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English
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Published:
2018-12-14
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2,031
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1/1
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Summary:

The Hero of the Sky is homesick.

The Hero of the Wild and the Hero of Hyrule have strange habits.

The Hero of the Four Sword tries to keep everyone's spirits up.

For the Linked Universe on tumblr. https://linkeduniverse.tumblr.com/

Notes:

If you wanna understand more, check out https://linkeduniverse.tumblr.com/

If you just wanna read the fic, then most of the nicknames are fairly self explanatory. The only one that can get confusing is Hyrule, which is the name of the location but is also the nickname of the Hero of Hyrule, from LoZ and AoL.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

The Links made their way up a large mountain, the sun beating down on their faces. They had not yet climbed high enough for a chill to form, and instead the clear view of the sun just made everything hotter, the heroes included. Time had thrown caution to the wind and discarded his heavy armor, leaving only his black under armor, and Wild was resisting the temptation to put on his Gerudo clothes. For the sake of his dignity, he refrained, but he did put on his climbing clothes. He may not be scaling a cliff side yet, but the clothes were far breezier than his Champion’s tunic. Even the Links with less heavy attire were starting to shed layers, as hoods and gloves that did nothing for the heat were quickly put back into their bags. Warrior was clearly affected by the heat, but pretended he wasn’t. He was far too proud to take off his armor and beloved scarf just because of a little sun. The only two Links who were completely unaffected were Wind and Sky.


“If you guys can’t handle this, then don’t bother visiting Outset! Even the winters would be too hot for all of you.”


“I lived above the clouds. Our winters were cold, and our summers were hot.” Sky laughed, “It’s times like this that I do miss my Winged Friend, though. She liked to flap her wings in my face to cool me down during the summer.”


Sky looked upwards, not minding the barreling heat. He missed Skyloft dearly. The visit to Time’s home only made his homesickness worse. He lives on the Surface with Zelda now, but their visits to Skyloft for supplies or company were quite frequent. He’s learning a lot on this adventure with his other selves, and he wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything, but even on his own adventures, he could return to Skyloft whenever he wished. Now his Winged Friend doesn’t reply to his call. He’s stuck on the ground, and who knows when he’ll finally get to go back?


Four was very in tune with the other Links. He had to be in order to learn how to control his four selves and become the master of the Four Sword. So when he noticed Sky looking longingly towards the sky, he decided to try and snap him out of his funk by asking him a question. Hopefully a little bit of question game would lift everyone’s spirits and distract them from the oppressive heat as well.


“What’s your bird’s name? You only ever refer to her as Crimson Loftwing.”


Sky let out a small laugh, and then put his fingers to his mouth. He let out a piercing whistle, surprising the other Links who weren’t paying any attention to Four and Sky’s conversation.


“What the heck was that?!” Hyrule yelled, covering his ears. Twilight looked especially pained by the incredibly high-pitched note.


“Sorry guys!” Sky joked, “That’s my Loftwing’s name. Or as close as we get to naming Loftwings, anyway. The Loftwings are a gift from the Goddess, they’re our friends, not our pets. So, we don’t have any right to name them. They name themselves, and we try our best to mimic it with a whistle or call.”


Wild laughed, “It’s funny you say that, by the time I got my sixth horse, I was sick of coming up with names, and considered just naming him ‘Horse’, but I thought it might be disrespectful. You guys think the opposite!”


“Birds are far more intelligent than any other creature,” Warrior intoned, “it makes sense that they wouldn’t want us ‘lowly Hylians’ naming them. Goddesses knows cuccos don’t tolerate being named either.”


“I don’t name my cuccos,” Time added, “Because eventually they end up on the dinner plate.”


For the millionth time since coming to the surface, Sky blanched at the thought of birds being eaten. Even cuccos. Birds are birds as far as Sky is concerned. They all remind him too much of his beloved Crimson Loftwing.


“I’ve talked to cuccos before,” Twilight declared, “and no offense to the Goddess’ creations, but they’re not that smart.”


Four, secretly pleased that his plan to lift his comrades’ spirits worked, decided to keep the questions coming. The more the Links laughed, the easier the mountain would be to hike. He called out to Wild.


“So what did you end up naming your sixth horse? Did you end up naming him ‘Horse’ after all?”


“No, I didn’t…” Wild admitted, “I thought about it, but it didn’t end up fitting the naming scheme, so I decided not to.”


“Naming scheme?” Legend laughed, “Do I even want to know?”


Wild looked a little sheepish. He tended to do things in an organized fashion, even when life didn’t necessarily call for it. That’s how he ended up filling out the entire Hyrule Compendium on his Shekiah Slate, and why he sits down and organizes everything in his inventory whenever he’s either bored or it starts to confuse him, and why he keeps track of everything he plans to do in his Side Quests tab. Hyrule took one look at his Shekiah Slate and called him obsessive, and he couldn’t blame anyone for that supposition. To him, the idea that all the horses should be named with a similar theme was just natural.


“Well, I was surprised by how fast I went on the horse, so when thinking of a name, I named her Violet, after a Swift Violet. Then I named the next horse Nightshade after Blue Nightshade and the rest is history. I ended up naming that last one ‘Truffle’. By that point I had run out of flowers, which is why I considered naming him ‘Horse’.”


Hyrule was laughing his butt off by this point. As a self-proclaimed minimalist, the idea of putting so much thought into naming an animal was a little asinine. He wasn’t going to begrudge anyone who did so, but he personally couldn’t think of a greater waste of time.


“You’re a real weirdo, you know.” Hyrule jabbed, “I get that when you’re travelling alone, you start to care about weirdly specific things, but come on. That’s a little excessive.”


“Oh, that’s nothing,” Wild rolled his eyes, “If you want to know what’s actually obsessive, it’s when you remember that 100 years ago you also owned a horse, and you obsess about whether or not you also named that one after a flower. I don’t want to know the name of my old horse, because if it isn’t a flower then everything I did was for nothing.”
All the Links shared a laugh at that. Wild’s obsessive tendencies were well known. But Four wasn’t going to let a good story escape his well-trained ears. Hyrule had let something slip, and that was relatively rare.


“So, Hyrule… What are some of these strange things you cared about on your journey?”


As much as Hyrule teased Wild, he also became obsessive about some odd things. Once you find one secret stash of rupees, you want to find them all; and if that means burning down every bush in Northern Hyrule, then so be it. But something told Hyrule that some of the more… nature-oriented Links might get a little offended. Or very offended. So, he refrained from telling that particular story.


“Well, during my second adventure, I would come across these dolls. I carry them with me even now.” Hyrule pulled out one of his most prized possessions, a doll that bore his likeness. “I don’t know why, but somehow I got really paranoid about them? I tried to leave them in my room at the castle, but I couldn’t. And I feel like if anything happened to them, it would be bad luck. Like a voodoo doll.”


“That’s creepy…” Wind hissed, “You should get rid of those dolls for sure.”


“Already had them this long. I’m thinking I’ll keep them until I die. Not much else to do with them.”


Before the Links could ask some more questions of Hyrule, they came across a small pond with some shade trees. Time declared it was time for a food break, and the Links started to settle near the pond. Except for Wild, who settled in the pond.


“I’ll cool down and fish for lunch at the same time.” Wild insisted, having already spotted some bass. “If anyone else wants some, tell me and I’ll get it for you. I don’t want to get poked by a fishing lure again…”


While most of the Links jumped at the opportunity for someone else to do their fishing for them, a few Links declined. Legend, not fond of fish, started to look for game. Wolf was off the menu, courtesy of Twilight’s stern warning to them all at the beginning of their adventure; and Legend wasn’t optimistic about what else might be on the mountain, but he thought he might run into a goat or something. Sky also declined Wild’s offer, but this was not an unusual occurrence, seeing as the citizens of Skyloft didn’t eat meat of any kind.


“Hey!” Wild called out to Sky from his spot in the pond, “Have you ever tried fish?”


Sky turned his head no. Fish didn’t exist on Skyloft, and when he saw one for the first time on the Surface, his last thought was to wonder what it tasted like. It wasn’t until he saw the other Links eat fish that he realized the way it was supposed to be done, by taking out the bones and cooking them, but by then he had lost interest. He didn’t mind the other Links eating habits, but they would never be for him.


Near the beginning of their adventure, Warrior and Wild had convinced Sky to try meat for the first time, but it wasn’t for him. He hated how chewy it was, it felt like it took him years to stop chewing it enough to swallow it, and the taste made him scrunch up his nose.


Sky generally ate bugs for his protein. Beetles and Mantis’ were cooked up and thrown in with vegetables. It made Wild cringe, but he never said anything, no matter how dubious the food Sky ate looked.


About an hour later, everyone was eating their food happily, but Wild decided to encourage Sky once more to try new things. “You’re on the Surface now, Sky! Might as well try all the delectable things this big world has to offer, right?” Wild had tried bugs before, and they made great elixirs, but not great food. He couldn’t help but feel like Sky was missing out.


Wild lifted up a piece of his Hearty Salmon Meunière and Sky, after hesitating a bit, decided to give it a try. After swallowing the fish, he gave it a hesitant thumbs up. “Better than the deer, but not as good as vegetables. It’s slimy, but in kind of a good way.” And Wild would take that. Warrior still looked a little grossed out by the bugs, though he’s already promised not to comment.


“You know,” Time commented, “I also used to eat nothing but nuts and leaves when I lived in the Kokiri woods. But since no one in Kokiri Forest ever grew up, we just didn’t eat a lot in general. I only ever ate bugs on dares. It wasn’t until I left Kokiri Forest that I started to eat meat. And then I never went back. In fact, I think it was Malon who first gave me that cucco. I still remember it, it was so good.”


“I never thought too much about what I ate,” Twilight continued, “Until I first became a wolf. Hunting feels a lot more real and brutal once you’re tearing apart a deer with nothing but your claws and teeth. I have a greater respect for the cycle of life now.”


As their break hit the 90 minute mark, it was time to get going again. The heat of mid-afternoon had passed, and there were also some light clouds providing shade from the sun, so the Links were in a far better travelling mood than before.

Notes:

I hate that I had to give each Link a nickname when canonically they all just call each other “hey you” which is why the nicknames are only used in narration. HA. But seriously though, without any nicknames in the narration things would get really confusing, really fast. So compromises had to be made.

EDIT: How in the absolute hell do I have 40 kudos and not a single comment?! Life just isn't fair... OTL