Chapter Text
Wild was fighting hard not to slip into a memory. Talking about the other champions was always a risk, and he really should have known better. He was tired, his scar tissue was starting to ache again, he hadn’t had time alone in two days, and he was using most of his energy to make the best possible impression on the heroes of eras past. It was a perfect storm of circumstances that made it harder for him to hold onto reality when a memory crept in.
He made it back to camp without incident. The walk had been quiet and he’d been able to focus on the sound of crickets and the brief glimpses of sunset fireflies through the grass. The struggle started in earnest when they settled back in with the group.
Everyone was preparing to get into their bedrolls, and Time was discussing the first shift on watch with Twilight. Wild went to get comfortable next to the fire, but Warriors gently nudged him with his shoulder.
“Any chance we can get you into a bedroll tonight?” Warriors asked optimistically.
“Nope,” Wild replied without elaboration, proceeding to the fire with Warriors trailing behind him.
“Come on, it can’t be comfortable sleeping upright by the fire. I’m not convinced it counts as sleeping at all, actually,” Warriors insisted. With his scars starting to ache, Wild’s throat was starting to hurt again too. According to Purah it was a different kind of scar tissue, caused by breathing in super-heated air as the Guardian beams hit him, and it tended to sting instead of ache. He really wasn’t up for a back and forth at this point.
“It’s fine. It’s what I’m used to,” Wild replied, trying to keep his raspy tone neutral instead of frustrated.
“What, you think the eight of us can’t keep the camp safe enough for you to get a little sleep?” Legend snarked, and that’s what did it. Legend had reminded him so much of Revali that it was inevitable, and Wild had just enough time to be thankful he was sitting down before he slipped away.
–
“What, you think I can’t keep the princess safe enough for you to get a little sleep?” Revali was being particularly insufferable. Link had been around long enough by now to know the Rito was trying to goad him into self-care, but it wouldn’t work tonight. It couldn’t.
The Yiga had been relentless on their way to Rito Village, and even in the safety of the inn Link couldn’t let his guard down. The village was open air, woefully unfortified, and while there were plenty of warriors there was no standing guard. Link had committed himself to pacing the room every five minutes and standing at attention beside the door in between. It was, admittedly, even less restful than his usual half-trance of sleep while they traveled, but it was necessary.
“I won’t shirk my duty for a down bed,” Link informed Revali, and his friend scoffed.
“You wouldn’t shirk your duty if you were dead. Which you very well could be if you keep trying to fight without rest.” Revali was upping the stakes, raising his voice enough that Zelda could probably almost hear him. The last thing Link needed was for her to join Revali in his cause.
“I’m not taking the bait, Revali. The Yiga are coming at us non-stop these days, I wouldn’t put it past them to infiltrate a village at this point,” Link insisted, and Revali sighed.
“When’s the last time you actually slept? You know what, actually, when’s the last time you sat down? Because you’ve been on your feet since you got here, even through dinner,” Revali pushed. Link wasn’t about to admit that he didn’t remember.
Link knew, of course, that this wasn’t smart, and it certainly wasn’t safe. He’d already taken a bad hit in their last skirmish, and while he succeeded in hiding it from Zelda the wound was starting to wear him down. It was a long but shallow gash on his side, and he’d bandaged it surreptitiously when they stopped for a rest, but he was lucky he wasn’t wearing his Champion’s blue. It would have been stained badly.
His feet hurt, his side hurt, his head was frankly pounding at this point, and Link suddenly knew he was fighting a losing battle. Because at the end of the day, he did trust Revali. And he wasn’t any use like this. Still, he wouldn’t sleep, but he was willing to negotiate anything else.
“Yeah, okay,” he gave in quietly, slumping against the wood pillar at his back. “But I can’t sleep, and you can’t see well in the dark, so what’s the plan?”
Revali preened at his semi-victory and steered Link into the inn, pushing him to sit on the edge of an empty bed.
“You are going to do your little trance thing on top of a bed, and I am going to recruit Tandi to help me keep watch. I’ll be stationed inside, she’ll perch on top of the inn and keep watch outside,” Revali explained. It was an excellent plan, Link had to admit. Tandi was unique in that her family had features more similar to an owl than other birds of prey, so she had excellent eyesight at night, and she was an admirable archer to boot.
“Okay. But if anything happens, I won’t be settling in again,” Link warned, and Revali smirked at him. It was an impressive expression for someone with a beak to master.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less, hero.” What had started as a term of mockery had become a friendlier jibe at some point, and Link smiled faintly. He settled in and sat cross-legged at the head of the bed, and if he slept instead of trancing, Revali never mentioned it.
–
Wild came back to himself with a sharp gasp, his eyes flying open. He never knew if he would be safe when he woke from a memory, and he remained tense as he took in his surroundings.
He was sitting beside the fire, and the camp was quiet. There were faint sounds of snuffling and snoring from the direction of the bedrolls, and the fire crackled cheerfully. There was a wolf curled up at his side who raised his head as Wild came back to alertness, and he was sitting across from a distinctly concerned Time.
“You back with us?” Time asked cautiously, and Wild nodded. He tugged his canteen off his belt and sipped at the cold water, trying to ease the needles in his throat enough to speak. It wasn’t as helpful as hot tea, but it would do for now.
Through a veil of geometric dark magic Twilight transformed back into his Hylian form, and Wild braced himself for the inevitable interrogation. Both heroes looked more worried than upset, and in a way that made Wild feel worse. He never intended to scare them.
“So. Is that something that happens a lot?” Time asked without preamble.
Wild shook his head and tried to speak, but his voice scraped against his throat like a sharp rock and he fell into a coughing fit. It only served to make Time and Twilight look more concerned.
“Do you need tea again?” Twilight guessed, and Wild nodded apologetically. He grabbed his slate and summoned his campfire tea set, then swiped to his food inventory to pick a tea. Paya had helped him develop a variety of blends, but for tonight he kept it simple. He pulled out his dried cool safflina and set aside some honey to add when the tea was finished.
“You gave us a scare. We were just settling in for the first watch when Legend ran over to us all worried. He doesn’t get like that often,” Twilight explained as Wild prepared his tea. “They said they’d been trying to get you to sleep in a bedroll when you went still and stopped responding. We came over and no matter what we tried we couldn’t wake you up. We thought you might be injured, but that wouldn’t really explain it. Eventually we sent everyone to bed since you didn’t necessarily seem to be in danger.”
Wild felt awful for causing a scene. It was his own fault for avoiding the topic, but his memories had been less frequent recently and he thought he would have more time. In the first two weeks of traveling with Zelda, he was recalling a few memories every day, and they came in chunks rather than individual memories. He recalled his father, his time with the Zora as a child, his home in Hateno that he had, miraculously, bought 100 years later, his time with Zelda as they became friends, his time with the rest of the Champions as they became friends. It was too much at once, but he didn’t want to worry Zelda so he pushed on and assured her he was fine.
After the first month, he had remembered so much that the memories had reduced in frequency so that he only recalled a couple a week. That trend had continued, so after a couple days with no memories he should have known better.
The tea was immediately soothing, and after only a couple sips he felt he could speak again.
“I’m so sorry for worrying everyone. It doesn’t happen so often anymore, but I should have brought it up,” Wild started, looking down into his mug.
“What exactly did happen?” Time prompted gently. Wild took a deep breath and a moment to consider his answer.
When Zelda had been left on her own to describe the episode to a concerned bystander, she called it an absence seizure. Apparently it was a type of seizure that caused a person to briefly freeze and become unresponsive. They usually only lasted seconds, unlike Wild’s memories, but most people didn’t know enough to spot the disparity. He could tell them it was an absence seizure and be done with it, if he wanted.
It didn’t feel right though. He was giving up more and more information about himself while he knew so little about these other heroes, but at the end of the day he would need to trust them if they were traveling together, and there was so much that was too clearly laid out in his scars that he could barely hide anything anyways. He still wasn’t ready to tell them about the 100 years, but he could step around that until he was ready.
“The process of healing these wounds wasn’t natural,” Wild began, gesturing to his scars. “I was… Well, I was dead at that point.”
Twilight stiffened at his side, and Time took a deep, controlled breath before nodding for Wild to continue.
“The Sheikah technology worked a miracle, but it wasn’t flawless. It healed me enough that I could walk and run and fight, but a lot was lost due to the pure amount of physical trauma it was fighting against. I spend eight months regaining my strength, and I’ll never be able to fight like I used to due to the scar tissue. But something happened to my mind too.
“Robbie suspects it has something to do with the amount of time between… Between dying and reaching the healing shrine. Apparently a lot of your organs can resume regular function when your heart is restarted, but the brain is different. The lack of air can cause pathways to be severed. The shrine probably had to heal my brain too, but like my body it can’t fix everything. I emerged from the healing process with no memories.”
At some point he would have to tell the whole group he had died. This was the second time he told someone and, although he was going into more detail, it was distinctly more draining than the last.
Time had his head buried in his hands, and Twilight had a hand over his mouth. Maybe he should have gone with the backup story instead after all. It seemed the more he told these people the more he distressed them. Regardless, he was too deep in to stop now.
“On my journey I found myself recalling memories as I saw places and talked to people, and every time I do it causes an episode like this. It only happens a couple times a week now, at most, but I don’t have much control over it. It’s easy to avoid in battle because the focus then is on the fight, so you don’t have to worry about that at least. I’m sorry, I know it’s not pleasant or convenient. I’ll do my best not to slow down the group,” Wild promised.
“I’m not worried about that at all,” Time assured him. There was a hard edge to his voice, something like anger even though he clearly wasn’t mad at Wild.
“If we can do anything to support you, we want to do it. If all we can do is wait for you, we can promise to be there when you come back.” There was spark in Time’s eye, and Wild realized that it wasn’t anger in his voice. Somehow, over the course of a couple days, Time had become fiercely protective. It was nice to know he made a good impression, but that would take some getting used to.
“Thank you,” Wild said earnestly. “Can you… I don’t want to ask too much, but I don’t know how many times I can explain all this. Can you help me tell the group in the morning?”
“Of course,” Time agreed quickly, and Twilight nodded in agreement.
“Are the memories bad?” Twilight asked hesitantly, and Wild had to think about it for a moment.
“Most of them aren’t bad,” Wild said eventually. Every so often he remembered something about his knight’s training, or the king, or the stretch of time before he and Zelda became friends, but generally the memories weren’t bad.
“They’re just hard sometimes. The things I remember, the people and places, most of them are gone. The Calamity took so much before we destroyed it.” He was getting dangerously close to revealing the 100 year gap. Shouldn’t they know though? That he failed, and his world was destroyed? That he was remembering people he sent to their graves? Maybe, but he didn’t have the courage to tell them yet.
“We won’t force you into a bedroll, but you should try to get some rest,” Time said, standing up. “Twilight’s on watch for the next couple hours, but if you need anything just ask whoever is up.”
Twilight said goodnight to Time, and Wild echoed him quietly. He decided to pour himself some more tea. All the talking had put him almost right back where he started.
“Want some?” Wild asked Twilight, and he nodded. Wild retrieved another stoneware mug from his slate and poured a cup of tea, adding a little honey.
“Is it more magic food?” Twilight asked, and Wild nodded.
“The tea is made from cool safflina. Most people use it to make food that boosts your heat resistance, but as a tea with some honey it can be very soothing. Most people keep some around the house for when they have a cold,” Wild explained.
“Why do you keep it around?” Twilight countered. Wild rubbed his throat subconsciously.
“Your skin isn’t the only organ that scars. You’d never know about most of the scar tissue inside your body, but the throat is different. Between eating, breathing, and speaking you might as well be constantly scratching at it,” Wild explained, and Twilight looked at his tea contemplatively.
“Will you sleep tonight?” Twilight asked abruptly.
“I’ll rest. Tomorrow we’ll reach the stable, and I’ll get us all soft beds. We won’t need to put anyone on watch, and I’ll sleep there. Then we’ll get to my house in Hateno and we can really take a moment to relax,” Wild assured him. Twilight seemed satisfied with that.
For a moment, when Wild settled in and closed his eyes, he felt like he was back in the memory, under Revali’s protection. He wanted to know these heroes better, but he was beginning to trust them regardless. No, he wouldn’t sleep tonight, but he would take the warm pelt offered to him and rest easy.