Chapter Text
I deemed it best to start with Wild, he is the one I know best after all. He's the love of my life, my saviour, the guy who eats all my food and has set fire to, or otherwise blown up three of my experiments. Three of them.
That little guardian robot had it coming
Please don't write in my notes Link. Your handwriting is terrible.
As his new nickname suggests, he’s a bit, well, wild. I don’t think I’ve ever met such a carefree, reckless and impulsive man in my life, and yet somehow, he’s extremely charming and thoughtful, and a complete genius when it comes to the battlefield. I’ve personally seen him eat rocks and fall off cliffs chasing birds, and yet he has a strategic mind unlike any I’ve ever seen, and is the most skilled warrior I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. Although I’ve yet to see him compared to the rest of The Chain, an excellent name for them I might add. It’s hard to write an accurate summary of his personality and deeds without being extremely biased, but I’ll try my best. He’s quiet yet not at all reserved, preferring to communicate via action and expression rather than words, although if you catch him in a good mood, he doesn’t shut up. He’s fluent in Hylian sign language, having used it frequently during his time as a knight, and has been learning how to play the concertina from one of our dear friends, Kass.
He’s also much less….rigid, than I am when it comes to his self expression and who he chooses to have a relationship with, stating that he doesn’t really care what gender or sex someone is, as long as he finds them attractive. He also cares not for what clothes he wears, choosing whatever he finds comfortable and feels he looks nice in, and not limiting himself to what a typical man would wear. This took me by surprise at first, when I first saw him quietly humming to himself in our kitchen wearing a sundress and painted nails, as I was raised to be much more conservative than that, but times have changed, and who am I to judge what one wishes to wear. Plus he looks damn good in that dress.
One would assume that his skill and knowledge comes from his background as a knight, but if I’m being completely honest, I don’t know all that much about his background. Not for a lack of trying of course, he just doesn’t seem all that eager to discuss his past, whether that be because he doesn’t remember his past, or if he just doesn’t want to relive it, I can’t be sure. But I’ll go over what I do know.
He was born and raised in Hateno, without a mother, I don’t know why. His father was an ex knight who died when Link was in his teenage years, and I think he had a younger sister. He was the youngest person to ever become a knight of the Hyrulean Royal Army, I believe due to his father passing, but I can’t be certain about that, as it’s just as likely it was due to his skill with a longsword. It’s unfortunate that I don’t know more about his history, yet I have no one but myself to blame. When we first met and travelled together as princess and appointed knight, I wasn’t exactly good to him. I was arrogant and selfish, and made some very rash decisions that led to a lot of animosity between us, and as such, I never got to know him as well as I could have.
I won’t harp on too much about the calamity, it’s a story I’ve told and written down countless times, and if I’m being completely honest, I don’t wish to write about it at this current moment. If you’re reading these notes in the future, wishing to glean some information about the calamity, you can turn to the other notes and papers I’ve written, or simply read any of the other accounts from the many other victims who survived through it all. Or just ask Sidon if he’s still around.
When the calamity struck, there was nothing we could do. We were outsmarted and outmatched. Link and I tried to fight but there was nothing that could be done, so we ran. I’ve always wondered why Link made that decision. He always followed orders, and swore an oath to defend not only me, but the royal family and Hyrule as a whole, and yet in that moment, he grabbed my hand, and we turned, and we ran.
Of course it’s not like running ended very well for us, as we were soon caught at Fort Hateno. Link tried to fight, it’s what he’s good at after all, but what can you do against numbers like those. He defended us well, but a guardian cornered us, and we had both reached the end of our ropes. Link lost both his left arm, and his life in the blast. Sealing powers awakened and blah blah blah Link wakes up 100 years later, missing all his memories, and rather importantly, an arm. And as such, something had to be done about that, as I believe it was Impa who first pointed out, very wisely in fact, that Wild could hardly face the very manifestation of evil and malice with only one arm.
I actually don’t know how his prosthetic arm was created, other than it was created by Robbie and it took about three months of trial and error to perfect it. That was three months of Wild’s journey spent fighting and surviving with only one arm, and he somehow took down one of Ganon’s blights during those three months. Must’ve been quite the fight. Over the five or so years since he got the arm, he and Robbie have made countless modifications and upgrades to it, including but not limited to; an ancient sheikah shield attached to the forearm, claws that function similar to ancient weapons, and his most recent addition, a dart launcher embedded into the back of the hand, although I have not heard good things about that one. If I’m being quite honest, that arm is a marvel of sheikah engineering that will most likely continue to improve as Wild and Robbie come up with new ways to upgrade and tinker with it. I can only imagine what they could do to it with all this new Zonai tech we’ve been uncovering…..
After Robbie had perfected the arm, Wild could finally start his journey properly, and explore the rest of Hyrule to his heart's desire. And explore he did. I doubt there’s anyone else in Hyrule who knows it quite as well as he does, and it seems that everyone in Hyrule knows his name, or at the very least they know him as the strange boy who helped them out that one time and now shows up every now and again to cause some sort of chaos. And between all the misadventures and forest fires he somehow managed to find time to save Hyrule, freeing the divine beasts from Ganon’s blights, clearing all 120 of the ancient sheikah shrines and completing some sort of trial in the master sword’s sanctuary, although he hasn’t told me much about that last one. There’s a lot he hasn’t told me about his journey, particularly involving what happened during The Upheaval. Whenever I try to talk about The Upheaval with him he just gets all quiet and closed off, and I’d be a fool not to notice the change in his behaviour. He’s still the same, mostly, but he’s much more aggressive on the battlefield now, and it almost seems like he enjoys hurting monsters, and taking them down in new and violent ways. I’ve spoken to Purah about this new change in behaviour, and it seems that during the three and a half months I was missing he may have gone a bit….off the rails. I can’t really blame him for it I suppose, his whole world must’ve been turned upside down, but I only wish he’d discuss it with me. It’s almost as if he’s ashamed of what he’s done.
No matter, I won’t push him on the subject, he’ll talk when he’s ready.
I suppose I should report on his magical abilities in these notes. At surface level it wouldn’t seem like he’s magically inclined, but he’s got quite the arsenal tucked away under all the technology and good looks. First up there’s his wholly unique ability to slow down time for everyone but himself, a very helpful ability I might add, and yet when I asked him how he does it, he said he has no idea! Merely stating that it happens whenever he’s in battle and focuses his mind, usually after a good dodge or parry, or when he’s in the air wielding his bow. I wonder if that’s how he got so good with his bow... You’d think that with such a helpful ability such as time dilation, he might show some interest in learning how he does it, but I’ve never been able to convince him. Perhaps one of The Chain may be able to.
Next up is the magic he inherited from the original champions of the calamity. When he freed the divine beasts he also freed the spirits of the champions who lost their lives in the calamity, Revali, Mipha, Urbosa and Daruk. In return for freeing them, they each gave him the ability to use the unique magic that they had honed during their lifetimes, along with a small part of their spirit. As Wild has told me, it wasn’t technically him using their magic, instead it was the part of their spirit using their own ability through Wild, amplifying it and allowing him to use it much more frequently, and with much more power than he could on his own. However, when Calamity Ganon was defeated and the four champions could move on, the tiny part of their spirits that they had all gifted to him moved on too, leaving him with just their magical abilities, and as such, he isn’t able to use them to the same effectiveness as he once could. For example, Daruk’s unique ability, Daruk’s protection, used to be able to parry falling boulders or strikes from mighty lynels, but now he can only use it to counter weaker blows occasionally. As such, he tends not to rely on them anymore, only using them if he absolutely has to. I feel I should add that these are not his words, rather what I’ve been able to surmise from what he’s told me, and what I know about my own magic.
Thirdly, we have whatever the hell the shrine of resurrection did to him. We’ve ran countless tests and experiments on both him and the shrine, yet we’ve been unable to figure out what exactly it did to him aside from curing his wounds and reviving him. For a start, he seems more durable and tires much less easily, on top of not needing much sleep to function. He also seems to get much more than just nutrition from his food. Now, this one is weird so bear with me, but it seems that when he’s wounded or sick or anything of that nature, instead of curing the wounds and resting like a normal person, he’s able to just eat a meal, or a couple of apples, and the cuts and bruises he’s suffered just, stitch themselves back together. Not instantly, but much faster than that of a regular Hylian. He also seems to benefit much greater from food that can have magical effects. A regular Hylian may gain a small amount of cold resistance from a dish laced with spicy peppers, but they would still require adequate protection when braving the elements. But not Wild. When Wild eats a dish like that he feels perfectly comfortable stripping down and frolicking out in the snow. Although, there is every chance that he’s just like that, and doesn’t mind the freezing cold or scorching heat ....I suppose I’d better ask him. Anyway, as I was saying, the shrine of resurrection seems to have turned him into an inhuman machine, capable of things a regular Hylian isn’t. Not that I’m complaining.
Lastly we have his Zonai technology, which he swears isn’t magic but I know otherwise, and the vows entrusted to him by the five sages, Tulin, Sidon, Riju, Yunobo and Mineru. I have no idea how these work, but they’re all engraved on rings, which he wears on his right hand, and are powered by the secret stones. They’re pretty nifty. I wish I had more to say on these but, once again, Wild doesn’t like to talk about them. The Zonai tech he has is something I know plenty about, however. He wears some sort of contraption on his right arm that was gifted to him by King Rauru, that’s capable of wielding the powers of Ultrahand, Ascend, Autobuild, Fuse, and my personal magic that I left to him, Recall. If you’re curious about how those work, you can also reference the many texts and papers I have already written, and am sure to write in the future.
I think that's the extent of my summary of my dear old Wild. Of course there’s much more I could say about him, the upheaval, the calamity and everything else about the technology he wields and whatnot, but I fear these notes would never end. And besides, I’m hardly done writing about our era of history. There’s so much more I have to document, about our technology and our history, our troubles and our strifes, and I wanted to keep this focused on Wild. I wonder who I should write about next…..Sky intrigues me, and yet I’ve been having such wonderful conversations with Wind and Twilight.
“Why did you run, Link?” The question came out of nowhere, disturbing the peace of the quiet evening he and Zelda were sharing by the fire. The rest of The Chain were sleeping outside, as it was a nice night, and there wasn’t exactly much space in their little cottage to house them all. But damned if he was gonna enjoy the night with his girlfriend, instead of roughing it outside with them, especially considering that they hadn’t seen each other for two weeks, having been ripped apart so suddenly.
“Hmm?” Wild replied quietly, looking up from where he was tinkering with his prosthetic arm.
“When the calamity came.” Zelda replied in a flat tone “You swore an oath to protect Hyrule, and the castle, and yet when it all went wrong, instead of staying and fighting you ran with me.”
Wild glanced back down, feeling a little hurt by her words. “It wasn’t as if I ran away…” He said, almost to himself.
“Oh, no, I wasn’t accusing you, Link. I’m grateful that you did. I’m just curious as to why you made that decision.”
“Oh” he simply replied, with a small smile. Zelda smiled back. “Is this for those notes again? Don’t think I haven’t noticed you interrogating the others.”
“Don’t avoid the question, Link. I know what you’re like.” She chastised him in a playful tone.
“It’s Wild now, actually.” He replied.
She shot him a stern look, and he sighed gently in response. He put the screwdriver he was using on his arm down, and clasped his hands together, leaning forward. His eyes were fixed on the fire. Zelda could see the firelight dancing in his eyes, as he reminisced about a memory he wasn’t fond of.
“I ran because you wanted to.” He said flatly after a beat of silence.
“How do you mean?”
“You always talked about wanting to run from it all, back then. After your father scolded you, when you returned from your prayers, hell, whenever you had a bad day of any sort, you always said that you wanted to run, and leave it all behind. You even asked me a couple times to run with you. Of course I never could, and neither could you. But it was what we both wanted.” Wild sat back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. “So, when it all went to shit, I saw that we couldn’t win. So I chose to run, and take you with me. It was all we wanted to do that whole time, and we finally got the chance.”
“Oh…”
“What?”
“Nothing. I just always wondered if it's because you were scared or….” She trailed off, unsure where she was going with the sentence, and not wishing to upset him.
“You think I wasn’t scared?” He replied with a light chuckle. “Zee, I was terrified, just as you were. Just wasn’t allowed to show it.”
She laughed gently in response. “I suppose you must’ve been.”
Wild hummed softly, and picked his screwdriver back up from his lap. “Is there anything else you wish to ask? I can only imagine the sorts of things you’re writing in there.”
“I’ve finished writing about you now. As you can see it didn’t take me long.”
“Shame, I thought I was more interesting.” He said with a smile.
“Although if you’re asking….” She added, and Wild looked up again. “What happened while I was gone, Link?”
He didn’t reply, choosing to continue tinkering with his screwdriver.
“Don’t ignore me, Link. I need to know I can talk to you about this, it wasn’t exactly easy for me either.”
“You were gone, Zee.” He responded sternly, dropping the screwdriver again.
“Yeah, and you were gone for me too, Link.” She replied, just as stern “I know you struggled without me, and I’m not blaming you for that. I just want to know what happened.”
Wild sighed and looked away. “You’re my whole world, Zelda. And I lost you, in the blink of an eye. I failed to catch you, and when I woke up, you were gone and the world had changed. My world had changed. So yeah, I was a little upset about it.” He turned back, clenching and unclenching his fist in an attempt to calm himself. “It’s not exactly easy to talk about it.”
“You can talk to me about it?”
Wild said nothing in response.
“Please, Link. I worry about you. Sky was talking to me earlier, he said you’ve barely said a word while you’ve been with them.”
“Why do you want me to talk about it so badly?” Wild whispered, angrily.
“Because I need to talk about it, Link! Every time I try, you get all quiet and close me off, but it was hard for me too, and you’re the only person who could ever understand.”
Wild sighed gently, he knew she was right. They both needed to talk about what happened. It had been two months since he defeated Ganondorf, and they had both changed, arguably for the worse. He just couldn’t do it. He did as much bad as he did good, and he said some not very nice things to the people he loved. And it was all because he lost Zelda. How could he talk about that? Although...
“Do we have to talk about it right now?” He asked, emotion flooding into his voice.
“Of course we don’t. I just wanna know that we can talk about it.”
“Yeah….alright.”
“Maybe try talking about it with one of them? Or you know, try interacting with them in some other manner than quietly keeping to yourself.”
“They’re not like me, Zee. They don’t get me like you do.”
“They’re exactly like you, Link. And you barely know them! Of course they don’t get you, but they could. If you give them a chance.”
Wild growled softly in response.
“Is that the growl that means you agree with me, or the one that means you’re cross with me? I can never tell the difference.” She teased softly.
“The one that means I agree…” He replied grumpily, crossing his arms and slumping in his chair. She grinned at that, before stretching her arms and yawning openly.
“It’s getting late, you wanna join me in bed?” Zelda asked, a playful look in her eyes.
“I’m gonna finish working on this, the ring finger has been a little unresponsive and I wanna fix that tonight.” Wild replied.
“Shame, it was a long two weeks without you.”
Link grinned at her in response “Well, I suppose it’s not terribly urgent.” He said, dropping his screwdriver and coming to his feet, as Zelda did the same.
“You best keep it down this time, don’t wanna wake the others outside.” Zelda teased, as they both climbed the stairs in a hurry.
“Hardly my fault…”