ones were ripe. Nearly all that Dulcie picked went into her mouth, which ended up a purplish-red, accentuating and covering the natural lavender that they were. Midna started out by plucking the individual berries by hand, but quickly grew impatient at the agonizingly slow process and instead used her magic to shake the bushes. She scooped up what fell and made a bowl out of her skirt. It didn't really matter that there were green berries and bits of leaves and dirt mixed in, did it?
Link had a small collection of fish that was steadily growing by the time they returned. He made quick work of gutting them, a process which Dulcie watched with some interest, but with her nose wrinkled almost the entire time. Midna rubbed her hands together, letting the sparks of her magic kindle some twigs. Link piled on some bigger pieces of fuel and began roasting his haul. The little girl observed everything with keen interest and many questions.
"Why do you have to cook them?" she asked innocently. "We eat fish raw sometimes at home."
"That's true," he agreed. "But, you see, when you're out camping in the woods, or having a sort of impromptu picnic like we are, you're supposed to cook the fish. It's part of the fun."
Some of the flaky white flesh of the fish fell into the fire, but there was more than enough left for the little family to enjoy. When they were finished, they all had slightly scorched fingers, but their bellies were satisfied. For dessert, they polished off the berries Midna had…gathered. Link discreetly picked out the unpalatable bits and ate only the ripe morsels, but she noticed anyway and gave him a look. The Twili ruler ate almost as much as her husband and daughter combined.
The sun set while they feasted. Dulcie exclaimed many times over the color which spread over the sky, transforming it into something akin to the world she already knew. Her parents told her that next time they would have go to a mountaintop or some other place with a great view so they could really see the full beauty of the sunset. Dulcie wanted to go right away, but Midna said she had to eat her dinner before it spoiled, or before something else came along to steal it.
Then darkness fell, and the little girl was worried that something was wrong, as it never got quite that dark in the Twilight Realm. She stared up at the sky and when she glimpsed the stars beginning to wink, her brows furrowed. She pointed up and asked in a quiet, worried sort of tone, "What's happening?"
Link put his arm around her, gazed into her eyes and then up at the heavens. "It's what happens every day, Duskie. The sun goes down and for a while it is dark. It's called night. Then in the morning the sun comes up again and a new day has begun." He sounded excited, as though he was thinking of all the things of his world that he could show his little daughter.
"Oh," she said, still a bit uncertain. She bit at her lip.
"The moon is out already," Midna said, gesturing to the waxing crescent which shone through some of the tree branches.
Dulcie tilted her head upward again and was soon enraptured with that pure white heavenly body so new to her. How different it all was from the twilight she knew! The skies were always the same calm colors at home; though they had clocks and kept to a regular sort of schedule, there was no day, no night. How strange and exciting everything was in her father's world!
The fireflies had come out with the setting of the sun, their glows seeming all the brighter because of the darkness. Dulcie began to chase them and eventually caught one, holding it in her carefully cupped hands so she could show her parents. It escaped from her before she'd yet finished exulting over it; she frowned, but then noticed some of the firefly's glow was still on her pale, blue-gray hands. Holding up her fingers, she grinned and exhibited them for her parents.
Link grinned at her. "We used to do that all the time back in Ordon."
He darted out and caught two of them in his left hand, cradling them gently as he watched their pulsing glow and remembered times past. Then he opened his fist and let them free. He returned to his wife and took up her hand, clasping it firmly. With smiles catching at their lips, they sat at the foot of a great tree and watched their daughter jump around after the glowing insects.
"You know, I'm glad she followed us," he murmured aside to Midna. "She seems to like this world as much as our home, doesn't she?"
The Twili ruler gave a rueful little chuckle. "She likes it better than I did. I suppose that's because she has you as her father." She bumped him with her shoulder and then put her head against his.
"There's so much to show her! Everyone in Ordon knows we have a child, but since we didn't want to bring her into the light too soon…"
"I guess we'll have to see them next time. You'll be anxious for that, I suppose," Midna said with a resigned sigh. She wasn't really impatient, however, but merely did that to tease him. "And it's been a while since we paid our respects to Zelda."
"Dulcie probably doesn't remember that one visit the queen made to the twilight," Link rambled on. "Oh, and she'll love seeing the other tribes, too. I shall have to take her riding on Epona. And we should show her all the different places in Hyrule: Snowpeak, Lake Hylia, Death Mountain, the fields, the villages… What?" He paused when he noticed his wife staring at him peculiarly.
Midna's eyes shifted to their leaping little girl, then back to her hero husband. "Oh, I was just thinking that Dulcie gets that same look on her face when she's excited."
"She gets mad just like you do too," he returned, a chuckle in his throat. "She doesn't get red in the face like my people do, but her hair seems to come alive, just like yours does."
"And she has your eyes," she said, giving him a jab with her elbow. "I never appreciated the sky until I fell under the spell of your light dweller eyes."
"She has your lips," he whispered, cupping his hand along her jawline.
He leaned over and kissed his wife deeply and Midna returned his affection. As on many occasions before, they were alone in the forest, except this time for their daughter. Dulcie wasn't even looking their way.
Pulling back, Link kept his cobalt gaze locked with her fiery one. "Do you think we should tell her yet?"
"…Not yet," she replied. "She's too excited about everything she's seen here. It would be better another time."
"Tomorrow then."
She giggled. "All right, if you insist."
He grinned too. "She'll be as excited as I am, you'll see."
Midna rested her slender fingers gently on her belly and Link placed his hand over hers.
Dulcie chased the fireflies for a little while longer, until she had difficultly in keeping her eyes open. She wanted to stay awake forever, so she could see everything that happened in the world that was hers too, but her young body could not keep up for very long. She tripped over a rock and went down on her knees, but she was too tired to cry more than a few exhausted tears. Before she could get to her feet again, her parents approached her and her father scooped her up.
"It's past time for bed, Duskie," he said, wrapping her in his strong arms.
"But…I don't want…to… I want to…see everything…" she mumbled, yawning copiously.
Resting her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes for just a second. She muttered something more, and moments later she was well on her way to the land of dreams.
"Time to go home," he murmured, using his free hand to smooth her hair away from her face. "But we'll be back…"
Her parents both looked down on her, and then glanced up at each other, smiling faintly. Midna picked up the little girl's bouquet which had lain forgotten on the ground, placing it between her daughter's hands. Then, with a snap of her fingers, she warped them to the mirror chamber and from there they returned to the twilight.