Chapter Text
Link shot up in bed, his hand reaching up to clutch at his chest, ragged gasping inhales slowly giving way to deep, even breaths.
His Aunt bustled into the room at that, her soft brown eyes taking in the way the sweat soaked the sheets and tangled them near his feet.
"Another nightmare, Link?"
:I think,: Link paused, ran the awful dream over in his mind again, the strong desperation he'd been feeling throughout and said, :I think it's a memory.:
"They're so awful when you describe them. How could they be memories?" Aunt Hilda asked as she offered him a cool cloth, turning to open the curtains to allow sunlight to spill into his room.
:Each one comes with a new scar.: When he peeled his hand away, it was covered in the faint sheen of blood that accompanied the dreams.
He scrubbed at the blood and himself, careful with the brand new scar on his chest.
"Well, maybe..."
:They correspond to the injuries of the Hero, exactly where they got them in the stories old Rhoam tells.: Link signed when she wanted to argue her position that it was coincidence. :That is beyond coincidence.:
It had worked when Link was eight; he was seventeen now and it no longer made sense to him.
"Link, there's something your Uncle and I need to tell you..." Hilda's shoulder dropped at that, the ache in her voice making Link kick off the covers and take her hand in his. "Get dressed, okay? We'll have that talk after breakfast."
:And herding the goats out of the barn.:
"That too, darling, that too."
By the time the sun rose fully, Link trooped back into the house, smelling of sweat, goat, cow and blood from yet another set of scars from the vision he'd had in the field.
He didn't envy the Hero one bit if they'd had to deal with getting all of those wounds and then slowly healing from them the way he did.
"Again?" Uncle Lon sighed, wetted a cloth and tugged Link's tunic up to dab at the new scars. "At this rate, you'll be as scarred as the Hero without having done any of their deeds."
Link let him, since he couldn't reach them. :It's exhausting. I think they're occurring in order.:
"Of the stories? Come to think of it, we might not be able to help you if that keeps up." Uncle Lon murmured with a furrow of his salt-n-pepper eyebrows. "The later stories get more and more dangerous and I'm assuming that the Hero didn't let it stand for long."
:I don't think so either.:
"Breakfast!"
Link was dazed, using Epona as a pillow as he worked through the fact that he'd been an orphan.
He'd had a family before Hilda and Lon had taken him in.
Victims of a Lynel attack, had been the consensus, seeing as how there was nothing left of the wagon but shreds of cloth, blood and a screaming toddler. They thought a passing adventurer had taken care of the Lynel, seeing as how it's items had been scattered throughout the field next to the damaged wagon.
Lon made his way out, offering Link a sandwich as the sun rose higher in the sky.
They sat side-by-side after they finished and then Uncle Lon spoke, his voice gruff but sincere. "I thought you were a blessing from Hylia, you know, a gift when we found out we couldn't have any of our own. Both of us tried, even with other people, but it never took. So you were ours, our Link to Hylia. But she made you for a purpose, son, and I don't think it's herdin' goats. Come your birthday, you'll be free to go."
:What? Why?: Link signed quickly, his movements jerky as he did so.
"Figure out what it is that's got you like that an' then come back to tell your old man, huh? I'll get ya a sturdy shield and a few swords. You can cook at the stables; I know Hilda's taught you a lot. You'll be takin' Epona cause she ain't listened to nobody else in years." Uncle Lon continued. "You'll have a job here, a place here if ya still want it after seeing the great, wide world."
Link engulfed Uncle Lon in a hug, his face buried under Lon's scruffy chin as he snuggled close.
"Alright, alright, you birthday isn't that close. Now c'mon, we gotta go chase those damn goats back in."
:Thank you.:
"... You're welcome, son."
Aunt Hilda pressed a green tunic into his hands the morning after his birthday celebration, which they'd had the day before. "This is the only thing left of your father. I washed it and I think it'll fit but I wanted you to have something of theirs."
Link tugged it on over the cotton shirt he'd gotten from one of the ranch-hands the day before. Something in him seemed to settle when the tunic was belted over the shirt.
Uncle Lon presented him with the promised shield, the swords and a bow, the blue-n-white scheme of it somehow familiar. "We found the bow near what must've been your mother. Now, we don't have much skill but I asked the tanner to make you a quiver."
He handed over a quiver with a full complement of arrows.
:Arrows?:
"I made those. Your Aunt fletched them; I'm sure she'll teach ya how but you c'n also buy them from traveling merchants." Lon reassured.
He hugged his Uncle and then his Aunt, swiping at his tears as he mounted his horse and kneed her into taking the road out of the village.
After his sniffles petered out, Link looked around with interest. He turned Epona onto the larger road and spotted two people being harassed by two red monsters, the screams causing him to dismount and draw one of the swords, the grip of it as familar as the reins in his hand.
Link launched forward, swung the sword and yelped when it shattered in his hands. He dove for the monster's dropped weapon and beat it until it died then moved onto the next, the explosions signaling their defeat.
He collected the items before he realized what he was doing.
"Oh thank you! My sister and I go hunting for mushrooms. Did you want to join us? We're selling them in the next town over, near the Stable."
"You're bleeding!" The other woman yelped, pointing at his forearm.
:I'm fine.: he signed absently, digging in his pouch for the extra bandages Hilda thoughtfully packed.
"I'm sorry, I don't speak that."
"... I'm fine." He whispered. "It's... Hylian... Sign."
"Oh! You're mostly mute then?"
Link nodded in agreement as he wrapped his arm. "... The wounds... aren't from... the fight."
"You're looking for the cause?"
He gave a thumbs up and then finished tying it off with his teeth and one hand.
"Well, you can sell those monster parts if you're low on rupees. Say, you're pretty handy with that weapon. Do you mind accompanying us?"
"I'll join you." He managed before his throat hurt.
"How about you teach us Sign? That doesn't sound like you talk much."
:Sure.: he signed while mouthing the words. :Do you two have horses?:
"Yeah, they're further ahead. The Bokoblins scared them forward."
:Bokoblins?: Link mouthed, having to think about the sign for them.
"The red monsters you killed."
:oh.:
Link traveled with them for nearly a year and a half. He learned the length and breadth of the world, coming across monsters and people of all sorts until they stopped just short of the marshes at the Wetland Stable.
"We don't go to the Zora's Domain too often but if you want, there are healers there. They might know more about your condition than we've been able to discover." Kilu, the older sister, suggested lightly.
"There's too many monsters for us without an adventurer like you to help out but you can get through just fine." Nauki offered even as she patted his shoulder. "Good luck, Link."
:You don't want to come with?: he asked, his foot nearly touching the edge of the marsh.
"If you make it there and back, you know where our next stop is." Kilu teased gently.
:My hometown.: Link smiled and both sisters giggled as they departed with a wave.
"Yup!"