Chapter Text
The evening is cool and beautiful, the dusk painting the sky a velvety stewed wildberry, and Legend is engaged in a fierce battle with his bag.
The buckle was ripped off a few days ago. Four promised to make him a replacement if the opportunity arose, but so far it hasn’t. In the meantime, Legend has simply tied the straps together and spent an extra few minutes clawing his way through the knots every time he needs to access its contents. It’s not a problem, or so he kept telling himself. The sweat dripping down his forehead, however, tells a different story.
He sits back on his heels for a minute, rubbing his sore fingernails and glaring at the mangled strips of fabric. Taking a minute to look around camp in an effort not to scream, Legend sighs.
The dusk is leaving the shadows long and deep against the wild, brushy grass that covers the clearing in a luscious carpet. The trees are knobby and tangled, their waxy green leaves melding with thick patches of moss and delicate ribbons of tiny white and yellow blossoms that trail and twine through the treetops. When they arrived, Wild said the place reminds him of the rain-rich Faron Woods of his Hyrule.
Camp seems to be slowing down with the conclusion of dinner and the setting of the sun. Most of the heroes are doing what Legend was trying to do and setting up for the night. Wind seems to be nagging Warriors about something, jumping around the older hero with big, watery eyes. Legend gives it two minutes before the Captain’s will breaks. Sky is asleep. Hyrule is…
Legend frowns. Where is Hyrule?
He scans the clearing, searching for the kid. He’s nowhere to be found, until Legend’s eyes land on two huddled silhouettes pressed against the treeline.
Wild and Hyrule stand across camp, whispering to each other. Both glance at Time and Twilight, then turn back to each other. Legend narrows his eyes at the Champion, curling his lip. What, you’re dragging Hyrule into your shit this time, too?
Then, with one last glance in Time and Twilight’s direction, the two heroes begin to slip off into the woods.
These idiots, I swear… Legend stands and grabs his second, smaller bag, buckle still intact, clipping it to his belt. He gives the mangled straps of the other one last glare. I’ll deal with you when I’m back.
The two don’t even notice him as he walks up behind them, too focused on making a clean escape to hear his soft footfalls. He reaches out and puts his hand on Hyrule’s shoulder.
“Ah-awhaaaaAAAA- oh.”
By the time Hyrule realizes that the hand on his shoulder belongs to a tired-looking Legend, his sword is halfway out of his sheath, he’s stumbled back five paces, and Wild has an arrow nocked.
“Calm the fuck down,” Legend says. “It’s just me.”
“Ah,” says Wild, placing the arrow back into his quiver and slinging his bow over his back. “Yes, of course. What do you need?”
“Is anything wrong?” Hyrule asks, trying to look as innocent as possible.
“Yes,” Legend says. He sees right through Hyrule’s cardboard facade, and the next words out of his mouth are, “Where the fuck are you two going?”
“We were just going to collect firewood,” Wild says. “You know, to keep the fire lit through the night for the watch?”
Legend raises an eyebrow. “I’m aware of the purpose of firewood. What I want to know is where you two are actually going.”
“To get firewood,” Hyrule says, enunciating each word. “You know, like he said.”
“I swear…” Legend mutters. “That's the most obvious excuse-”
“Code red!” Wild shouts,
“Code red?” Legend repeats. “What the fuck does-”
Legend doesn’t get to finish his question because Hyrule has grabbed his wrist and is now pulling him further into the woods. Legend stumbles to keep up so he isn’t yanked off his feet.
“Hyrule!” Legend gasps, stumbling to keep his footing. “What the fuck!”
“Why did you grab Legend?” Wild pants, feet thudding against the soft grass with no regard to his stealth.
“He’d already seen us,” Hyrule without breaking stride. “It was too late. Safer this way.”
Legend halts, ripping his wrist from Hyrule’s grasp.
“I’ve got a better question for you,” he says as they whirl around. “What the fuck are we running from?”
“Twilight saw us,” Wild says. “He’ll make us stay at camp. Or worse, he’ll escort us!”
“Come on! He’s fast.” Hyrule turns back around, grabbing Wild’s hand and running off.
Legend watches them disappear into the forest, then turns to look back towards camp. The voices of his saner companions are distant, whispers of firelight flickering against the tree trunks.
Twilight will make them go back to camp if he catches them…
Legend sighs, turning to run after Wild and Hyrule.
And they’ll need supervision if he doesn’t.
He’d rather not repeat what happened the last time those two were allowed off on their own.
----
It takes Legend a while to catch up to Wild and Hyrule. When he does, Wild is trying to pull Hyrule into a tree.
“Come on,” Wild is saying. “I swear I heard him behind us. We need to lose him. He’s too good at tracking to waste any time!”
“Dude, I’m just gonna fall and break something.” Hyrule eyes the tree uneasily. “I’m telling you, we’ve just gotta outrun him.”
“You still want to run?” Wild says. “I swear, you have no sense of stamina.”
“What do you mean?” Hyrule replies, glaring at Wild’s offered hand. “You’re the one who wants to jump through the treetops like a monkey . Let’s just keep running.”
“You’re a madman, Wild.” Legend walks out from behind the treeline. Wild makes a strangled sound, falling off the branch he was perched on and thudding to the ground in the undergrowth, sending waves into the tall grasses. Legend watches, eyebrows raised, as Wild sits up, Hyrule checking him over for injury.
“Honestly, you’re a madman too, Hyrule. No one can run for that long.” Legend walks over to the two of them as Wild stands, waving Hyrule off.
“Legend!” Hyrule wraps the hero in an exuberant hug. “You stuck around!”
Legend’s lip curls, and he pushes Hyrule away. “Please, no. You’ll suffocate me.”
“I’m impressed,” Wild says. “I thought we left you behind ages ago.” He stops, frowning. “You aren’t here to take us back, right? Or rat us out?”
Hyrule looks up at him, eyes wide. “Please?” he says. “Don’t tell Twi where we are. He never lets us do anything fun.”
Legend sighs. “I think you mean stupid. ‘He never lets us do anything stupid.’ And no, the only reason I’m here, not back at camp and minding my own business is because if you two get away with this you’ll need someone to make sure you don’t get yourselves violently murdered.”
“Sweet,” Wild says.
Hyrule sighs in relief. “None of your ‘follow the path’ crap, alright? We’re going our own way.”
“In the spirit of adventure!” They both chorus, laughing and high-fiving as though they’ve just won a difficult battle.
Legend rolls his eyes. “If you want to stay away from Twilight, you might want to keep moving.”
“Ah, yes,” Hyrule says.
“Of course,” Wild says.
Legend half-smiles. “Lead the way, idiots.”
----
They’ve been walking aimlessly for what feels like hours when the skies open with a great whomp of rain. The grass is slippery, the terrain rocky and uneven and difficult to navigate without breaking an ankle. The leaves have developed a nasty habit of dripping giant sploosh es of water right onto their heads. Legend glares at the night sky, roiling with thick clouds.
“If this place is as much like Faron as I think it is,” Wild says, “the rain will probably stop soon.”
“It’s dark ,” Legend says, “It’s wet , and we walked all day. I want nothing more than to sleep. ‘Soon’ does little to comfort me.”
“Why’d you come along, then?”
“I do wonder…” Legend grumbles.
“See, this is why I didn’t think we should bring him along,” Wild says as the group comes to a stop at the edge of a great cliff. The land drops off, the rocky slope plunging into the trees below. Raindrops trace their tear-streaked paths down the stone face. Legend can sense the faintest whiff of dark magic on the humid wind. He wrinkles his nose. “He’s just going to complain the whole time.”
“Let’s go left,” Hyrule says.
“Why?” Legend asks.
“Because.” Hyrule looks at him with a funny smile, as if he should have known that would be the answer, then sneezes.
“Bless you,” Wild says.
The three walk along the cliff’s edge, the slick grass bending and waving in the wind. The cool, humid breeze changes directions, then, blowing the scent of sulfur straight into Legend’s face, and he stops walking with a flinch.
“Hyrule?”
Hyrule looks over his shoulder, wiping his nose across his sleeve. “Yeah?”
“Do you smell that?”
“ Smell-? ” Hyrule pauses midstep. “Oh. You mean…” he trails off, tilting his head to the side. “I sense something ….”
“Eh, I’m sure it’s nothing.” Wild waves his hand. “Besides, adventure doesn’t come without a little danger.”
“No, seriously.” Legend hastens to catch up with the two. “You don’t understand. There’s-”
One second he’s jogging towards the other two heroes, the next he’s on the ground, sliding towards the cliff. He finds no purchase in the grass, and his fingers slide through any greenery he grasps as he plunges over the edge. He closes his eyes, barely hearing distant shouting and the drumming of rain on rock and for a moment, he’s suspended in nothing.
Then, he lands. Something snaps and tearing pain in his leg tells him that the tree branch he’s just landed on isn’t the only thing broken. He thuds onto grass. His eyes are still squinted shut but he hears a strange whirring sound and he isn’t sure if it’s his ears rushing with adrenaline or something else but the rancid scent of dark magic is pungent now, and he tries to ignore the stench.
He stumbles to his feet, stupidly, and crumples to the ground with a pained gasp when his right leg screams at him, giving out. His vision blurs, turning purplish and blotchy, and suddenly, the dark sulfur is all there is, and it tickles his skin with sinister familiarity. His leg throbs with a dull heat under the stabbing pain that tears across his shin. The darkness swims up to catch him, and he sinks into it with something akin to relief.