diamond skill

"Where'd you get that choker, Linkle?"

Linkle looked down, frowned. "I'm not sure...it's not special like my compass, but I might have gotten it from my grandma anyway."

Ah, grandmas, givers of soup and soliloquys. Bastions of wisdom and safety and strange wellsprings of courage for times when you'd never come near a level of self-belief to match the confidence they had in you; makers of the most elaborate and twee handmade outfits that you treasured even when you'd long outgrown them, physically and mentally; great gardeners and cooks and writers and businesswomen, though from the sound of their past occupations you might never have known it; source of all smiles and someone to swear your journey on, to come home to.

Fiora had never had a grandmother because she'd basically never had a mother, aside from Dunban. And she hadn't been lawless, exactly, but she hadn't been nurtured by a watering can held in age-spotted hands, either, and maybe it showed, because Fiora believed herself capable of a great many things, but not quite destined for any one in particular.

So she shrugged, grateful for the offering of noncommital energy from the matriarch-bearing set. "Wherever it was, it's lovely - really compliments your eyes."

Linkle beamed, hiding her eyes but showing her dimples. "Thanks! What about you?"

"Me?" What about...her eyes? About...no, Fiora was completely blanking. "Huh?"

"Your choker, silly! It's really pretty, even if it doesn't match your eyes."

With a start, Fiora looked down - yes, there it was. "I dunno either. Guess I've just always had it."

"Then it's sentimental just the way it is. Sounds good to me!"

In all of Bionis and Mechonis, Fiora had never met someone with so infectious a giggle as Linkle's, and she let herself relax into it. No, the Hylian girl wasn't very serious, but she didn't need to be. She was determined, supportive, and had a killer aim despite not always knowing her left from her right.

Her world seemed to be so much less...complicated. It wasn't that the leaders of Hyrule didn't care about each other's feelings, more that there was need to worry about all that. The threat of evil was immediate, and all hands had to be put to the fire at all times.

Of course Linkle was always pressing on, and on, and on.

Fiora reached out for Linkle's hands, and found them easily. "I'll think of you whenever I wear it, from now on."

"Haha, I like the sound of that!" Not just a limp accepting grasp, but an enthusiastic squeeze. "But Fiora, don't you always wear it?"

Now it was Fiora's turn to giggle. "I sure do! It'll be like my secret little stat boost."