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Carried by the Wind

The wind brings with it an overwhelming array of scents, buffeting any lone travellers with the fresh, salty sea air and the cry of a few lone seagulls. Not far off from the beach’s shore, appear splotches of hazy red here and there, undoubtedly signalling that the villagers are off to rest their weary heads. Yet one figure remains wide awake, her ocean blue eyes glinting in the bright moonlight as she stealthily manoeuvres in and out of the water. She remains steady and silent as she propels herself, only ever coming up for a brief rest before once more, returning to her soundless business.

Soon, another pair of blue eyes emerge from the darkness, however, these pair belong to a figure that clumsily clunks to and fro. He moves through the night with a tenacious grip on his weapon and shield, a few indignant huahs! uttered under his breath as yet another stone trips him over. It’s no surprise that it doesn’t take long for the two to notice each other, their blue eyes gazing into one another’s.

“I didn’t expect to see anyone else awake,” Link whispers.

“My name is Reena,” she replies with a smile. “And it seems that I am more accustomed to the night than you are.”

Though the village is far off, the two talk in a hushed fashion, heads close as they exchange words. While Link’s face bears little expression, his eyes tell a different story. They glint with compassion as he learns of her washing up on Lurelin’s shoreline, of empathy as she mentions recalling no memory of her childhood, and strongly of curiosity as she holds up a bright, glowing fish.

“These are Dusk Trout that, as you would expect, only dare make an appearance at night. They’re quite like another sort of trout you can find in Hyrule, or so I have heard.”

At the sound of her words, a vivid image of Stealthfin Trout appears in Link’s mind.

“But what really set these two kinds of trout apart, is that these can grant you temporary night vision,” she pauses to glance at Link sympathetically, no doubt his earlier commotion appearing within her mind. “Would you like to taste one?”

She unwraps a freshly cooked trout and Link stares at it silently. Though it has been cooked, and rather generously at that, it still glows with the unearthly, turquoise colour that it had earlier. With a small smile, he quickly wolfs down the fish and before he knows it, the world around him seems to be glowing with the same haze the fish had. Not only is the world all the brighter, but so much more well-defined. He can gaze upon the near palm trees, and both distinguish their large shape and fully make out each singular leaf. Even Lurelin Village seems to be absolutely beaming with brightness, especially with its lit torches. Though he does note, his eyes seem to ache if he stares at it for too long.

“It takes a while to get used to,” Reena continues. “But it’s funny, Dusk Trout seem to only appear at night. Their bright glow makes them easy to catch, if only they appeared during the day, it would make things much more challenging.”

“Challenging?” Link ponders, his eyes now better adjusted.

“Yes, they’re unfortunately no challenge to catch anymore. It can make things a little boring… perhaps, we should have a little race at catching them? They never swim too deep. Have you caught fish before?”

“Yes,” Link replies straight away, images of himself hurriedly pouncing after and snatching fish popping up in his brain. Though his technique may be unique, it does indeed reap results.

“Alright then, Link. On the count of three,” she grins determinedly. “One… two… three!”

And with that, Reena spectacularly twirls through the air and plunges into the nearby pool of water. Link hurriedly follows and pulls off his own well-formed dive, gracefully entering.

He soon finds that his spectacular vision has improved underwater as well. The water around him, accompanied by the bright moonlight, is filled with vivid splotches of light greens and hazy blues. It reminds him much of the aurora borealis he had the pleasure of experiencing in Hebra, however, there is no time to spend admiring it now.

Reena moves swiftly through the water, turning sharply yet elegantly, as she snatches up a couple of Dusk Trout in her beak. Before Link knows it, the pool of fish gets smaller and smaller, so he lunges forward to begin. Although, as soon as he begins to propel himself, he realises that his tunic begins to fill with water, the clothing proving to be a poor choice for underwater exploration. As he continues to surge forward, one Dusk Trout with some rather unfortunate luck gets clogged in there.

With a grin, Link knows what he must do. A quick glance to the surface shows Reena still unloading her previous catch. With an open body of water and quite a few trout left, he swerves and stretches his tunic out as far as the seams will let him. The tunic, its mouth wide open, swallows a bundle of trout till there is simply none left, and leaves Link eagerly scrambling for the surface.

As he heaves himself over and hordes of trout come tumbling out, Reena can’t help but wear a look of complete amazement.

“But… how… how did you manage to grab so many, let alone carry them all to the surface?” she gasps in bewilderment.

He only lets a small smile appear on his face, replying “practice.”

After a few minutes of counting, they find that Reena has caught fourteen fish during their tournament, while Link has found fifteen. Though Reena still stares at Link in amazement, she happily celebrates his victory.

“No one has ever gotten close to reaching my numbers, let alone beating them!” she exclaims. “You must be a true hero among fishers!”

“Haha, yeah, something like that,” Link chuckles lightly, gazing at her unsuspecting face.

“I must insist that you keep both mine and your catches, it is only fair after such a match,” she ushers, pushing them towards him.

“Oh, no no, it’s fine,” Link waves his hands hurriedly. “Showing me this rare type of trout was already a gift enough!”

But Reena doesn’t buy his politeness and continues to press.

“You’re a traveller, aren’t you? Then this fish will come in handy for the nights ahead. Besides, I’m not letting you leave until you at least take your share.”

Link thanks her kindly and begins to load in the trout, packing as many as he can in his adventure pouches. Though his pouches are seemingly endless, he finds that he can only pack in a bit more than half of the trout he caught, causing Reena to cave and accept the rest.

“This has got to be the most I’ve ever caught in one go for the villagers, thank you!”

“Oh, you catch these for the villagers? What about for yourself?” Link ponders.

“It’s quite alright, I don’t have much need for them since my eyesight is well adjusted to the night,” she nods. “Plus, I would much rather have some Mighty Porgy!”

“I’ll help you get these back then,” he insists.

“Oh, thanks! It’ll help to have someone hold them.”

“Hold them?” he questions.

Reena only trudges down the slope, both her and Link’s hands full as they pad onwards, closer to the shoreline. Once they arrive, she hops onto a small, yet well-polished boat-like raft, much similar to the rafts Link has used earlier. However, this one is clearly built to catch the wind’s gale, housing a large sail and a small bottom.

“Hop on and hold on to the mast!” Reena proclaims. “We’ll arrive at Lurelin Village in no time.”

Link wordlessly steps on, arms still bulging with Dusk Trout as Reena pushes off. The wind carries them both forward with a lurch and sweeps them towards the open ocean. With the great cry of seagulls and the booming roar of the waves, it is as if they have now entered a completely different world. The sky, also celebrating their successful catch, has painted itself a fuchsia pink and royal purple. With such a time at hand, Link and Reena, though they do not know it, cannot help but let a thought linger in their minds as all their anxieties melt away.

Maybe everything truly will be okay.