Hylia Academy Chapter 16

Instructions

"Are you cold?" Zelda asked, glancing at the water dripping from Link's hair. He chuckled, shaking his head and spraying droplets everywhere. Zelda grinned and shyed away as the freezing rain hit her. It was a warm night, but here on top of the waterfall a slight breeze was blowing, accenting the cold. The rest of the partygoers were gathered below, drinking Nightbrew and laughing. Well, all except Sidon and Yona. The pair of Zora had subtly slipped away to a small outcropping of rock about halfway up the waterfall cliff. It was well shielded from the rest of the group, so Link and Zelda had climbed to their spot atop the cliff to "Secretly supervise," as Link called it. Zelda was pretty sure he just wanted to have a good view of what would hopefully unfold. "Nah, not really," Link said, snapping her out of her reverie. "It's pretty warm tonight." "Yeah, but that water's freezing," Zelda said. "Well, yeah, but you warm up after a while, I guess." He shrugged, then leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and peering down at the couple below. "Wish they would get to the action already," He said."We've been here what, ten minutes now?" Zelda laughed. "Not exactly the patient type, are you?" She said. He huffed and leaned back. She glanced down at the two zora. As far as she could tell, they'd been conversing easily since arriving. With any luck, this could be the moment she and Link had been building towards for weeks. She leaned back with a sigh, letting her head rest against the soft grass and folding her hands over her chest. A thousand stars shone in the night sky above her, twinkling and dancing across the cosmos. "The sky sure is beautiful out here." She said, tracing the various pinprivks of light with her eyes. "We don't really get the stars in Capitol; it's too bright. Link chuckled, folding his hands behind his head and lying down to her right. "You know, you really should come to Kahkariko sometime," He said. " The starscape there is stunning. This is actually a pretty small amount for a moonless night." "Really?" Zelda asked, gazing at the vast expanse of lights above her. How could this be a small amount? There had to be thousands of tiny stars, scattered from horizon to horizon. "Yeah," Link said. "The light from the school kills a lot of the fainter constellations, and we actually get a surprising amount of skyglow from the big cities up North, even this far out." "I can't imagine what it must look like for you guys. I mean, if this is a small amount, then you must get the entire sky." "Yeah, we do." Zelda pushed herself onto one elbow. "Seriously?" Link grinned. "Yeah, on a moonless night, horizon to horizon will be completely aglow with stars. The constellations become so clear they seem to move, and you can even see the Great River stretching across the sky." "Sounds incredible," Zelda said, lying back down and staring up at the beauty above her. It was incredible that such beauty could exist in the world. "You see that bright star right there, a little to our left?" Link said, pointing to a particularly bright point. "Yeah." "Ok, draw an imaginary line going straight down until you hit a reddish star," He said, tracing his finger across the sky. Zelda tracked the movement with her eyes, following the invisible trails, as he continued, "Now draw another line diagonally to the right until you find a big cluster." "Ok," She said, holding the image in her head. "See how it makes an oblong triangle?" Link asked. She nodded; the way the three stars lined up did kind of make a weird triangle. "Alright, now follow my finger down until you see a boxy shape, with another triangle shooting off the left side." Zelda pursed her lips as she formed the shapes in her mind. "Ok I see it." "That's Majorn The Lynx. It's one of the five major constellations, and probably the easiest to see because it's so bright." "Huh, cool," Zelda cocked her head, picturing the image of a lynx from the motionless points of light. "Do you know any other constellations?" Link propped himself up on one elbow and grinned. "I know them all." "The sky sure is beautiful tonight," Yona said, looking up at the stars. Countless pinpricks of beauty speckled the blackness, dancing and twinkling in the lost light. Sidon didn't even look up, keeping his eyes on the girl beside him. "It's not the only thing that's beautiful." He said. Yona blushed, looking away, but he tilted his head, catching her eye. "You know, I'm glad we got to come here," He said. His pulse pounded in his chest, but for some reason, he felt perfectly calm. Maybe it was because he'd been bursting to say this for weeks, or maybe it was the way the starlight glinted off her eyes, but whatever it was, all the words he'd been storing up inside seemed to flow from his lips, pouring out effortlessly.