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"Ow!"
Link hissed as Midna looped the bandage tightly around his upper arm.
"Well then, maybe you shouldn't have let yourself get nicked by that arrow," Midna scolded. After deeming that the welt was wrapped well enough, she tied the dressing off firmly, eliciting another wince from the hero.
"I'm sorry that I didn't dodge out of the way fast enough then," he sneered.
She huffed. "You shouldn't have forgotten to stock up on potions either. I told you that you'd used your last one after you fought that giant eel, but did you listen to me? No!"
"Well, I'm sorry about that, too," he grumbled. "And your bedside manner sucks, by the way."
Midna gave him a look and pointed to the mountainous region behind them. "Kakariko Village is a fifteen minute walk that way."
Link groaned. "No, that's okay," he said. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure? You were complaining not twenty seconds ago."
He thought about the sad, worried faces of the kids, and the Disappointment that would undoubtably be on Renado's face, and firmly nodded. "Yep. It was just a graze. I don't want to bother them with something so small."
"If you insist." The little imp just rolled her eyes at him. She stretched. "You should have listened to me when I told you to use your wolf form, too. Not only would we have gotten away faster, but we would have been able to use the energy field and get rid of them all just like that." Midna snapped her fingers in emphasis.
Link looked away from her, turning his gaze towards Hyrule Castle, shrouded in a golden barrier, in the distance.
"What's wrong?" Midna glided over and sank down in front of him. The irritation had faded from her expression.
He sighed. "I'm not sure how comfortable I am being a wolf."
"Is this about what happened last time we warped to Kakariko?"
He nodded. "Yeah, and the way Rusl and everyone acted in Ordon, too, right after I was first transformed." He began to pick at the grass with his fingers. "People are scared of me, as a wolf. They think I'm a monster."
"And a part of you is worried that they're right?" she asked casually, ever perceptive.
Sometimes Link wondered how she'd figured him out so well in the few months they'd spent together. She just got him. "Yeah."
Midna rose and placed her hands gently on his shoulders, conscious of his wounded arm, and looked directly at him. "Well, you're not."
"And how can you be so sure?"
She rolled her eyes again and huffed. "Because I know you, dummy. You're always running headfirst into danger, damn the consequences. Even if it's for a stupid bug for a little girl playing at being the 'princess of the insect kingdom.'"
"Hey, bugs are cool! And that grasshopper was worth it!"
"Worth the battle wound you were just whining about?"
"Yes!"
The imp shook her head. "Sometimes I wonder about your priorities." She nudged him. "Anyway, you're not a monster. How could a big, fluffy dog like you hurt anyone? You're an absolute sweetheart as a wolf. You even do that kick thing with your back leg whenever I scratch you behind the ear in just the right spot."
Link blushed. "That's...! You...!"
"And speaking of bug girl, she's not afraid of you either. And neither is that weird lantern guy living in the woods."
"But I'm still capable of doing harm!" he protested. "All those shadow creatures and bokoblins I've ripped apart..."
"Hey," she told him. "Look at me." He met her bright red eye with his fierce blue ones. "You're just as capable of doing harm in your human form. In fact, you do so on a regular basis. What was it you were just doing before I had to patch you up?" She tapped her chin in mock contemplation.
"Fighting bulblins," he immediately responded. Then he sighed after he realized what he'd said. "Okay," he conceded. "I guess you are right about that."
"Of course I am," she said, haughtily. But then she leaned in closer, a small smile on her face. "Seriously though. You may be a beast, in battle and sometimes literally, but you only do so to protect those you love. You are not a monster."
He looked at her and found himself unable to argue with the unwavering expression on her face.
"And besides," she continued. She'd pulled back and had started inspecting her nails. "Real monsters act like it. All you've done has been to save and protect those you care about. Honestly, if we're looking at it that way, I'm more of a monster than you are."
Immediately, Link was ready to protest. "No you're not," he said before he could think.
"And how can I not be?" she countered. "From the beginning, I manipulated you into working with me. I made you steal from your village. I taunted you and insulted you when you weren't performing to my expectations, even when you were in a new, unfamiliar body." This time, she was the one to turn away from him. "How is acting that way not acting as a monster?"
Link was speechless. He hadn't thought much about their early days together in a while, at least not in that way. It had just been one thing after another throughout their journey, and he'd been too overwhelmed with his part in everything, and how unsettled and uncomfortable he was as a wolf.
"You're right," he said. Midna snapped to look at him, eye wide. He raised his hands. "Not about you being a monster, but about how you weren't... the nicest person when we first met." He raised his uninjured arm and gently held Midna's upper arm. "But you were never truly monstrous. Sure, you were callous, especially in the beginning. But a monster wouldn't have bothered to tell me what was going on - wouldn't have told me about Zant. A monster wouldn't have given me so much advice on monsters and where to go next." He shushed her before she could protest. "And don't say you only did it for your own ends - you didn't have to tell me as much stuff as you did.
He continued. "A monster wouldn't force me to sit in the spirit spring whenever we'd visit Kakariko, just to make sure I was refreshed after the trek there. A monster wouldn't have tried to stop Zant's curse and then protect me from him, even when it almost cost them their life.
"And a monster wouldn't have sought out a way to break said curse, or tear up when the Princess of Hyrule sacrificed everything to save their life," he finished.
Midna looked shocked. "Link,,." she trailed off. She seemed at a loss for words.
"You may have made some mistakes and acted unkindly, but you've never been truly cruel." he said. "You were just a stranger in a strange land and you wanted to keep it that way - you wanted to keep your distance." And she was still doing that, a little, but not nearly as much as before. "But regardless of all of that, that's all in the past. And you've changed as I've known you." He slid his hand down to enterwine her fingers with his. "And isn't that all that truly matters, in the end?"
She raised her other hand to scratch at a shiny looking ruby eye. "You're the kindest person I've ever met, Link," she said quietly. "This world - no world - deserves you."
"So are you," he protested. "You're also kind. That's why you tried so hard to hide it. And to push it down where no one could see it."
"You don't know everything, Link," she said, staring down at the grass. "You don't even know the half of it."
"I know," he told her. "And that's okay. I don't need to know everything about you to be friends with you - to care about you. And I know you'll tell me when you're ready."
She smiled at him. "Friends, huh? And you're so sure about all this." She paused, considering something. "Maybe I will tell you. Not all at once, and not right now. But maybe after we figure out where the mirror is... maybe then I'll talk about some of it."
"I'd like that," he said.
She snorted. "You would. Maybe then you'll change your mind on whether I'm a monster or not."
"Impossible," he told her.
"We'll see," she retorted. Midna looked up at the sky. "It's starting to get late. Let's stay in Kakariko tonight and warp over to Castle Town tomorrow. You can grab some potions from that little Goron's shop once it gets dark enough." She tugged on the shoulder of his tunic. "Pull your shirt down if you really don't want that shaman to see it, and let's get going."
"Yes ma'am," he said, standing up and stretching carefully. "You're not gonna teleport me?"
She flicked his uninjured arm. "It's a fifteen minute walk." She grinned at him mischievously. "Unless you don't think you can handle it?"
"Nah, I think I'm good to go," he replied, matching her grin. "Let's go then."
And she dove into his shadow, giggling, as he set off towards the village.
Later, on the other side of the kingdom in a desert at world's end, Midna tells Link the story of her ancestors and their transgressions.
"Still not a monster," he declares. "That was them. You're you."
"Nothing I ever say is going to change your mind, is it?" she asks, even though she already knows the answer.
"Nope." He grins at her.
She smiles back.