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Hyrule woke up with a start. The teenager was disturbed by a sudden cold snap that had come in the night, resulting in him and the others moving close to each other to share warmth. The old man had been forced in the middle, surrounded by Wild, Warriors and Sky. Of course, Hyrule had been a part of the cuddle pile while he was asleep, by waking up had caused him to move away from the group. But, by the looks of it, their little dome was still warm, and Hyrule liked knowing that everyone was okay despite the cold spell, and the calm looks on their faces was enough to deter him from returning to them in fear of waking them up.
The fear of waking others up wasn’t the only thing stopping him from falling back asleep, however. How could he, when the world around him was now covered in a fine, and bitterly cold, white powder?
Instantly, Hyrule was on edge. Years of past experiences and home brewed instincts told him to be on high alert, feeling of sleep completely banished from his being, replaced with pure adrenaline flooding his veins. While it seemed that there was nothing inherently magical about the powder that had settled around them and even on some of the heavier sleepers (Hyrule had never seen Time move once in his sleep, and it seemed that tonight was no exception to that habit),
This was something that was completely out of his depth.
He needed to wake someone up.
It was just a tad bit unfortunate that Sky happened to be the closest to him.
“Sky, you need to wake up!” Hyrule whisper-yelled, shaking the other as much as he dared without waking the others.
Normally, something like this would cause him to wake the entire group up, just in case. However, Hyrule was highly aware of the fact that, while filled with knowledge that had saved their lives in the past, there were things, simple things, that Hyrule just didn’t know about, that seemed to be common knowledge for the others. Out of the whole group, Sky was the person that Hyrule preferred turning to in events such as these, as the other hero would always patently explain what was going on while the others would giggle and make jokes before answering his questions or complain that they had been woken up over something trivial.
“Wha-” Sky’s sleepy voice was almost too quiet to pick up, but Hyrule ears twitched at the quiet noise, far too used to having to listen out for the smallest changes in his surroundings.
“So, you don’t know what this is either?”
“No.” Sky said, his eyes squinting as he analysed their camp.
“Do you think it’s dangerous?” Hyrule asked as the other hesitantly reached out to touch the powder, frowning as it started to melt to a touch. Nothing about him seem to change, except his body temperature, but that didn't rule out the possibility of something happening to him later.
“It’s just snow.” The new voice scared the pair, causing Hyrule to jump back and place his hand further into the white powder- snow?
Of course, their mutterings had woken Warriors, the lightest sleeper of the group. Hyrule couldn’t help but feel guilty over it, especially with the way that Warriors had just dismissed their concerns. He had woken the other up over nothing!
“What’s snow?” Sky asked as he continued to touch the snow, enjoying the feeling of it giving way to his warm hands.
“It’s like, tiny ice? It’s what happens when it rains, but it’s super cold and it freezes in the clouds. I’m surprised you never got any on Skyloft Sky, since it’s so high up.” Warriors explained as he stretched, reaching to his neck for his scarf, only to realise that Wind and Four had stolen it in their sleep, and he clearly didn’t have the heart to take it away form the smallest of the group.
“We live above the clouds. I hadn’t even seen rain before my adventure when I was going through Faron.”
“Is it dangerous?” the question slipped from Hyrule’s mouth before he could stop himself, and he mentally kicked himself for it. Clearly it wasn’t dangerous! If it were, the Warriors could look a bit more worried, and maybe the others would have woken up before Hryule did.
“It can be, if you don’t have a way of keeping warm, but with this amount of snow, we shouldn’t be in too much danger, unless someone slips on ice.” Warriors said as he stood. “We will need to get a fire started as soon as possible though and wake Wild up to see if he has anything for the cold in that slate of his.”
Of course, Wild had something in that slate of his for everyone to use. As it wasn’t as cold as it could apparently get in Wild’s Hyrule, he was able to pass around some low powered elixirs to those who weren’t used to the cold when everyone started waking up. Sky refused one, however, saying that Skyloft would get colder during the summer months, and Wind was also given a ruby circlet, clearly not used to non-tropical weather.
Once the fire was started, Wild decided that, instead of having a normal breakfast, they were going to be having something called smores, as well as hot cocoa, stating that it was tradition to do so on days when the weather turned biting. Legend had had made a bet with Warriors that he could make a better snowman than him, though neither of them listened to Twilight who yelled after them that there wasn’t enough snow to make one, let alone two.
They didn’t end up travelling that day, but despite the fact that the group was no closer towards their goal, whatever that may be, Hyrule couldn’t find it within himself to feel any guilt at their lack of progress. Not when the whole group was so happy that they didn’t need Wild’s potions to keep warm, and not when, years down the line when the adventure was over, Hyrule would be looking back at this memory with a smile that couldn’t leave his face.