The Hero's Milky Way

The sun was setting over Termina, casting long shadows across the ranch. Cremia wiped the sweat from her brow, leaning against the wooden fence of the corral.

"Another day, another rupee," she sighed, watching her younger sister Romani chase the last of the ranch's cows toward the barn.

"Big sister! Big sister!" Romani called out, running toward her with a grin. "I got them all in! Can I have a bottle of milk now?"

Cremia smiled weakly. "After we've finished feeding them, little one. You know the routine."

The routine had been their salvation for the past month, ever since the moon had nearly fallen from the sky. And ever since that green-clad boy had vanished from their lives.

"Remember that day, Cremia?" Romani asked, sitting beside her sister on the fence. "When he left us?"

Cremia's expression softened. "Of course I remember, Romani. It's hard to forget someone who saved the entire ranch from aliens."

Romani giggled. "And he taught me that special shooting trick with my bow! I can still do it, you know."

"I'm sure you can," Cremia said, though her mind was elsewhere. On that final night, when the world had been safe once more, when they had celebrated in their own small way...

"He was quite the hero, wasn't he?" Romani continued, kicking her feet against the fence. "I wonder where he is now."

"Probably saving some other land from some other disaster," Cremia replied, a note of bitterness in her voice that she quickly tried to hide.

"Big sister," Romani said softly, "are you feeling alright? You've been... different lately."

Cremia forced a smile. "Just tired from the morning chores. Nothing more."

But both sisters knew it wasn't just the chores. There was a certain... heaviness that had settled over them in the weeks following Link's departure. A queasiness in the mornings, a sudden craving for milk, a tenderness in their breasts that had nothing to do with their usual ranch work.

"I've been feeling strange too," Romani admitted, looking down at her stomach. "I keep thinking I'm getting fat, but my clothes are tight in all the wrong places."

Cremia's hand unconsciously went to her own abdomen. "It's probably just all the milk we've been drinking. The cows are producing extra lately."

Romani nodded, though she didn't seem convinced. "Do you think... do you think he'll ever come back?"

"I doubt it," Cremia said, perhaps too quickly. "Heroes like him don't stay in one place for long. They have too many worlds to save."

"Still," Romani sighed, "I miss him."

Cremia didn't reply, but her expression said enough. They both missed him, though perhaps for different reasons than either was willing to admit.

The next morning found Cremia kneeling by the side of the barn, retching into the bushes. Romani rushed to her side, holding back her sister's hair.

"Big sister! Are you sick?"

"I don't know," Cremia gasped, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "This has been happening every morning for the past week."

Romani's eyes widened. "Me too! I thought it was just something I ate."

Both sisters stared at each other as a realization began to dawn. A realization neither wanted to face.

"No," Cremia whispered. "It can't be."

"But the timing..." Romani said, her voice trembling. "It's been exactly a month since..."

They didn't need to finish the sentence. The memory was clear in both their minds: that night of celebration, when the moon no longer threatened to crush them all, when relief and joy had given way to something more...

"He was just a boy," Cremia said, though her protest sounded weak even to her own ears.

"A very... mature boy," Romani countered, blushing slightly.

Cremia stood up, brushing dirt from her knees. "We can't know for sure. Not without..."

Without speaking further, both sisters made their way to the small clinic in Clock Town. The doctor was an elderly man who squinted at them over his spectacles.

"Let me guess," he said after examining them both. "Too much celebration after the moon festival?"

Cremia and Romani exchanged nervous glances.

"I see," the doctor continued, making notes on his chart. "Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you're both perfectly healthy."

"And the bad news?" Romani asked, her voice barely a whisper.

The doctor looked at them over his spectacles again. "You're both going to be mothers. Congratulations."

The sisters stared at him in disbelief.

"But... how?" Cremia stammered. "We're both..."

"Quite pregnant," the doctor finished. "About a month along, by my estimation."

Romani burst into tears. Cremia stood frozen, her mind racing.

"Is there... is there anything we can do?" Cremia asked quietly.

The doctor shrugged. "You could have the babies, or you could try other methods. But I'd advise you to think carefully. Children are a blessing, even when they come unexpectedly."

The walk back to the ranch was silent. Neither sister knew what to say, how to process the news that would change their lives forever.

"What are we going to do?" Romani finally asked, as they reached their familiar barn.

Cremia looked at the ranch that had been their family's legacy for generations. At the cows that provided their livelihood, at the house that held their memories, at the sky that had almost been their tomb.

"We'll manage," she said, though her voice trembled slightly. "We always do."

Romani nodded, wiping away her tears. "But... what will people say?"

"They'll say what they always say," Cremia replied, her voice growing stronger. "They'll gossip, they'll judge, and then they'll move on to the next scandal. We'll be fine."

"But the babies..." Romani whispered, placing a hand on her stomach.

"The babies will be ours," Cremia said firmly. "And we'll love them, no matter how they came to be."

Romani managed a small smile. "They'll have green eyes, don't you think?"

Cremia laughed, a real laugh this time. "Probably. And they'll probably be born with a sword in their hand, ready to save the world."

As the sun set over Termina, casting its golden light across the ranch, the sisters stood together in silence. Their lives had changed in ways they never could have imagined, but somehow, standing there, with the promise of new life growing within them, they felt a strange sense of peace.

"He did help us, after all," Romani said softly.

Cremia nodded, looking up at the sky where the moon no longer threatened to fall. "Yes, little one. He helped us in more ways than he'll ever know."

And with that, they returned to their chores, to their lives, to the unexpected future that awaited them both. After all, in a land where moons could fall and rise again, where heroes came and went like the seasons, what was one more miracle?