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Chapter Text

His hand reached desperately behind his back. As he jumped to his feet he clutched at nothing. The sword wasn't there. Not even the feel of the scabbard's comforting weight on his back. A hard blow from above and behind made him sit back down again. That didn't quite track though because had he not just been running? He felt the sweat on his face and the pounding of his pulse. It felt like he had been running. Reality was slow to filter in but it did. Damn, he'd done this before but not in a long time. Once he'd woken up on top of his own desk at the barracks, having climbed it in a nightmare. He'd learned not to sleep with a weapon within reach in places like inn's or his own quarters where he was certainly safe after dueling a set of drapes in his sleep. Despite popular opinion he did typically sleep alone and he'd never had the misfortune of committing this idiocy in front of a potential audience before. When it happened it tended to be disorienting like this. Typically, it seemed that his brain that so needed order and control in his world of chaos that his mind chose to let him maintain the illusion of self-control when it counted in front of his troops. It would seem he had gotten more comfortable around his travelling companions than he had believed possible. Either that or it had been too long since his the nightmare had plagued him. Well, it still plagued him from time to time but the episodes of it being so vivid and lifelike had become more spread apart. He didn't have a name to call the episodes. It wasn't sleep walking precisely, but it embarrassed him to no end and concerned him should he ever retire and have a person he shared his life with. A low hanging tree branch had been his assailant. His head ached. It felt as through he'd just been brained by a moblin's club. His calloused fingers probed at the new injury finding in the sweat slicked hair an already distinct lump that he had no one to blame for but himself and a dream. He could feel an unpleasant buzz of pain all the way into his jaw. He'd only meant to rest his eyes. They'd begun to take on the feel of heavily weighted drapes longing to do their purpose and shut out the light of day but It that had been more than mere moments. The sky was black as ink now and the waxing moon was ghostly in the shifting mists around him. "Shit," he muttered softly. He was glad that it was dark, glad of the fog and he hoped that no one had been awake to witness that. He felt like an a child jumping at shadows and scary noises. He felt derelict in the watch duty he had agreed to perform and that was not a comfortable thing for him. He had to get over this. Shit happened to people. Especially to people whose profession was war and some trauma was too be expected. He needed his wits sharp and about him at all times. He didn't have the luxury especially in a situation like this to not know the difference between dreams and reality. He was too old to still feel spooked even upon waking, and to let nightmares trouble his daytime hours. The past was done. It couldn't be changed. Okay, so that wasn't precisely true but time travel and the crossing of dimensions that didn't belong crossed were above his paygrade. He muttered softly to himself as he adjusted his position position. Even sitting he felt a bit of vertigo. At least the blow hadn't broken the skin. It had just left an unpleasant dull throbbing between his ears. He'd cracked his head a good one but he'd be fine so long as he sat for a few minutes. He'd certainly had worse.

He was irritated that his companions had let him sleep. He was supposed to have been on first watch with Wild but Link hadn't been sleeping well recently and the old man knew. He always knew whether you wanted him to or not. Time slept hard or not at all himself, but being the eldest of this strange tribe of young warriors he had that parental "Do as I say, not as I do" sort of attitude. There was no "official" leader of the group. It wasn't as if they were a military unit even if they packed more fire power than one. In a group of loners used to doing it all alone and carrying the sole responsibility for the outcome of their actions having an actual leader wouldn't have gone over well. But people will be people and certain roles just happen official or not. People listened to Time purely because he was the most imposing, physically and in attitude. He was older, gruff, experienced and the younger men in his company just naturally responded to that. That said if there was a leader, if any one of them were asked, they'd all say the same thing. It was Time whether he wanted that role or not. That had been a change for Link who had become accustomed to being the one in charge but it was a role he'd been glad to relinquish to the older man. Link didn't relish the leadership role. It had more been thrust upon him than something he'd personally sought and yet he'd found himself surprisingly suited for it once he'd learned to step outside his natural shyness. He was still perfectly willing to step up and make a call when it was required of him in his present company but in all honesty he rather enjoyed the feeling of being just one of the troops again. He could joke again and not have the other men suddenly shape up and snap to because he was present. His own time in the role as just one of the boys had been relatively short, in comparison to the military rank he currently held. That was in his normal life before whatever this was had pulled him out of it. He wasn't all that old despite being the second oldest in the camp. He'd had to be more mature than he'd ever wanted to be at his age to be respected by other officers and the men under him. He was young for a Captain's rank and he held it because of what he was, a war hero. The hero. He accepted the truth of that. He said that not with pride but with resignation. None of those here had asked for the weight of "the hero" mantle and yet it was the one thing they shared. Still he tried to swallow the resentment at being led again. Chain of command was import to follow for a reason and that he wasn't above it wasn't something he should complain about. Time had no doubt evaluated the situation that Link was tired and made the simple command call to let him rest. Link didn't let things get to him often but a recent short trip through his own Hyrule to a location that held some undesirable memories had gotten to him more than he'd like to admit. Time hadn't been wrong to make the call. He'd have made it himself had their positions been reversed, but what really ate at him when he got down to it was that it had been needed at all. In this group he was hardly alone in having some rough memories to deal with. They'd all been too young but war and evil didn't discriminate. It didn't care about age or if you were ready for it. He was irritated at himself for not handling his own baggage with more grace and he was really irritated with himself that he'd missed his watch.

The watches were very important. Link had it in his bones to take them seriously after having been on one too many battlefields. Monsters liked the dark and this group of travelers were the targets in the situation, the prey. This was all because something yet to be defined, had decided it would be the intelligent thing to do to take out the bearers of the tri-force of courage past, present, and future in one fell swoop. Honestly, probably not a dumb move though why not in the cradle if time travel was a possibility he couldn't say. Maybe throwing them together was a way of protecting them, a kind of insurance policy by the goddess. Maybe it was instead part of the enemies own plan. Arrogance and evil did seem to go hand in hand. The knew so little about the bizarre state of their own circumstances. That probably shouldn't have been a surprise considering the goddess' s intro to being the chosen hero 101 course seemed to consist of sticking the master sword in ones hand regardless of age. If their being together was in Hylia's plan it had very nearly backfired in the beginning. Good and experienced as all of them were it had been a a total cluster fuck. They'd been unknowns to one another. No trust had been built, the capabilities and weapons at their fellows disposal had been unknowns. Their very skill had made them dangerous to one another. They'd been lucky not to kill each other in their own zeal to slay the monsters. It would have been comical in some instances if it hadn't also been more than a little worrisome in a safety sense. There had been just so much raw skill, weaponry and magic in such a confined vicinity. That had been in a group of men all programmed by destiny to take down any threat to Hyrule's safety, to protect others, and to keep themselves alive long enough to do that job. To be suddenly tossed together after having had to bear that burden alone? Well, it was a serious change to one's thought process. Link might have had the assistance of others of an army, but at the end of the day the title "hero" had still been his burden alone to bear and to find oneself surrounded by others with that same designation and capabilities? It required a change in even his own tactical planning that was for certain. It was also a helluva a lot of testosterone to reign in and in that sense he certainly didn't envy Time being the one they all looked to with, "Now what?"

Honestly, they were having to learn to think and act as a military unit, an elite special force despite themselves. It wasn't a notion several of their group would be comfortable with. Link seemed to take the brunt of the disdain for knighthood Twilight and Legend seemed to harbor, despite the lack of logic in that. He didn't know if it was because of his captaincy or something else about him as a person. Perhaps it was that he carried the title with pride. Maybe, since he was better at letting comments roll off his back they vented to him and not Wild who was much more sensitive and insecure. They were never nasty to him personally but they certainly took no pains to hide their opinion of Hyrule's own. Twilight was by no means a cruel or judgmental man and so Link knew he had his his reasons. Legend? Well one couldn't exactly say that Legend wasn't as judgmental and jaded as an old hooker but he would have his own valid reasons as well. It would just be nice if they took the time explain themselves instead of making the little digs sometimes. Then again, he'd never asked them to explain themselves. The camp they shared was a guarded place, not just from the enemy put from each other. As many bonds and as much true friendship had been formed they all lived by their own secrets and there were days when the air fairly reeked of the unspoken.

Link had come to cherish his companions. He hadn't really wanted to in a situation he knew had to be a passing one. He'd experienced that once already and the loss of his allies had been deeply felt. It had also been bound to happen. These other young men were basically family, the same spirit of the hero had come down to them all. They could all bond over knowing the weight of that without a word said and yet he'd resisted it even if he'd strove to be outwardly friendly and cooperative from the beginning. Wind had gotten to him first. Wind thought knighthood was a thing to be admired which he had to admit touched him. He thought this despite the fact that he claimed to have gone pirate and a knight would naturally be his sworn enemy. Then again, Wind was a child. Despite his own adventures and all he'd had to go through Wind had managed to maintain the wonder and exuberance of a child. That was amazing. It was a struggle for Link to separate himself from that notion and to trust the young man to take care of himself even when he knew full well he could. He made Link want so badly to protect him. He wanted to let him keep the innocence that remained. To look into Wind's face one day and to see eyes as burned out and wary as Legend's would kill him a bit inside. He liked Legend. He enjoyed his sharp wit and didn't take much offense but he didn't want that edge for Wind. He'd seen it too often in soldiers. It was the nature of war. But war's were fought so others wouldn't have to have eyes that had seen too much and he wanted that for Wind. For Legend it was far too late. He'd done more and seen more than any of them if his insinuations were to be believed and Link had no reason not to. Legend played his cards close to his chest but anyone could tell he was a hardened veteran.

Hyrule seemed in awe of knights and of Link's captaincy, a fact which was completely uncalled for given Hyrule's own accomplishments. Hyrule however was the most simple, unassuming, young man that Link had ever met. He was so worldly and yet not worldly at all. Link had never said as much aloud to anyone but of them all he admired Hyrule the most. despite Most others would probably guess otherwise but Hyrule wanted no credit. That was more than commendable especially in the sincerity of it. He never had desired any recognition and simply thought that all he'd ever done was just what anyone would do. Despite all the evil he had to have faced he believed any man would simply step up and do the right thing despite any fear, danger, or personal cost. There was something still freshly naive about the young man. He didn't complain. He just quietly did whatever was asked of him, glad to have been of service. Mere conversation seemed to be a gift to this slip of a youngster doomed to wander alone. Hyrule was damn near saintly in his own opinion. It was just something in his manner, not innocence precisely in the manner of of eyes that have never seen suffering; but a simple down to earth niceness rarely seen so purely.

They all bore their mantles with dignity and not ego really, but they owned what they were. They owned what they had been called to do with varying levels of acceptance and resentment. Truth be told, they'd all been tasked with doing the impossible. For reasons known only to the goddess it had been decided it could only be done by them. That the "spirit" lived in them and that the sword that seals the darkness could only be wielded by them was a heavy load for anyone. The fate of a kingdom and it's people. All those lives resting on your shoulders and only your shoulders because no matter how hard anyone else fought no mortal blade would conquer the evil Hyrule was fated to face. Failing to perform that duty initially had left Wild how he was today and Link pitied the young man. He didn't believe him to be a failure or unworthy, but believing himself to be had obviously left him shattered as a person. The goddess asked for your life, your blood, your sweat, your tears and your unwavering commitment. The simple acknowledgement that it required more than a bit of uncommon heroism wasn't too much to ask for in his own opinion. Yes, Link didn't want singled out. Didn't like it to be in fact. He didn't want the adoration of the masses but at the end of the day he liked to be able to say, at least to himself, "you'd have made your father proud". You were a hero. That thought made him cringe, and only served to remind him of the reoccurring dream. The guilt he lived with came flooding to the surface all over again. No, he wasn't as pure as Hyrule but maybe if he had been, he'd be free of his own worst nightmare,; himself.

"Captain?" questioned a mild voice, rather softly.

Hyrule. The very young man so heavily on his mind. So, his little meeting with the tree had no gone unnoticed after all. At least it hadn't been Legend to witness it. Hyrule only sounded...concerned. Link knew he hadn't quite been himself the last few days and today in particular so he didn't blame Hyrule for being worried. They were a unit after all and if one was off of their game it could effect the whole. That probably wasn't what Hyrule was thinking though. The guy was just being kind.

"I'm alright," he responded and kept his tone low, to avoid waking the bundles of blanketed men on the chilly forest floor. Sleep was a precious commodity and after today they all needed it.

"You're sure?" Hyrule sounded apologetic to even insinuate that the hero of warriors might be downplaying the smack to his head. The smaller man looked down at his own hands before grabbing a long stick to stir the dying fire with. "I just mean, ...well that sounded pretty hard. Do you need anything? A potion or something?"

"I'm good really." he responded with a soft chuckle that was more a cover than sincere, "Save the potions for when we really need them. A headache I can deal with."

"I didn't startle you did I?" Legend slunk out from the shadows behind him. Of course it was him. He was always present to witness anything Link ever did anything to make an ass of himself. Still Legend's voice was surprisingly mild, almost apologetic. Link must have them all worried.

"Didn't even know you were there," Link admitted. It was true, sadly. And it was only further proof that he needed to get out of his own head and start paying attention to his surroundings. Legend slowly lowered himself to the ground to Link's right, and crouched before the fire to warm his hands. The light cast an eerie orange glow on his deep red tunic. The fog could obscure nearly anything in these woods. One couldn't see more than a foot away. Link waited Legend out. Legend would say something or he wasn't Legend.

Chapter Text

Legend stared into the dying fire and the light it only played up the dark circles under his eyes. Legend often looked tired but it was pointless to question him about it or ask what was really on his mind. One would only be met with some flippant retort or a look that clearly said to mind your own business. In this case Link would assume it was just as much to do with time travel as anything else. It always seemed to tax everyone to some degree or another. Shifting through time and space and getting dumped on ones ass was nauseating and unpleasant at the very least. To top that unpleasantness this time they had landed in Wild's Hyrule. It was a place Wild knew but wasn't easy to navigate even for him. It was called the Lost Woods and for good reason. Even that weird bit of tech he carried and basically used as a thing to take pictographs and store inventory couldn't tell them anything. It had enhanced functionality in his own era, like the ability to map their location which not so conveniently didn't apply to here.

He didn't have a lost woods in his own Hyrule. The place appeared to be nothing but creepy trees surrounded by swirling mists and he could swear he heard eerie mocking laughter on occasion. Either that or his nightmares were getting to him even more than he thought they were. The location was unsettling in daylight and at night aside from wolves and keese, stahlfoes woke up to join the party. That information was unpleasant because visibility was already terrible without adding darkness into the mix. Those might not be terribly imposing enemies but you couldn't fight what you couldn't see. Not only that the enemies being sent after them were not always specific to the locale. Really anything could be tossed at them and that made a night of camping here even more dangerous than a usual night.

The goal had been to either make it out of the forest or to it's heart before that had become an issue. At the forest center lay the great dekku tree in this Hyrule and a place of safety according to Wild. Getting out was the obvious goal but if finding the dekku tree occurred first it would at least give them a relative idea of their orientation in this mess, a safe place to sleep, and a whole days fresh start come sunup. Moving in the right direction had proved taxing and incredibly slow. Following the wind and the direction the mists was how Wild had navigated it previously. The shifting nature of said mists was proving this method damn near impossible. Failure to interpret it correctly resulted in one ending up right where they had started. This seemed to confuse Wild who claimed previously it had sent him back to the start of the forest or back to the korok village where the dekku tree made its home. That would have been far too handy. This implied their unseen enemy was thwarting them. It wasn't a comfortable idea to consider they might be being herded into some sort of trap or being delayed so that one might be set up.
No matter where in time they landed some sort of unpleasant surprise in the form of monsters was typically going to be the outcome. It was like a never ending soup bowl with as many ingredients in the form of terrain, and enemies that could be tossed together and it sampled differently with every bite.

The biggest issue was the size of the group. There seemed to be a certain undefinable amount of error they were given in stepping out of line in the forest, crunch together as they might. If one person lagged too far behind or ahead they disappeared. They couldn't afford to get split up and so they'd all just step out of bounds and start over to stay together. After enough of that they'd realized the likellihood of them reaching a safer destination was just not going to happen before dark. In a group decision they'd given it up for the day and just made camp where they had landed back to every-time and they knew they wouldn't get separated if they spread out enough to make a fire and eat and eventually sleep. Link had wanted first watch with Wild to have the opportunity to get as much information about this place as he could. He wanted an in depth idea of tactics to counter whatever new foes they might run across in Wild's version of Hyrule. He knew there were mechanical enemies from the little Wild had volunteered and he wanted to know the weak spots and how to counter them. Instead he'd fallen asleep and missed an opportunity to draw the boy out without Twilight's protective hovering. He realized what little Wild could remember from his past was painful. That much was obvious by the massive amount of scarring all over the young man's body but he was also the expert here and that knowledge needed shared. Sometimes one had to know what questions to ask to build a strategy. He was angry at himself for missing an uninterrupted chance.

"So, what's with you?" Legend asked, not looking at Link's face.

It pulled him out of his self chastisement. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised that it would be Legend to ask the question out-loud first. Legend was the curious sort even if he didn't appreciate that same curiosity turned back on himself. Still, it was just a flat out question. There was no underlying sarcasm or judgement in the tone. He seemed to just be asking what everyone wanted to know.

What was wrong? Well that was a loaded question and one he wasn't sure how comfortable he felt answering. They'd all had a rough time of it in one way or another. They'd all fought things most people wouldn't have survived and lived to fight on the next day. Once they even jokingly bragged to one another about who had confronted the bigger foe and won. Time had put a stop to that with his deadpan answer of "the moon", whatever the hell that had meant. It was rather hard to tell with him. He could have been completely serious or just pulling their legs to see if they were gullible enough to believe something that insane. His face hadn't given anything away and even Twilight could only look baffled in response. The point was though, that it was mainly joking around. Occasionally there was the slip of some small bit of hinted deep feeling. There was rarely a follow-up question as the person who had made the slip clammed up and it was nearly always just allowed to pass or answered with something as simple as a hand on the shoulder. They didn't go deep with one another. Deep was dangerous.

No one talked about the deep seated feelings they all had to have buried in their hearts or the inevitable trauma that had scarred them in being tasked to save everyone else. In some ways that was a little dumb, seeing as if anyone could ever understand those feelings it would be another "hero" but no one really went there. Partly that was just a guy thing. They weren't a gaggle of girls talking about their damn feelings after all. Partly it was a soldier thing which they all qualified as even if not officially. Soldiers dealt by bawdy banter and the occasional good stiff drink when it could be found. Those moments of pure terror they'd experienced a soldier they kept inside and saved for nightmares. One did the job and didn't talk. That's just the way it was. If the others did it was in private little groups. Groups like Time and Twilight or Wild and Twilight. Okay, maybe mostly those three in particular like some sort of private clique within the larger group. There was a tightness of bond there that had never really been explained. Personally, Link felt on the outside to some degree with them all. He was part of the group and it was a solid cohesive one, but his interactions within it had remained nearly completely superficial. Opening up to Legend seemed a bit like handing arrows to an enemy or a confession to a judge even if he hardly considered Legend to be an enemy. Legend could however be quick to judge.

Wind had been the easiest for Link to bond with. Kids always liked him and he enjoyed their company He relaxed around young people. He associated them with home and periods of peace and of lighter days and times. Some of their boundless puppy-like energy and joy seemed to rub off onto him. They brought out his playful side. Adults he kept much much more at arms length. He still joked around but in a different manner. He knew when to be serious and could switch gears in an instant if the situation suddenly changed, but that was all part of command and establishing a good rapport with his troops.

For Link, getting close to someone else or really letting his guard down felt dangerous. That was probably part of the reason he was still notoriously a bachelor even though he'd very much like to have a family someday. It was even true among friends. He kept acquaintances and drinking buddies not deep friendships. That was for a lot of reasons. No one he'd known in his life back home could possibly understand the pressure he was under as the former "hero" in the green tunic or the burden of having that golden tri-force burning on your hand. Zelda, yeah she could. That however was a place he couldn't go. It was a height that he could never reach. It would always be like the moment he'd first saw her. She the ethereal and regal royal staring down at him from her lofty heights with those keen blue eyes while he stared up from the masses beneath her. He was her knight, her loyal servant and she could never be his friend or anything more and so that place of comfort and understanding was permanently barred to him.

With his men, to be respected meant to keep a certain amount of distance while still being likable. One had always to be be prepared to see one or many of those familiar faces disappear, claimed by the greedy hand of war. The others didn't understand that. Watching men you were responsible to lead die and sending them to that death. It ate at him sometimes. He had trouble making close friends of other officers because of the separateness that surrounded him in being the hero and also because at one point in time some of those same officers had turned on him mid-battle. They'd pleaded the influence of dark magic but true or not it didn't change the fact that they'd taken up arms against him and the kingdom they'd all sworn to serve and encouraged their men to do the same. It had caused a slaughter. Hyrulean fighting Hyrulean clothed in the same uniform, unable to tell friend from foe until it was too late. He didn't believe anyone here would betray him but that self distancing was a difficult habit to break. He knew anyone here was willing to put their life on the line for anyone else in the group. Still, he didn't really know he felt about spilling his guts to Legend, a young man who hoarded secrets like he hoarded magic equipment.

He decided he just needed to man up and do his job. Find the source of the shadow and defeat it. That's what they were all here for. They were all soul weary and they didn’t need his shit too so to Legend he said simply, "I just haven't slept well is all. I think we all know how that goes?"

"Is there something you need to talk about? We all have bad dreams but you've been off for days. Ever since your Hyrule to be specific" Legend pried and Hyrule looked up in surprise that Legend was apparently going to push the topic. He quit poking the fire and stared at them both trying to look unobtrusive.

Link laughed but the sound was empty and even a fool could hear that. Yeah, he probably did need to talk to someone if only to put his feelings into words, and to finally sort them out but should he? Probably not. Would Legend get it? Most likely but dealing with Legend was like a dance. Two steps forward then big step back, and suddenly he'd do some unscripted twirl and surprise you. Moody little s.o.b. Apparently today he was feeling empathetic or something. He wasn't incapable of it. Because of Legend's unpredictability though he didn't know if he wanted to just come out with it only to accidentally trip some trigger in his listener and have it turn into a fight. It wouldn't be the first time between them and this was too sensitive for him to have Legend go off on him about it.

Nightmare still clung to Link like the silken, sticky strands of a cobweb and he knew it had nothing to do with the jumbled images in his head that varied from night to night so much as the memories they revolved around. There was so much guilt and shame that he could never quite let go and didn't know if he had any right to. He could never quite decide how much blame to put upon himself so it just felt safer to take it all but in the time he had taken to consider all that Legend had taken his laughter the wrong way. His face had gone from passive to staring up at Link as if he'd personally offended him. Maybe he had. Legend didn't show his gentler side all that often and Link had shut him down when he had chuckled. He hadn't meant to. He'd have thought the sarcasm would be obvious to it's king.

"Fine laugh," and this time Legend did snap, like a dangerous, tightly coiled, angry little whip, "I try to be friendly and..."

"I know," Link cut him off trying to diffuse the little bomb before it went off and woke the others up. He tried to be honest to pacify him, "It's just that...well some things are hard to talk about you know?" He shrugged trying to appear... trying to appear what? As less of a threat? Why was Legend so moody? Tired. He was tired don't forget that, Link tried to remind himself. Tired people were often bitchy people.

"Legend," said Hyrule, gently. Hyrule could tend to calm Legend down whereas Link usually had the opposite effect. Sometimes it was intentional from both parties just to get a rise out of each other, other times it was a genuine conflict of personality, like now. They both had strong ones. "I don't think he was laughing at you."

Hyrule much like Four, was one of the peacemakers of the group. He didn't like the role as shy as he was but would take it on if he had to. He didn't like tension. Hyrule could be as much of an idiot as Wild and just as much a kid as Wind when it came to risky stunts and ill advised adventures but with people he was much more timid. That wasn't a bad thing in a group like this that already had it's share of big personalities. For example, Legend had now gotten that pissy look he seemed to have cemented on his face back and clammed up like a pouty child.

"He was you know..." Hyrule seemed to be searching for the right word, "Well... I mean it wasn't a haha kind of laugh?"

"And I care why?" Legend feigned disinterest and looked at his nails. Like those mattered to him, "I offered an ear out of the goodness of my heart to listen and he.."

Now Link did laugh, "Trying to sound like your pal, Ravio? Bublin shit. The goodness of your heart my ass! It's eating you alive not knowing just admit it."

"Please. You're not that mysterious. I'm just tired of dealing with your grumpy ass. The entire universe doesn't exactly center around you." Legend hit back, "even if you're delusional enough to think that it does."

And that? It was just an off the cuff Legend comeback. One that he could and should just let go but it hit too close to home. Link felt that shame rising up in his throat like bile, warring with a sudden desperate urge to cover it up and keep it hidden like a stain. It irrationally, made him want to defend the very the thing he most feared about himself. He could feel his eyes narrow and blood heat up like he wanted to swing at someone and it probably showed on his face.

"Guys," said Hyrule a little desperately, "Please, do we really have to fight about this? It was a misunderstanding. I don't even know what either of you are mad about really? " He shut his mouth looking uncomfortable and out of his element. He looked between them a little desperately and at the bedroll spread out around them.

"I am not an egomaniac." Link defended himself, each word enunciated precisely through a clamped jaw. The need to be free of that label came from the depths if his soul. And even Legend looked a bit taken aback by the fire with which it was said.

Chapter Text

Ego-maniac had not been Legend's exact wording but that was the one it triggered in Link's head. It was a bit of a button. He didn't blow up like this every time, not most actually. Okay, actually this would be the first time he had but that was because it wasn't an uncommon accusation. Legend couldn't know that of course but Link was tired, he had a headache, and he was sick to death of people thinking that about him. Sure sometimes he even made fun of himself for it or intentionally played it up but a class clown is usually just that to hide their own insecurities. The truth was people were always making assumptions about him. Suddenly becoming someone everyone knew because you were the hero had it's downside. It made you public property in a way royalty probably understood. You were up for public scrutiny and judgement and worst of all unfounded opinions and rumors.

A particular one he hated was public speculation about his relationship with his sovereign. Nasty rumors that he was the queen's little pet and promoted not because he was good at what he did but because he had a pretty face and was good at other things. He'd been as much of a no one as anyone else in that training yard the day his entire life had been turned upside-down and then shaken for good measure. He'd been sparring just as he always sparred, hard and with no mercy because he had something to prove to himself and a dead man. When he'd happened to glance upward and lock eyes with the then Princess Zelda time had stopped. He'd never expected to see her in person. She was a name, a figurehead, not a real and breathing person to him. Yet there she had stood, young, lovely as any fairytale princess would be and impressive in full battle regalia. As was typical his brain had been processing in a million different directions at once. One part pondering the significance of her being in full battle dress, another part the simple shock of a peasant upon seeing their sovereign in the flesh, and yet another aware of but not understanding the sheer magnetism between them. It felt like neither of them could look away and that one moment suspended in time was a eternity.

He hadn't known it then or understood it at the time but that feeling had been because it had conveyed an eternity. It had been the subconscious recognition of the lifetimes passed together between their souls. One somehow always finding the other, recognizing on some level that they were bound. That binding was old as the blade re-forged. The vow of a goddess wedding her soul to that of a mortal woman and forsaking her divinity to follow forever her hero lost to her in death with a promise to find him in another life. Over the course of countless incarnations she had been friend, lover, wife, queen, sometimes all and sometimes just one, but always present. He hadn't known any of this at the time nor would he even have believed it if someone had told him he was destined to be the hero, he'd just felt that undefinable...connection. He'd been one of the few apparently to ever see the and hear the guiding intelligence that dwelt inside the master sword. She'd told him things sometimes, for if the many lifetimes of the spirit of the hero were foggy to him in each new body with each new soul to her they were perfectly recalled with a memory that never lost it's precise clarity. To Link, his queen would always be just that; his queen. He would always be her faithful knight willing to lay down his life for her but that was all. Those insinuations to the contrary had become both insulting and nauseating.

If he and Zelda held a gaze too long on those rare occasions when they did have contact it wasn't some private pining or invitation, or unspoken wooing. It was that history, that knowledge embedded into their beings of how the others mind worked without a word being said. It didn't mean they always agreed with one another but that they knew how the other had arrived at that conclusion and he as a subject naturally followed his queen's lead. She always knew though if he hadn't agreed with her and in very rare moment of private conversation might give him a hard time about it good naturedly just as an I knew you didn't like it. If that could be considered a friendship of a very formal sort then he supposed one might call them that. In another setting, in different roles, without a massive social gap between them he was certain they might have been friends but it was what it was.

Aside from the accusations of favoritism he garnered the scorn of people who far from being glad there had been someone able to draw the master sword when disaster hit, blamed him for the need of it. Some members of the populace knowledgeable enough to understand more than there had been scary monsters and their way of life was being threatened knew enough details to make their own theories on why it had happened in the first place. Some knew the sorceress of time had taken an unhealthy attachment to him that had become pure crazy, dangerous. For his own part, he hadn't known of her existence let alone she was creepy stalker watching him and about to crack right down the middle quite literally. How couldn't one have a huge ego when an entire war had been fought over him they reasoned. Why not blame him for all those deaths and the misery suffered through war. Everybody needs someone to blame for their troubles and most of them never saw Ganondorf in the flesh but Link was real and solid enough to throw blame on his doorstep. It had certainly made good recruitment fodder for team Ganon and had turned some of his own men against him. The face that bewitched a witch and caused her to open the gates of time and the door for Ganon some said of him.

That was over simplifying the situation to the extreme. Monster attacks had already been on the rise. All the warning signs of an impending crisis had begun and it was a sign that Ganon had begun to rattle the bars of his cage and test it's ability to contain him. He'd found a weak bar in that prison in the form of the sorceress because in addition to extreme magical power Ganon also possessed the power of manipulation. Lana/Cia was simply the holder of the key to his cell and he played her just as he had any other lacky that had ever had the misfortune to work under him. She was a pawn to be discarded when her use had expired just like every other underling and that was what none of them ever understood until it was far too late. The ancient death curse of a god of demons calling for war without cease had been a prophesy to be played out again and again over the course of Hyrule's long and bloody history. So yes, he could be a bit over sensitive about the insinuation that he had an ego as large as the legend of the master sword.

That damn sword... Beautiful, deadly, unbeatable. An immortal blade, remade by mortal hands in order to be held by them but answering to one master. It was a sword designed to kill the unkillable, to allow a mortal to kill an immortal. It could not be beat. But the hero? The hero, while chosen was still a man and men could fail. It was far too easy to loose oneself in the power of that blade. It meant, at least for him that not only was the hero capable of falling to wily enemy he could also fall to himself.

And that, that was what this was really about. It had been for days. Ever since they'd been in his own Hyrule and had ventured through a certain room in a certain former home of the sorceress Cia. It had ripped a bandage off a wound that had never really healed. That knowledge, that memory, that he had almost failed his own men, his own kingdom, his queen. If he had fallen Zelda could not have sealed Ganon alone. It required them both and the blade and he had nearly fallen to the hubris contained within his own heart. Gandondorf had not in the end been the greatest enemy he had faced. No the most dangerous monster had worn his own face and even in death it haunted him with the image of what might have been. Yet he couldn't find the words to share that. It felt like making Legend's condemnation of himwise correct and maybe that was pride in and of itself and proof he still had work to do. He could recall Twilight's raised brow and slightly horrified expression when he'd said outright that the master sword could make you feel invincible, and Twi's warning that it was a dangerous attitude to have. He'd admitted that had nearly cost him his life but it had stayed his tongue from ever clarifying that statement any further. If hero's like Hyrule sometimes wondered if they were good enough to carry the title hero, they weren't lone. He was right there as well forever wondering if he'd blown it and had only been allowed to keep the job because he was the only one that could and so he'd gotten a pass he didn't deserve. Sure, he'd triumphed with some help from his friends but then that had been the lesson he'd been supposed to learn. Was being thrown here with a whole passel of hero's further trial on a lesson he hadn't quite mastered? Maybe. Maybe if he screwed this up and didn't learn to share and lean on others when he was struggling he'd jeopardize Hyrule all over again or maybe it was arrogant to even think that. It was a constant teeter totter in his head. Instinct as a commander of men said show your strengths not your weaknesses, life lessons learned by the sword said otherwise and so he was more than torn over what to do in this situation and it was making him crazy.

All that internal bulbin shit aside he'd over reacted and owed grumpy an apology. The comment hadn't been meant to be that deep and Link knew it. He was also aware his outburst had woken more than one sleeping camper as he could seeing bedrolls shifting in the firelight and knew at least one set of soft snores had ceased. Link was going to apologize. The words were on his lips when the soft scwhiping sound of an arrow buzzed by his ear followed by the thwunk of it imbedding in the tree far to close to his head. Instead of sorry what he yelled was, "Everyone get down or stay down!"