What happens if the scholar...is a singer?
"All right. Find Thana. Find the babies." Kafei paced back and forth, questioning his allegiances by now. "I'm the scholar. I'm the scientist.
I'm a Nocturne. I should know what to do." He could already hear the whispers from his reoccurring nightmares.
BrotherBrotherBrotherBrotherBrother.
ComeBackComeBackComeBackComeBack.
LeaveHerLeaveHerLeaveHerLeaveHerLeaveHer.
He had heard the whispers before. Every night, before he went to sleep, they called him. But he never answered. But now he had to.
"Never! You will never tear me away from my clan and my dearest Anju!" he shouted at the darkness.
ReallyReallyReallyReallyReally? asked the whispers.
"For unlike you, I know how to love. And I know who to love."
LoveIsntRealLoveIsntRealLoveIsntReal, said the whispers.
"Yes it is! Nothing you say will tell me otherwise!"
TraitorTraitorTraitorTraitorTraitor...
"Traitor!" came a voice from the whispers. Female. Familiar. Beloved.
Anju. Or was it those mimicking voices?
"I thought you would love me forever! You promised! As sure as this ribbon is tied around my arm, you said. But there you go again, off with those...those...shadowy ne'er-do-well dragons!"
"I know who you are. You are nothing but a nightmare, a voice trying to pull me away! I don't want to end up like Thana, you understand?" The vines were growing stronger, tighter.
"All you want to do is go off into the shadows, leaving me for naught. Goodbye forever." A black ribbon fell in front of him, transmuting itself into a black spiny vine. They were choking him, ripping into his flesh with their thorns, wrapping around his neck as the words echoed in his mind.
GoodbyeGoodbyeGoodbyeGoodbyeGoodbye.
"No! Come back! I—
gaaaaack!"
Then silence.
---
"Rise and shine, sleepyhead! You must have been hurt hard."
Kafei groaned and stretched a little, and then noticed who had woken him up. She was smiling at him, wiping away the old blood, pulling out thorns.
"Mornin', Anju." He couldn't help but smile as he got to his feet, brushing away the tangled and scorched vines. It was so nice to be awoken by his dear wife and not by nightmares for once. How she knew he was up at the Astral Observatory, he didn't know. He never told her.
"I made you a nice cup of tea to warm you up and get you going," she told him.
"No tea, thanks. I have something to get to. I have to go find these nocturne hatchlings and save Sornieth. And possibly Termina."
"Nocturne hatchlings?" Anju's eyes lit up. "That is
sooooo cute! I love their little horns!" She paused. "Did I ever tell you how cute you were when you were turned into a hatchling?"
He laughed and, noticing the cup of tea, took a sip. "You can come with if you want, sweetie."
"I'll be with you every step of the way."
"Did someone say side quest?" With a crash, Link fell through the roof. After watching the apocalypse happen at least twice, the Mirror had loosened up a lot. Now he was that rambunctious, daring teenage dragon who would crash through the nearest wall or ceiling at the very mention of an epic quest.
"Yes, there's a quest, but you're not coming with us," said Kafei with a sigh. "And you're going to have to pay for that hole in the roof."
"AWESOME!" Link exclaimed, knocking the saucer off the table it was sitting on. "And I get to do it with you guys! And look, I even have my hero markings!" He gestured to the grey smirches on his face and wings.
"Let's just take him with us, honey." Anju coiled her tail around her husband comfortingly. "I just love to see him happy."
"All right," sighed the purple nocturne, annoyed with the young mirror. With that, they took off into the pale, chilly dawn, with Link singing "500 Miles" as loud as he could, and the others grinning and bearing it.