Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a dull day. The group had just found themselves in Wild’s Hyrule, a couple of days ago, and Wild thought the best idea was to take them to his house. They had just passed through the field of rusting guardians, on their way through fort Hateno, and Wild couldn’t help but speak in clipped sentences and avoid eye contact.

There was something about that area, even before he collected his final memory. A chill, a fog that seeped into his ears and down his throat, choking his insides and creasing his thoughts.

He couldn’t deal with the looks twilight shot him as he expressionlessly checked for parts in hulls he had searched time and time again - scavenger instincts kicking in - as they went on their way, or Wind’s bubbling questions turned hesitant, or the creases between the brows that all of his companions mirrored on each other as if they could feel what Wild felt.

As they passed through the gates on Fort Hateno, a brief thought drifted through Wild’s mind. Maybe they could visit Calip’s cabin, just for a small break, and perhaps with the familiar face the fog would start to dissipate.

Of course, that was the exact moment in which a lynel - black, too - walked out of the treeline.

Wait, what?

“Wild, what the hell is that thing?” Warriors whispered harshly, grabbing four by his hood and swinging him to the other side of him, towards the treeline, to halt his walking.

“Lynel.” Both Wild and Legend said at the same time, and legend followed up, “Wild, how do they work here?”

“Incredibly strong, that one’s one of the strongest you’ll find. Everyone get into the treeline before it turns around,” Wild’s brain was now moving incredibly fast. Why was there a lynel here? And a black one, at that? There were no lynels in the surrounding area as far as wild knew.

When they were all crouched in the shrubbery off the trail, Time prompted Wild to continue. “Okay. They have wicked aim, and boy do their arrows hurt. Don’t go near it unless you have experience, I don't know how many of you have these in your Hyrules.”

“What? We have to help fight it!” Wind argued, hand on his sword.

“No. Hylia knows how many times these things have taken me down. Listen, just let me do it. Trust me, we can’t sneak past this thing.” He added, as Sky looked like he was about to interrupt.

Nobody stopped Wild as he slowly crept out of the treeline, but his words sat on everyone’s minds. Taken me down.

Wild was a blur of motion, and then he was still, waiting with his shield up. He repeated this swift change a few times before suddenly, seemingly unprompted, he leapt on the creature’s back. The others felt a shot of fear go through their already panic-addled minds, and even though Wild got some decent hits in, when he was bucked off there was still a sickening crunch when he hit the floor.

The look in his eyes told Twilight he was ready to get back up, and he verged on hysteria.

Without thinking of Wild’s prior warnings, all of them in seeming unison leapt out of the trees to provide assistance. Legend seemed to know what he was doing, arrows trained on the beast immediately, and as Twilight, Time and Hyrule followed his lead, the others all went in for the beast’s legs and body.

Wind quickly dashed around the creature that was still focused on Wild - who was picking himself up, still - and started slashing at a leg that none of the other heroes had targeted, at the front.

A yell got caught in Wild’s throat. He wanted, needed to warn them to stay back, but there wasn’t time. The lynel’s focus had shifted to Wind, and there was no time.

Wind’s eyes just flicked up from his blade in time to register the creature’s eyes boring into him, roar steadily building in it’s throat, before he was suddenly being shoved and the lynel’s arm, holding the wickedest of axes wind had ever seen, sliced into Wild, who was in the exact spot he just was.

Wind’s throat seemed to have none of the inhibitions that Wild’s did, and a scream tore out. The lynel took sick pleasure in forcing the blade into Wild’s stomach as far as it would go, and then wrenching it out.

An awful, soul quashing rumble echoed out of the beast’s throat. It was laughing. Laughing at the glassy, dead stare of Wind’s brother.

Two swords pierced the lynel’s head all the way through. Both were wielded by Warriors, who also held what looked like Twilight’s, but Wind wasn’t paying attention. He fell to his knees, an arm’s reach away from his brother who was red, red, red. There were bubbles in his chest, and his eyes were blurry and his vision was shaking and he was sobbing.

And then there was light.

Incredible, calm light, all around. Warm flames that soothed the icy feeling away, and a beautiful woman, a zora, crouched over Wild’s still bleeding corpse.

Wind vaguely noticed the others all on the edge of this bubble, none daring to tread in.

And then a soft voice, “it was my pleasure”, and a soft touch on wild’s cheek, and suddenly there was no blood, no red, no gaping wound caused by a still sickeningly stained axe a few feet away.

There was only Wild, staring into the eyes of this beautiful, ghostly spectre the same colour as the light, and as the flames, with both a look of breathlessness (as if his lungs would have still held any air for this lady to take away)and gut wrenching familiarity.

“Thank you, Mipha.”

And then it was gone. It was over, and Wild was well, and all was silent.

“What the fuck,” Legend began, his hand gripping the roots of his fringe and his hat skewed, “was that?”

“That was Mi-” Wild started, but Legend didn’t let him finish.

“What the fuck? Did- did we just watch you die? Is that what you meant? Taken down? Did you just die?”

The rest of them seemed to share Legend’s sentiment, shell-shocked faces encircling him.

After a long moment, “...Yes.”

Wild closed his eyes, unable to handle the looks. When he felt strong hands gripping his collar and shaking him, he expected to see Twilight above him, but instead he saw Wind. Oh, Wind.

Wind had not stopped sobbing since Wild’s body hit the ground, the whole lower half of his face was glistening with tears, and even though his jaw wobbled and his voiced broke, his words still held the intensity his eyes did.

“What the hell, Wild? That was my hit to take, that was-” Wind stopped himself, lunging forward and wrapping himself around Wild’s chest, tight enough to make Wild wonder whether the tremors were his or his own.

It took many minutes for any of them to find their voices, but finally, Time spoke. “We’re making camp here for the night. We apparently need to talk.”

Chapter Text

The next few hours were hard on everyone. Wild, to the other’s disbelief, was completely fine, and did not have any lingering side effects from the gaping wound he had in his stomach, as per usual. However, any attempts at telling this to any of the others just resulted in horrified silence around camp and a hand pushing him back down onto his bedroll.

When the darkness descended and the fire was lit, all gathered, but none spoke. Legend twisted his fingers between grass blades, knotting them and pulling them up, Warriors stared at the fire whilst Twilight stared at the trees, Four simply ran his fingers down the flat edges of his blade, and Wind was shaking.

Wild wasn’t sure whether he had ever stopped.

He pulled Wind into his lap, and circled his arms around his torso. The sudden movement made everyone look up, but nobody spoke.

Wind’s breathing broke the silence, becoming loud and hitching as he gripped the hands around his sides as if they would disappear at any minute.

“I think you owe us an explanation, Wild. we’ve given you plenty of time to stew.” said Time. Nobody else vocally agreed but all shared a look of expectation.

Wild didn’t open his mouth for a long moment. “That-” he paused at his hoarse voice and cleared his throat. “That was Mipha.”

Twilight and Legend, in particular, seemed to lean forward and further show just how quickly their attention had been captured. They recognised that name, from moments of vulnerability, shards of conversation that matched the scraps of memories attached.

“She’s- was, the princess of the zoras, before she was killed by Ganon. Her soul was destined to stay trapped in the walls within which she was murdered, with the festering evil he left there.”

Wild was staring into the fire over Wind’s shoulder, not making eye contact with anyone, not really seeing at all.

“I don’t really know what she was doing in there, what any of them were doing, those hundred years. Maybe their minds were unconscious, maybe they were forced to replay the battle in which they lost themselves to an enemy none of us could have ever been ready for, could have ever expected, over and over and over-” His voice hitched.

“Maybe she simply existed there. I wouldn’t know. But there she stayed, perhaps wondering for all that time what happened to the armies, and the plans, and her friends. Maybe she sat there knowing one day she would be freed, or maybe she accepted that that was to be her eternity.”

Anyway, lo and behold, one hundred years later i wake up and learn of my friend who I don't in the slightest remember yet, who i was probably in love with, who was most definitely in love with me, who had an incredible power to heal, and died the same day I did because I failed to protect her.”

His voice was wobbling. Nobody dared interrupt him.

“So, I fight, and defeat the essence of Ganon specifically designed to target her weaknesses in battle and kill her, ‘waterblight ganon’.” Wild spat the words “And I avenge her, and save her people from the everlasting rains that threatened to destroy them. And as I stand there, facing a girl i know i should know but don’t, wearing the armour she planned to give to me as a royal tradition for proposing, she tells me-” Surely there is nothing left of his voice, the brittle wood it’s always been splintering and cracking like the logs on the fire in front of his eyes. He keeps going.

“She tells me her ability would be wasted on her, now that she’s only a spirit, and she gifts to me her Grace.”

He didn’t know if he could continue, if he even wanted to, but he took a long breath, and kept going. “I’ve always been just a little too reckless. Thanks to Mipha, whenever i tumbled off a mountain, or didn’t have the gear to handle the climate, or took a blow too big-” the whole group winced. “She would be there. Ghostly, and transparent, and green, but as beautiful as all i can remember with the same words, every time, “it was my pleasure,”.”

It felt like nobody was breathing. The only sounds were the crickets, the birds and the fire.

In fact, nobody said a word for the rest of the night, one by one each of them came to wrap their arms around Wild, except for wind, who stayed curled in the middle. Watch could wait for a single night.

That’s also where the sun found them, the next morning, piled together next to a long-dead fire with bedrolls the furthest thing from the sleeping boys’ minds.

--

The hours in which they all woke and got things in order were slow and groggy. There were still few words shared, but it was better than the stilted atmosphere of the night before, in Wild’s opinion at least.

Now the air just felt heavy. Like there were things everyone had to say but held back. And Wild, the resident link who was perhaps the most tired of words, just wanted them to spit it out already.

But it seemed like nobody was going to. The journey continued, after all there was still a large hill to climb, and monsters to either avoid or fight, and introductions to be made, and a world that keeps moving.

The sweet air of Hateno that permeated the forest at the entrance almost made Wild swoon. A grin split his face, and the melancholy atmosphere seemed to dissipate just slightly as he encouraged all of them to run through the front gates.

As Wild collapsed on the ground, he informed “Welcome to Hateno village, one of the three surviving Hylian settlements.”

Instead of letting that statement get to them as much is it definitely would during the next sleepless night, the rest of the group let their eyes wander around the beautiful buildings, and the bunting, and the people.

“Link! You’re back! Do you have any cool new weapons to show me? Who are they?” A small boy, ran up to Wild and poked his shoulder with the stick he was holding.

“Nebb, honey, i’m sure Link has been on a long journey and just wants to go back home. You can talk to him later.” Nebb’s mother came and scooped him up, shooting Wild an apologetic look. Wild waved her off, and signed a quick ‘later, i promise’ to Nebb over his mother’s shoulder with a grin.

As soon as he was down, Wild was back up again, grabbing the end of Warrior’s scarf, ignoring the indignant ‘Hey!’ and lead them towards a bridge to the right of the entrance to the village. “Come on, let’s go!”

Pretty much as soon as Wild stepped foot on the bridge separating the blocky homes and what must be his home, a man called out. “Link! Long time no see, I'd almost thought you’d left this place to the dust mites!”

He was an older man, sat daintily on the grass under a tree next to the house. He had a wide, closed mouth smile on his face, and one hand on his hip.

“Bolson! After what you charged me for this place, I wouldn't dream of it!” Wild called back as he approached, the too-big group of boys bottlenecking on the bridge. “Good to see you. You too, Karson.” he nodded to the younger man.

The others were, quite frankly, in awe at the change Wild went through so quickly, from gloomy to pretty much the happiest any of them had seen him.

Wild walked right into his house, leapt up the stairs, and threw himself down on his bed, yelling down to the others just coming through the door “Make yourself at home! My home is your home, and all that,” then sniggering at it. After all, they were all aware of the strange feeling of belonging whenever visiting the other Link's houses.

They stayed there for a while, some of them snooping around the house, the plot, and (with permission from Wild) the village centre across the bridge, some content to stay in and around the table, admiring the house and mounted gear, talking about everything and nothing. Wild himself was more than content to sit on his bed with his arms pillowing his head and listen to his companions, and the sounds of life, and breathe in the fresh air from his window, eyes closed.

After a few hours, when Wild could pick out each of his friend’s voices from the room below, he leapt up and announced, “We should go visit Purah! I haven’t seen her in ages,”

When faced with the confusion of the room. He explained “She runs the tech lab at the top of the hill. I’m sure she would be fascinated to see all of you.”

(mostly) undaunted by the idea of a scientist poking and prodding around, they let Wild lead them through the village and up the hill, introducing themselves and adding to conversations that Wild struck up on the way.

(They were all fascinated by the blue flame that existed in the torches along the path.)

They quickly reached the top of the hill, Warriors challenging Legend to a race, and Wild not wanting to be shown up. When they were there, patting warriors on the back after he let out his victory cry (Legend spat through heaved breaths that he was at a disadvantage with his short legs), he pushed the door open and called - somewhat mutedly, compared to the interactions he had with the village folk -

“Honey, I'm home!”

There was an immediate childish call of “Linky! Snap, Snap- What’s this?!” and suddenly there was a little girl pulling Four through the door. “My oh my, what do we have here? Symin!”

As the rest of them came through the door to cluster around the front part of the, rather small, space, the small girl darted around Four, making him flinch away and glance nervously at Wild, who gave him a thumbs up. “Linky link, what have you brought me today? Or- is there a nickname you go by? This has to get confusing.”

“Nickname?” Time spoke, stepping to the front of the small crowd of links.

“Why yes, I mean, with nine of you about you can’t all go by ‘Link’, can you?” Purah spared a second to glance doubtfully in his direction, but then returned to examining Four.

There were a couple of “Whats”, both deadpan and shocked from the group.

“Woah there, Purah, can you slow down? I’m not doubting that you’re brilliant enough to work it out,” Purah gave Wild a dazzling smile, and Symin seemed to droop behind her at the confirmation, from the state of shock he was in previously, “but how about we start with how you could tell?”

“Oh, you. Of course, everyone sit. Symin, tea please. Do we have any swift violet left?”

They all moved to the table, some taking to the floor or staying standing at the lack of seats. Wild swore he heard Symin grumble “i threw it out because the speed makes you a nightmare. I’ll get the armoranth.”

“Well, Linky,” Purah began, climbing back onto her stool, “well, first, that man in obviously the hero of Time, judging by his markings,” She pointed at Time who, remarkably, didn’t react other than a raise of the eyebrow. “That’s the hero of Wind, i mean look at his tunic! It’s a mini replica of yours! Or, I suppose, yours is a big replica of his-”

Wind sent Wild a quizzical look, his eyes slightly wild, and Wild looked at him with eyes that said ‘I'll tell you later’.

“Okay, I get the point,” Wild said with a chuckle. “It’s good to see you, Purah.”

“Aw, Link, that’s so sweet! I do have to say things have been quieter without you around-”

Symin cut her off, sliding a tray with two precarious towers of cups and a teapot on it onto some papers “No, it hasn’t. You caused two explosions yesterday.”

“Oh, whatever. Anyway, nicknames?”

Wild laughed. “I go by Wild.”

“Fitting!” Purah interrupted, and Wild hummed with a smile on his face.

“That’s Time, naturally, Wind, Warriors, Legend, Hyrule, Twilight-”

“Chosen and Four Sword? I’m sensing a theme,” Purah cut in, eyes surveying her company.

“No, no, they go by Sky and Four.” Wild corrected, patting Four on the shoulder from where he was still leaned away from Purah with a wary look in his eyes.

“Oh, okay. So, back to the subject of testing them, do you all hold the Hero’s spirit? What about the triforce of courage?”

All of them, including Time but excluding Wild, recoiled slightly.”Yes and yes and, Purah, you never mentioned tests nor are you going to do any. These are my friends, and i came to introduce them and maybe see if you have any answers as to why we’re all together.”

“But what about-”

“No,”

“But-”

“No, Purah.”

“Aw, you’re no fun.” she pouted. “Fine then, use my genius without giving anything in return, like you always do.”

“I always give you the parts you want, what are you talking about-”

“Alright, you two, calm down,” Twilight spoke up, an exasperated look in his eyes.

“Fine. I’ll have you know, Wildey, that i’m a busy lady with much research to do, and i can’t drop everything whenever you feel like swinging by, so I have some papers to fill out still from yesterday. But, you’re welcome to stay here for a bit, and maybe I'll get through them.”

“Thanks, Purah, you’re the best!”

“I know, I know.”

The group split off, rummaging and having a look at the tech Purah had, and eventually falling into little conversations. Symin was delighted to chat, and even though Purah was acting like she was busy, she let herself get swept away in anecdotes very quickly.

The only person not to join in was Wind, and the only person to really notice was Wild.

Wild left him be for a little bit, thinking that he was just a bit overwhelmed with the whole load of new info, but he didn’t get into the storytelling or conversations in the way Wild had grown to expect from him, instead staying alone, sat with his back to a wall, in a loose ball.

It wasn’t long before Wild made his was over, and sat down next to him. “You okay?”

“Why did you take that hit for me?”

The effect was instantaneous. All noise in the room halted, and all eyes turned to them.

“What?”

“Why did you take that hit for me, yesterday?” Wind asked again, not moving his head to face Wind.

Wild was silent for a while, and he thought that the others would drift back into conversation, but it seemed the tense atmosphere was back with a vengeance.

“Because I could.” He said at last.

“What?” Wind finally turned his head to Wild, eyes wide and tearing up.

“Because in that situation, it was the only way to get all of us out alive.” Wild added.

“But you died, Wild.” Legend hissed, and Purah was suddenly more alert, although she didn’t interrupt.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What? What do you mean it doesn’t matter? We watched you die for Hylia’s sake, how does that not matter?” Twilight sounded outraged as he protested.

“Because I got back up, and I'm fine.”

“But you still died for me!” Wind cried, flinging his arms out.

“That’s okay.”

“How is that okay? You were bleeding out-”

“It doesn’t matter, because I can take those hits and nobody else can. Because i can get back up, and it doesn’t affect you. If I had let you take that hit, Wind, you would have died, and there would have been nothing any of us could have done to help you get back up, but I did.” Wild cut off Sky abrupt and stood up.

His words sat there for a second, and everyone stared at him.

“How many times have you died, Wild?”

Wild didn’t answer, just stared at Twilight unblinkingly.

“Wild, How many times have you died?”

When the question was repeated, Wild finally seemed to hear it. He, however did not react other than pressing his eyes closed for a long second. And then, “I don’t know.”

“Oh, Linky-”

“How can you not know?!” Twilight said, more harshly this time.

“I don’t know because I lost count! I stopped counting months ago! Because it doesn’t matter!” Wild stormed out, and the only sound left in his wake were the sound of the door slam echoing in everyone’s ears, and Wind’s and Purah’s first sobs.

Chapter Text

Wind sat in shock. He was thinking more along the lines of Wild treating him as a kid, like they all did sometimes, but not that.

After a long moment, Twilight stood up. “I’ll go find him.”

Purah snorted, then sniffled and wiped her cheeks with her sleeve. “Good luck, he could be on the other side of Hyrule by now, with his teleport habits.”

Twilight heaved a sigh. “Shit. I can't track him if he warped.”

“Let him cool off, he’ll be back soon.” Purah insisted. she shuffled together some loose papers in an act of trying to look busy

Time looked like he was about to suggest something, but either decided against suggesting it or that it wouldn’t work at the last minute and closed his mouth again.

“Go back to his house, he won’t mind. If he hasn’t mysteriously reappeared in the morning, come back.”

----

And there they were, back at the Tech lab first thing next morning. No Wild.

“Well, you have two options, really,” Purah said, turning towards her piping hot tea and taking a gulp. “Either wait for him to come back, which he will, eventually,” She cleaned her glasses, and talked to the table below her. “Or, i can tell you his regular haunts and you can go try and track him down.”

It felt like the whole group sighed collectively. “How many ‘haunts’ does he have?” Legend asked.

“Quite a few,”

Queue groans. “Of course. What are they?”

Purah took a second, hand to chin. “Well, there’s the four main settlements of the other races, which he frequents, although I doubt he’d go to Gerudo town right now, if he's this upset. Goron city, either. Rito Village is always a good guess, because he loves Teba, and he requires minimal effort to visit. He might try and seek out Kass, but that could take days, so probably not. Tarrey town and Robbie are out too, as well as Impa, because he’s probably hurting and they’re not the most sensitive. He wouldn’t go back to his house, because it’s too close to here; he might go to the Shrine of resurrection, because then it would be pretty much impossible for you guys to reach him, but it’s lonely there and it’s kinda the epicentre of his trauma. I don’t think he’d visit one of the great fairies, because they intimidate him-”

“What about the Zora?” Wind spoke, slowly getting up and moving towards the table. The rest of the group look up, surprised.

“Well, if you’d let me finish, I would have said that Zora’s Domain is probably the most likely, because of his close relationship to Prince Sidon, but I wouldn’t rule out the Rito, or the Lost woods either, now I think about it, maybe he would go for a chat with the Deku tree-”

“Thank you, Purah, that helps. Could we get a map?” Twilight asked, trying to end the overwhelming list of places they might have to search. At least Wild seemed to have many friends.

“The Deku tree?” Time repeated in a small voice, so small that Twilight doubted he heard him.

Purah’s eyes took on a more sympathetic edge. “Yes, way to the north of here, lies the lost woods, where the Master Sword slept for a thousand years, waiting for Wild to claim it, and then a hundred years, waiting for him to wake up. The Deku tree cares for the woods and the koroks there, is what I hear.” Her voice was soft, and she was undoubtedly thinking of the story of the Hero of Time, raised as a Kokiri by the Great Deku tree itself.

“Did you say Prince Sidon, of the Zoras?” Legend asked, his voice low. The rest of the Links quieted to listen.

“Oh, yes. Has Wild mentioned him? I wouldn’t be surprised. Me, Riju and Teba have a bet going, you know, on how long it takes them to get together. I’ve only met the guy a couple of times but i swear, they always make eyes at each other the whole time they’re together-”

“Alright, Purah, that’s enough gossiping. I can just picture the shade of red Link- Wild, sorry - would go if he heard you.” The rest of them glanced around at each other, surprised.

Symin rolled out a large map on the table, over the various books and papers, and weighted down the corners with empty and half full teacups. “Okay, so you’ve got the Rito way to the north-west,” He placed a stone over the spire in the top left corner. “The Lost woods, to the north-west, again,” another stone, this time over a circular area. “And the Zora, in the north,” The final stone dropped in the middle of a ring of mountains. “Anywhere else, do you think?”

“No, I think those are our safest bets.” Purah said, nudging the Rito stone slightly forwards.

“Right, so how long does it take to reach, say, the Rito, on both foot and horseback?” Warriors asked.

“Well, what do you think, Symin? At least fourteen days on foot, and that’s our link, who knows not what rest is. On horseback, not that much less, considering resting the horses and all of the mountain passes from here to there.” Symin nodded his agreement to Purah’s assessment.

“That’s way too long,” Hyrule said, a frown on his face. “This Hyrule is just too damn big. By the time we get to one of these places, he probably would have moved on already.”

“Zora’s domain is closest. How long would that take?” Time asked. A furrow had settled over his brow, which didn’t look to be lifting anytime soon.

“Well, the path up that way on foot is always crawling with monsters, so unless you scale the mountains - which you won’t be able to do - i’d guess around four or five days? It also depends on which way you go, because you could just go north but there are mountains in the way, which would be time consuming to climb, or you could go around, which would possibly take even longer- WAIT!”

Purah dropped the pen she had been tapping her face with, and whirled around to Symin, who looked completely unfazed. “The thing! That could get at least two of them there, Symin, and we could run tests at the same time on it’s efficiency and possible side effects!”

Symin drowned out Four’s worried “Side effects?” With a firm no.

“Purah, it’s completely untested. We were going to error-check it against the slate and ask Link to trial it next time we saw him, but we didn’t. I don’t think these people have even done it when we’re sure it’s stable, who knows what added effects it could have to their unadjusted bodies-”

“What are you talking about?” Sky asked. He also looked stressed, but in the way that his hair sat funny because of how he had been sweeping his hands through it, and his leg was caught in an unending bounce.

“Weeeeell, we have some prototype Sheikah Slates! Snap! I’ve been working on programming new ones, since Wildey’s found it so useful, but progress has been slow since he’s off a lot of the time, but i’m sure i’ve about cracked the warping mechanism, so-”

“But you’ve only double checked it against your notes, and not the slate itself. This is something that requires the utmost certainty if we are to use it, we don’t know what could happen-”

“I’ll go.”

Wind had been quiet for a very long time, his teeth steadily clenching on the inside of his cheek as the people around him failed to supply viable solutions to the problem he caused. This was something he could do.

“No, Wind-” Warriors tried to object, but Wind cut him off.

“I’m the one that made him upset, and I'm the reason this whole thing blew up in the first place. Let me do something to try and fix it.”

There was a hush for a second, until Purah burst out, “Snap, snap, Snap!” Clicking her fingers in time with her words. “Symin, we’re doing this! Alright, Wind, i’ll go get one!” She made to run off, but Twilight caught her.

“You said this thing was designed to carry two? I’m also going.”

“That’s even more dangerous! What if-”

“Symin, Hush! I like you, Twiley,” She ignored Twilight’s small flinch, “I’ll see what i can do!” And with that, she was out the back door like a shot.

“Twilight, what? If you’re going, then so am I,” Hyrule argued.

“I want to go,” Warriors also added.

“I mean, of course i want to come,” Four said. Sky just made a noise of agreement.

“No.” Legend was the one to stop them. “Wind should go, this is important to him. If there is a viable space free, it makes sense for Twi to be the one to fill it. He can track Wild down if he’s wandered off.” The others turned to Time for defence, but he just raised his hands in a ‘don't look at me, this is your problem’ gesture.

“Fine. can we at least take another one, to one of the other locations, to check quicker? Purah suggested that there were multiple.” Hyrule asked.

“We currently have six, but four are very undeveloped, and I am most certainly not endangering more of you than absolutely necessary. What if it goes horribly wrong? Then we’ve sent four of you out to get injured or die, instead of just two.” Symin crossed his arms and stared disapprovingly at Hyrule.

“Jeez, no faith in me, huh Symin?” Purah said, bustling in (or, a six year old version of it) and placing a rectangle - not completely unlike Wild’s sheikah slate, but with subtle differences - on the table. “This is the more advanced of the two we have up to standard. It should be able to carry the two of you safely, but i’m still working out power issues when it comes to a two person warp, so you’ll only be able to go to one location if you want to be able to come back, which would be preferable.”

Purah was furiously tapping at the screen, before a map popped up. There was a blue icon above what must have been the current location marker, and when hovered over brought up ‘Hateno tech lab’.

“Right, okay. To warp, you press the icon - they’re in blue, and they represent shrines, towers, and the two tech labs - and then tap the travel option. There’s one at every location we described, so it’s up to you where you go.”

Wind and Twilight looked to each other, but seemed to have already come to a conclusion. “Zora’s domain.” Wild decided.

“Excellent! That is riiiight-” Purah used her finger to scroll upwards on the map, until she reached a blue icon encased by mountains, “Here! You can head off whenever you’d like, and the travel should be instant, Snap!”

Wind took the slate, and held it between him and Twilight. “Why wait, right?”

“Hold on,” Time interrupted before Twilight could confirm. “Just- stay safe, you two. Come back in one piece, both of you, okay?” There was a slight waver to his voice, so Twilight clapped him on the back.

“Of course, old man. Don’t need to give you another reason to fret, do we? We’ll be back in no time, the youngan in tow.” Time gave a smile - weak, but still there - and nodded.

“Right, okay! Make sure both of you are in contact with the slate, and give me a nice big Snap!” Purah ordered.

Twilight took the opposite handle to Wind when it was offered to him, and Wind grinned, for the first time in what felt like weeks to the others. “Snap!” He yelled, as he pressed ‘travel’. Blue light enveloped the pair, strands of them drifting up, towards and through the ceiling.

As they disappeared, Twilight just made out Warriors ask “Did Twilight really just call Wild a ‘youngan’?”, along with Four’s snickers, and he smiled.

Chapter Text

The first thought that Wind experienced was that the Zora’s domain was beautiful. He and Twilight waded out of the shrine chamber and into the main structure, and Wind found himself breathless. The whole town glowed, luminescent even in the sunlight, and the whole space had a kind of quiet calm to it.

They had a quick look around, and were surprised by how empty the place looked. And there were so many unnecessary pathways.

A guard quickly approached them, when they reached the top level. “Hey, new faces! Anything I can help you with, or are you just here to enjoy our wonderful Domain?”

Twilight stepped forward. “Actually, as beautiful as this place is, we’re looking for our friend link, do you know him?”

An easy smile blossomed on his features. “Oh, yeah, you guys know Link? he came through here yesterday. I think I might've seen him poking around the inn last night, but I haven't seen him today. He might be off somewhere with Prince Sidon. I’d check some of the upper waterfalls, along the rim, or maybe the reservoir.”

Twilight was quick to thank him, to which he walked away with a wave.

“Right, well there’s a waterfall just there,” Wind pointed to their right, “and there looks to be a path down there, so it looks like we’re diving,”

Twilight huffed but followed Wind when he made for the main bridge.

Wind paused at the part of the bridge that paralleled the path he spotted, backed up to the other end, and took a running dive into the water. Twilight leaned over the side, baffled, until Wind popped up from the water and heaved, yelling up, “Come on Twi, the water’s just fine!”

After a single second of hesitation, Twilight stepped onto the banister and jumped, choosing more of the divebomb approach, rather than Wind’s flawless dive.

Once he surfaced, he was greeted with Wind’s elated laughter, which made chuckles of his own bubble from Twilight’s chest.

They swam over to the shore, Wind’s expert swimming far faster than Twilight’s (he yelled at him to hurry up from the land), and looked ahead to the path. Twilight transformed with a shudder, and had a sniff of the area, by which he determined Wild was definitely up this trail, although he couldn’t determine how far. He gave a yap to tell this to Wind, and set off. He obliged when wind asked to ride him.

The trail was longer than it looked, and there were many waterfalls. not long up the trail, they passed a bridge into the domain, and Twilight grumbled. Wind laughed, though half-heartedly and said "oh well, it's part of the adventure."

Twilight tried to be single focused on finding Wild, but there were so many new scents, and animals he yearned to chase, and plants growing in the crystalline waters that promised to be delicious. Wind, however, was having no such problems having a one-track mind, so Twilight refocused.

The grass in Wild’s Hyrule was so soft under his feet, and the air so crisp. At first, Twilight though he was imagining it, wondering how different it could be to Ordon. But the more he explored, and journeyed, and lived here, admired the overwhelming plants, and animals that were just a touch braver than any in his homeland, and the rubble scattered and half buried - the mourning that he finds himself doing, and the mourning Wild must have done, the weight he must carry - the more that Twilight realised that this Hyrule, with it’s scars miles deep and ruins never out of sight, this Hyrule was so purely Wild. And it was breathtaking.

Much further up the trail, there was a set of stairs. The reservoir. Above them, Twilight could hear low words that must have belonged to Wild, and then a loud, hearty laugh. As he began ascending the steps, he could hear “oh, my dear friend, how i’ve missed you! We must do this more often, you know.”

Wind flattened himself against Twilight, hugging his neck as he crept up the last few steps, stopping on the top one and peering over the edge.

Wild was sitting on the edge, his legs in the water, his arms back, looking over the surface, at the huge zora that swam there. The zora, which could only be Prince Sidon, was much bigger than the zoras back in the domain, and much bigger than Twilight’s zoras. Kind of intimidating.

“You know, Link, I was thinking-” Sidon stopped, when he made eye contact with Twilight. At that point, Wind had apparently decided he’d reached his limit, and threw himself off Twilight and up the steps. Wild was already looking that way, for the source of Sidon’s pause, no doubt.

“Wild!” Wind yelled and threw himself at him. Wild just about managed to angle them so that they wouldn’t both land in the water with the force. “Wild i’m so sorry i shouldn’t have said what i did because you got upset and then i got upset and warriors was totally tearing up i’m telling you so please forgive me and come back because we miss you and-”

“Woah, woah there, Wind. You okay? You with me?” Wind nodded into his chest, but didn’t loosen his grip on Wild’s tunic.

By then Twilight had followed him up, and was now sat a few feet away. Sidon’s eyes had found themselves drawn to the commotion, wide in shock, but had now been drawn back to Twilight, and he couldn’t decide whether it would reassure him more to stay as a wolf or to change.

“I can’t believe you guys came all this way! How did you even know i’d be here?”

“Purah told us that you’d either be here or Rito village or the lost woods, and she said you were really good friends with the prince, and since we were talking about Mipha yesterday-”

Sidon’s eyes widened a fraction more, but he did nothing but tread water, stay quiet, and let the conversation unfold.

“Okay, that makes sense. Wait, how did you get here so quickly? It’s like, a four day journey from Hateno,”

Twilight shifted back, because he wanted to join the conversation, and carefully watched Sidon’s reaction. To his credit, he barely flinched. “Purah gave us one of her prototype slates. Wind has it,”

“Oh, Twi, hey- wait what? Those things are so new! I can’t believe you did that, it’s so dangerous, I hadn't even tested it yet-” he put his hands on Wind’s shoulders and pushed him to arm’s length, to scan him over for possible injuries.

“If i might possibly interject, my friend, could you please introduce me?” Sidon swam up to the edge of the water and placed his giant hands on the edge.

“Oh! Right, of course. Sidon, this is Wind and Twilight, guys, this is Prince Sidon of the Zoras,” Wild released Wind to accompany his words with gestures.

“What intriguing names! It is so good to meet other friends of Link’s, his current travelling companions, am i correct?” he got a nod of assent from Wild, and he smiled wide, showing off his pearly shark teeth. If Twilight didn’t know better (also the contrasting impression his friendly eyes and overall energy gave), he would have seen it as a threat.

“Are you… Mipha’s brother?” Wind asked tentatively, and Sidon’s smile took on a softer edge.

“Yes, I am, younger by a few decades.”

“Does he know about..?” Wind murmured to Wild, to which he paused but then confirmed.

“Yeah, he knows. Sidon, these guys had a run in with her grace, a couple of days ago.” Wild had no problem making eye contact with Sidon, and Twilight was kind of impressed, given Wild’s usual complete aversion.

“Oh. Oh! Link, what did you do to yourself?” Sidon’s … eyebrows? upper eye ridge? Knit together with concern.

“It was nothing! Just a rough run in with a lynel, is all-” Wild tried to brush it off, but Sidon made a noise of anguish, and Twilight was having none of it.

“You were impaled, and you were dead before you hit the ground, Wild.”

A sharp intake of breath was heard from both Sidon and Wind.

“It wasn’t that bad, i’d call it a light stabbing-” Wild tried.

“I saw the entire axe come out of your back, Wild. Don’t fucking try it.” Wind had the sternest expression Twilight had ever seen on his face, and Sidon’s face crumpled, as he swam to the edge Wild was sitting on.

“Language, youngan,” Twilight reprimanded, if halfheartedly. Wind shot a scowl in his direction.

“Link, my friend! That is not nothing! And, no offense, i believe your companions much more than you when it comes to your injuries. You always make nothing of them!”

“That’s not true,” Wild protested.

“I have witnessed you, several times, walk into the domain with several arrows inside you, bleeding heavily, to say that you’ve had a ‘rough day’ and then collapse on me! You wake in the healing pools because i carry you there myself! You must be more careful, my friend.”

Twilight watched this with concern for his friend - no, brother - and amusement at his red face.

“But why should i be careful, if i have the means to not need to be?”

“Because one day my sister will not be able to save you. If you rely on her too readily, you are sure to barrel into danger - real danger.” Instead of the frustration he showed at the tech lab, Wild kept a level head around Sidon.

“But, why have this ability of not to take full advantage of it?” Wild finally broke eye contact, fiddling with his hands in his lap. Sidon took one, and re-established the eye-contact. Twilight kind of felt like he was intruding.

“Because, my friend, it is needless. As much as I love my sister, and I am enamoured with her ability, she wouldn’t want to see you like this, being reckless just because you can. Hurt is still hurt whether it can be fixed or not, and I know for a fact you still feel the pain,”

Wild sighed and closed his eyes, but nodded. "i'll try to be more careful, i guess." He was awarded wit h a brilliant smile from Sidon. Wind still had concern painted across his face, but he stood up, and heaved Wild up with him.

“We better get back. Time will have a heart attack soon, he’s so worried. You should have seen his face when we left.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. Sidon, you’re welcome to come with us. I’d love to introduce you to the others.” Wild smiled widely as the hulking fishman (what can Twilight say, he was slightly intimidated) jumped out of the water.

“I would love to! I must go back to the domain first, however. Bazz will fret an awful amount if i don’t tell him.”

“Ok, i’ll go back with you, then i can take you with me. You guys can go on ahead, we’ll be there in ten minutes, max.” Wild said, turning back towards Twilight, who now held their slate. “On second thought, maybe you should wait and we should all warp with mine. It’ll feel a bit weird, but I trust it more.”

“Come on Wild, where’s your faith? Purah would be offended.” Twilight clapped him on the back and moved over slightly, Wind coming with him. He found the tech lab on the slate’s map, and pressed it, ready to warp. “We’ll see you in a minute.”

When Wind had a firm grip of the slate, Twilight hit travel and they were turning blue again. Twilight wondered whether there was such a thing as tasting the colour blue, because he could swear there was a certain taste in his mouth when it happened.

Chapter Text

As soon as their feet touched the ground in front of the tech lab, the door burst open and a worried Hyrule poked his head out. “Is he okay? Wait, where is he?”

Warrior rested his head on Hyrule’s and watched Twilight grab wind’s arm as he wobbled. “He’s alright, and he’ll be along in a minute. Can we come in, guys?” he raised an eyebrow to the two as they finally realised they were blocking the doorway, letting the two in.

“Hey you guys, how’d it go? Where’s wild?” Sky stood up as they entered, and all eyes were on them.

“It went well! Wild’ll be along in a minute. He invited the prince back with us, and because he’s royalty he had to let someone know where he was going, so Wild stayed to bring him back after.” Wind hopped up to sit on Purah’s stool, as she wasn’t in the room.

“How did the conversation go, though? Was he upset?” Time asked, his worry lines having faded significantly, but still there.

“He was very calm, actually, and having the Prince there to back us up did help a lot. He seemed equally upset about it, but actually knew how to convey it to him in a way that made him understand. It was impressive.” Twilight went and sat on the floor next to Time’s chair, and unfastened the pelt around his neck.

“I’m not surprised. Those two have been close for a couple years now, and he probably knows Wild the best out of anyone. Even Zelda gets stuck sometimes, struggling to keep up with the new him,” Purah entered from the back door and kicked Wind off her stool, “But more importantly, how was the warping? Was it fast? Any side effects?”

“I mean, made me feel a bit woozy, to be honest,” Wind said, leaning against the table since he now didn’t have a seat. “I think it was pretty instant, though. Twi?”

“Yeah, that’s about it. ‘Cept it kinda tingled, right? And I couldn't feel my limbs,”

“Ah, that’s pretty standard, don’t worry,”

“Wild!” Hyrule shot up, and rounded the table to go to the door. Legend got there first, though, and punched him in the shoulder.

“You scared us for a second there, asshole,”

“I know, i’m sorry for this whole thing. Before i properly get into apologies, though, there’s a guy you gotta meet,” Wild stepped into the room, allowing everyone to see Sidon leaning over to look through the door.

“Hello, friends of Link, and Purah, good to see you again!” He smiled wide, and lifted a hand in greeting wave.

“Oh no! You’re not coming in, last time you managed to short circuit all of my electricity! They’ll just have to come to you,” Purah huffed and crossed her arms.

“My sincerest apologies again, for that, however it is of no fault of my own that your ceiling is so low!”

Wild snickered. “Yeah, Purah,” He said, motioning for everyone to come outside. “Guess we have to follow grumpy gut’s orders,”

Everyone outside, Wild began introducing everyone. Twilight smiled to himself.

“Okay, so you already know Twilight and Wind, there's Warriors and Legend,” he pointed to the two men, who paused their not so subtle elbow fight to grin and say ‘nice to meet ya’s “Four, Hyrule, Sky, and Time,” they threw up hands and smiled, apart from the latter who simply inclined his head.

“So many new people! And such peculiar names, they’re quite fantastic! It is so good to meet more friends of Link, or should I call you ‘Wild’?”

Wild didn’t react the way the others thought he would, and when he gave a simple, “Yeah, either’s fine,” and an easy smile, many came to the conclusion that he must have already told him.

“Right, i have to go have a go at Purah for a second for letting you guys test run her slates, i’ll be back in a second,” He ducked back inside, thinking he was probably going to regret leaving them alone.

He caught Warriors asking “So, what embarrassing stories do you have of Wild?” before he closed the door. Ah, yes, there’s the regret.

When he came back out over half an hour later, frustrated at both Purah’s lack of remorse and the inept way he handled the situation, he was greeted with the sight of everyone circling Sidon, said man in the middle of animatedly telling a story. “And i find him, washed up on the riverbank in his underclothes, saying that he tried shield surfing down the mountain, and it had undoubtedly gone horribly wrong, judging by the grazes he had all over him. And when I asked why he had no clothes on, he said he had accidentally set them on fire!”

The whole group burst out laughing, to the point where Warriors had tears in his eyes. Time chuckled and commented “Yep, that’s our Wild.”

Wild huffed and sat down next to Sidon, but he had a smile on his face. “Out of all the stories you could have told them, why did you have to choose that one?”

Sidon just laughed, but Legend smirked in a way that set off alarm bells in Wild’s head. “Oh, he’s told a few now. None flattering, trust me.”

“Great,”

They continued on like that for a while, Wild quickly getting revenge on Sidon with embarrassing stories of his own. Legend delighted in telling a story about when Warriors ripped his scarf and cried about it for an hour, to which Warriors did nothing but say “I suffer for fashion,” - however, when Legend pushed his luck and started to tell a different story, he didn’t get to really even start before Warriors tackled him and slapped a hand over his mouth, which devolved into the two wresting with petty squabbling thrown in. Sky had a surprising amount of blackmail on them and an evil glint in his eye, to which Four eerily mirrored. Time had a large, shit eating grin on his face when he told of his memories of training Twilight as the Hero’s shade (a time period none of them, including Time, could quite make sense of. Perhaps it was to happen later, but he already had the memories of it? None of them knew).

When the sun finally started to set, Sidon had to return to the domain. “It was so good to meet you, my friends! Feel free to come up to the domain whenever, you will always be welcome!”

There was a chorus of goodbyes as Wild warped them away. When they arrived back in the domain, Sidon clasped both of Wild’s hands and said in a soft voice, “It was wonderful spending the day with you, my friend. I hope to see you again soon. Make sure to stop by next time you’re in this Hyrule,”

Wild smiled. “I will.”

--

When they got back to Wild’s house, they all pulled out their bedrolls and laid them out, Wild pushing his table to the under stair space.

After the sun had properly set, Wild had cooked a meal and they all sat around in the warm light of the fire and the weak overhead lights. After a lull in the conversation, Wild braced himself.

“I’m sorry for the way I acted yesterday, it was pretty bad of me,”

The silence stretched for a second longer, before Legend spoke up, “You were being a bit of a bonehead,”

Wild huffed with a smile. “Yeah well, Sidon talked some sense into me and I promised him I'd try to be less reckless with this kind of thing. Just because i have the ability to do it, doesn't mean I should have to. Twilight and Wind as my witnesses,”

Wind hummed and took a swig from his water skin. Warriors leaned over Four’s lap to wrap his arms around Wild from the side, “Sky, our baby’s all grown up!” and fake sobbed.

“Hey i thought i was the parent of this group!” Time said indignantly.

“You wish, old man. Try grandpa.” Warriors laughed as he relinquished Wild.

“All i do for this family, and you’re still so ungrateful,” he muttered, and Twilight elbowed him in the ribs with a laugh.

Wild had a grin on his face as he listened to the bickering. And if there was still an edge to everyone's eyes, well, they were there to support each other through it. All’s well that ends well, he supposed.