Chapter Text
Link walked through castletown, avoiding the bustle of the market stands and the impatient shoppers, Erune whined and shifted in his arms. Link looked down to see his son’s ears drooping with the cacophony of noise in the town, his brows furrowed and mouth pulled downwards accenting the baby fat of his rounded face. Link's heart squeezed slightly with how cute he looked, but quickly began trying to comfort the one year old before he started fusing. “Not much longer now then we can go home sweetie,” he said as he bounced Erune softly with the one arm he had holding the child and turned to press a kiss to his son’s forehead, pressing his nose into the soft fuzz of his thin hair.
Evidently Erune had enough of the nose around him and soft skin was quickly replaced with hard scales, small claws gripped onto his shirt and his son’s slender body dove between his undershirt and chainmail. Link looked down into his shirt to see that Erune had hooked his claws into his chainmail, the deep red scales of his back pressed against the fabric covering his chest. Two teal eyes peered up at him and a soft trill escaped the muffle of his shirt, Link responded by humming, causing his son to settle further in place. A few more things then they could go home, he thought as he pressed through the market.
He managed to finish his shopping with a bit more ease with a hand free of holding his infant and began to look for his eldest sister, Lakshmi, and his daughter in the crowd. He took a quick peek into his shirt to see that Erune was now asleep, but when he looked back up he stumbled back in shock to see a purple portal before him. He took a step back but someone behind him hit his back hard causing him to stumble forward right into the portal. He quickly turned to jump back through but found that the portal was gone.
He found himself in an unfamiliar forest, he could sense some magic lingering in the forest but it was unlikely to be home to any ancient powers like the Great Deku Tree. He was cautious about venting too far and started to pull out his bow and quiver on the off chance there were any deku babas in the area. Although they didn’t emit poisonous clouds in other Hyrules, he wasn’t going to risk ruining his lungs any further. A shuffling in the brush nearby had him on guard immediately and he began to ready himself for a possible battle.
He quickly realized that there was one person approaching in heavy armor, but their movements were far too quiet for his liking. He reached for his sword and fought the instinct to cover where his son was hiding under his tunic, when the armored man stepped out of the brush. They crossed eyes and Link took in the man’s armor, that looked vaguely familiar, before he froze on seeing his face. The man looked surprised, but Link knew those markings and that middle parted hair, he fought himself from choking up as he spoke, “Mask?” He struggled to believe this man was the same as the child he’d grown close to during the war but he couldn’t help the small bubble of hope from rising up.
The man smiled, Link knew that smile, the small one that held so many emotions that Link had to choke back a sob. “You haven’t changed much, big brother.” Something between them snapped like a twig and Warriors rushed forward to hug his little brother, he was much taller now but he still only reached Link’s shoulder. It was muffled but Link could hear Mask mutter “damn you’re still fucking taller than me,” against his shoulder, and Link felt laughter bubble up from his stomach. Mask giggled slightly too, his bubbly laughter muffled as he buried his face in Link’s tunic.
Link felt a slight shift under his tunic but before he could pull back from Mask to see what his son was up too, Mask reeled back with a yelp clutching his nose. Link was about to help his younger brother when the thump of Erune’s tail against his chest turned his attention to the tiny dragon that was clutched to his chainmail, spewing small bursts of flames in an attempt to scare off his “attacker.” Unfortunately for Erune, he was only about the size of an average house cat so he lacked much of the intimidation factor his father had. Fortunately for Mask, Erune’s teeth were still milk teeth and incompletely grown in lessening the damage on his poor nose.
“Warriors, why is there a baby dragon in your tunic? I thought Volga was the only dragon in your Hyrule, did he get deaged or something?” Mask said as he attempted to approach, causing Erune to hiss and try spitting more fire at him. Link did the one thing he knew he could get away with doing to stop his son and clasped Erune’s jaws shut with his hands. Erune immediately stilled and Link mentally counted a few seconds before releasing his son’s jaws. Mask looked astonished by how quickly Erune’s mood changed, although generally he only did that to settle Erune or Hestia down if they got a little too rambunctious whale playing for Warriors to handle.
“No this isn’t Volga, um he’s actually our son.” Mask’s closed eye opened slightly with surprise showing the solid white eye hidden beneath his scar. He stared at Erune for a moment then back at Link as if trying to put pieces of a puzzle that didn’t quite fit together in place.
“He’s your’s and Volga’s son?” he asked quizzically and Link nodded. “It’s about time you two got together.” He said with a smug smile.
“Shut it you little gremlin.” Link was about to rib Mask on how his crush on the girl Malon turned out when a rustling from the direction Mask came from set him on guard, Erune curled himself back into his shirt. Warriors could hear the slight clatter of his nails against metal as he used his chainmail to settle back into place. A short pink haired man in a red tunic stepped out of the underbrush looking like he’d just bitten into a particularly spicy pepper. That or that was simply his resting expression.
“Oh great, another idiot who fell through those obviously dark magic riddled portals.” He said looking at Link with exasperation and suspicion before turning to Mask. “What the fuck happened to your face, Time?” He questioned. That’s right, Mask's hero name was technically the Hero of Time.
“I was just snagged in the face by a low branch, Legend. As for the new hero joining us, his name is Warriors.” Legend looked slightly annoyed by the news.
“Is something the matter?” Link, well he supposes Warriors, now asked in an attempt to create a good standing with the smaller hero.
“What the fuck kind of hero name is Warriors? It's plural too which just makes it sound dumber when referring to a person. Also, I’m pretty sure hylians aren’t meant to get as absurdly tall as you are.” Legend looked at him as if he was picking apart every aspect of his being, Warriors felt irritated by the judgement.
“Well if it bothers you that much you can just call me Captain and it’s not as if Legend is a much better nickname. As for my height,” he said, leaning down to look directly at the shorter hero. “I’m half Gerudo.” Legend looked confused by the admission and Warriors quickly realized that his time probably didn’t have Gerudo, then Legend’s eyes seemed drawn elsewhere and Warriors quickly realized that Erune’s weight caused Legend to have a clear view of the dragon hiding under his chainmail. A hissing chirp from Erune caused Warriors to straighten himself so his son didn’t decide to take a chunk out of Legend’s nose too. Thankfully Mask, no Time, decided to save him by redirecting Legend’s attention.
“Gerudo are a race of women who are fairly similar to Hylians but they’re mainly born women and they’re much taller than Hylians in general.”
“Okay that makes some sense but that doesn’t explain why he’s a man and why there’s a fire breathing lizard hiding in his shirt!” Legend’s voice got progressively louder as he continued to speak, Warriors sighed.
“Firstly I chose to be male, secondly the dragon is my son.” Legend looked more confused.
“Your son is cursed?”
“No, his father is a dragon, so he can turn into a dragon too.” Warriors said matter-of-factly, Legend looked like he mentally checked out of the conversation.
“You know what nevermind. So your son’s apparently a dragon and for some ungodly reason you decided to pack him along for your travels, how the fuck do you plan on keeping him safe? How do you plan to introduce him to the others?” Warriors wasn’t too surprised that there were other heroes and Legend did have a point.
“I think I have a pretty good handle on managing an infant since my eldest is three but it would probably be better to introduce myself to the others with said infant than a dragon pup.” Warriors hummed and beckoned Erune to crawl out of his shirt, his son looking at him curiously. Warriors placed a hand on his son's chest and carefully positioned him onto his back in his arms, Erune chittered and shifted trying to roll back onto his stomach but Warriors held him in place with his hand. Eventually Erune settled down and shook himself slightly and soon his son was once again a Hylian looking infant.
“Okay that was weird, but you should probably clean off his hands and face before we go to meet the others.” Legend stated, gesturing at the blacked skin on Erune’s hands that traveled halfway up his forearms and on his small nose. Time peered to get a better look at his son minding his distance when he saw Erune’s face scrunch up.
Warriors sighed, “yeah that’s just part of his skin he was born with those markings. My husband has similar markings.” Legend looked confused but Time spoke up before he could ask any questions.
“He does look a lot like Volga.” As he spoke Erune apparently got tired of being stared at and turned his face into Warriors’ tunic, grasping the fabric tightly in his tiny hands. Warriors chuckled and shifted him slightly so that he was more secure in his arms, he gently grabbed one of his tiny hands off his tunic and showed Legend that there were no stains left behind. When he let Erune’s hand go it clutched onto his scarf, pulling it down in an attempt to hide himself away.
“It’ll probably take him a bit to warm up to everyone.” Warriors chuckled knowing it was only a matter of time before his scarf ended up in Erune’s mouth.
“Well I suppose we’ll just have to take your lead on how to get used to him, since I think Twilight is the only one of us with experience on small children. We should probably also head back to camp before everyone starts worrying.” Time said and Legend immediately turned, beginning to walk towards the direction of their camp. Warriors lagged behind a bit to gather himself, Time waited a moment in sight for him to catch up.
Once Warriors caught he couldn’t help rustling Time’s hair with his free hand momentarily, “you better not grow any taller you little gremlin.” He said affectionately causing Time to laugh a little louder than he possibly intended causing Legend to look back at them in confusion.
“How do you two even know each other?” Legend asked, squinting at them both when they caught up.
They both shared a look and responded only with “time travel.” Legend threw his hands up in the air with exasperation and said something along the lines of “of fucking course it has to do with time travel!” Causing Warriors to instinctively chide him for his language while protectively covering Erune’s ears. Legend looked like he was about to give a crude response but seemed to second guess himself when he looked at Erune.
Legend huffed and turned to continue walking, “why do I get the feeling that you two will be worse than Wild and Hyrule together?” he said without expecting a response. Time and Warriors followed after him, Warriors giving Time a confused look hoping for an explanation which Time promptly shrugged in response to. Warriors squinted at Time knowing that he definitely knew what Legend was referring to.
It didn’t take them too long to get to camp, but Warriors had shifted Erune so that he was sitting upright. He had gotten a little too rambunctious laying in his arms, shifting side to side trying to look at his surroundings and now he was tucked into Warriors’ side observing the forest with his tiny fist shoved in his mouth. The three of them walked into the camp and had six sets of eyes turn to greet them and one of them a man with dark brown hair and black markings stood up to greet them but before he could speak a small body collided with Warriors’ side. Warriors stumbled a bit, his free hand moving to support Erune’s head before looking down to see who had tackled him and found himself staring into sea-green eyes and a wide grin plastered on a familiar sun-kissed face.
“Sailor! It’s good to see you squirt, you haven’t grown much since I last saw you.” He said using his free hand to ruffle the sailor’s bleach blonde hair, who squealed in offense to his words. Before Wind could retaliate however, Erune seemed to take interest in the sailor’s fuzzy hair and managed to grab ahold of a tuft and tug it. The sailor yelped and Warriors immediately intervened to free his hair from Erune’s grasp, Erune whined a bit when Warriors got his hand free. The sailor looked up and Warriors knew he could see Erune’s resemblance to Volga and he knew that the kid had absolutely no filter and he’d prefer to break out the fact that Erune was a dragon on his own time.
Warriors shifted so that the sailor could rest against him without having to release his hug around Warriors’ hips. He ran his hand through the sailor’s hair to ease where Erune had tugged onto his hair, he frowned when he saw a faint scar against his hairline that hadn’t been there last time he’d seen the younger hero. “Sorry about that, Erune is in the phase where he feels the need to stick everything in his mouth.” The sailor looked at the child in particular who was still upset at having his new interest taken out of his hands, his face scrunched up in a look of overexaggerated false annoyance that caused Erune to giggle at his expression. Warriors suddenly realized why Erune wasn’t bothered too much by the small hero, he had a similar energy to his older sister.
The sailor griped, “honestly I didn’t think that I’d haveta deal with my hair being pulled like that since Aryll grew up. Since when did you have kids?” He asked, his expression relaxing as curiosity took over. Though once Erune made a noise of distress when his face relaxed he quickly twisted his face into another goofy expression causing Erune to laugh.
Warriors chuckled, “since about three years ago, but Erune here is only one.” The sailor hummed and seemed to be about to ask another question before that man with the wolf pelf on his shoulders decided to interrupt.
“Sorry, but how do you know Wind?” So they were calling the sailor Wind. Warriors looked him over, he was a little shorter than Time but broader than the older man. His face was also fairly similar to said hero, he’d have to pester Time about that later. Wind gave the man a sour look that caused him to look sheepish and Warriors ruffled his hair to distract him.
“I met Wind and Time during the War of Eras, unfortunately like many others in different eras they were pulled into the battle as well.” Wind’s head whipped around to look at him with wide eyes then he turned to look at Time.
“You! You’re Mask?! I fucking knew it!” Warriors couldn’t stop himself from instinctively smacking Wind on the back of his head for his language like he had in the past, causing Wind to look at him in betrayal that Warriors only returned pointedly. The others looked between them and Time in confusion.
Warriors sighed, “when Time ended up in the War of Eras it was directly after his second adventure so he was about eleven years old at the time. As you may guess, Wind and I have a lot of embarrassing stories about him.” Time squinted at him and Warriors only winked at him in response. “I guess you can call me Warriors and this is my son Erune.” He said bouncing Erune on his hip slightly, Erune was however more interested in shoving Warriors’ scarf in his mouth, so much for keeping that clean. He looked to see Erune looking mildly disappointed and quickly realized what he was trying to do, “speaking of which I think he’s hungry at the moment if any of you have food.”
One of them stepped forward wearing blue, his long hair covering his scarred face and his bright mismatched blue and orange eyes. “What,” he started hoarsely, obviously unused to speaking. “What can he eat?” He asked holding up a tablet and Warriors caught a glimpse of a screen with various foods on it, Warriors thought for a moment.
“He can eat pretty much anything, as long as it's cut up into small pieces and doesn’t have much seasoning. Although, harder foods need to be cooked a bit, same with any meat.” The boy looked a little perplexed, “I can help you, I just need to set Erune down somewhere safe and need someone to look after him.”
The man with the wolf pelt stepped forward, “I can look after him, I have plenty of experience with kids in my village.” He said offering a tentative hand out to Erune to see how he would react, Warriors noticed the man had claws and although it was odd he knew that Erune wouldn’t be perturbed by that since his father had claws as well.
“I’m guessing you must be Twilight then,” he stated simply watching as Erune wrapped one of the man’s fingers in his tiny hands. At Twilight’s surprised expression he simply shrugged, “Time told me you had experience with babysitting.” He handed Erune off to the other man while speaking, allowing him to adjust the infant before he pressed a kiss to his son’s forehead and rolled up his sleeves to assist Wild. He saw Twilight cast a concerned look to Erune’s blackened hand, gently rubbing his tiny knuckles with his thumb. Warriors ignored the look knowing that it was only a matter of time before Erune started to fuss in his hunger and at worst would transform in an attempt to hunt for himself.
Not that he minded the idea of Erune hunting, since Volga had explained that it was an instinctual thing for dragons. Usually Volga would watch Erune and Hestia if they did hunt, although Erune only seemed keen on hunting butterflies at his age, but Volga wasn’t here and they were in an unfamiliar forest that Warriors did not want Erune darting off into. There were too many risks for him to let Erune far out of his sight. Thankfully Erune’s sudden interest in Twilight’s wolf pelt kept the man from asking any questions, Warriors sighed knowing that it was going to be difficult to separate his son from that pelt.
He turned his attention to the scarred hero who seemed to have pulled some vegetables, fruit, and meat from nowhere along with a cooking pot, a ladle, and knives. Warriors looked over what was available, knowing that there was more than his son could eat but he was thankful for the options the other hero provided. Speaking of which, “come to think of it, Sprout, I don’t think I caught what everyone was calling you.” The hero flushed at the unexpected nickname.
“Wild.” He responded quietly and Warriors hummed in acknowledgement. Warriors set aside some of the bird legs that Wild had set out, he did not want to deal with animal bones right now even if Erune would attempt to crack them open to eat the marrow. He pulled a thinner steak towards himself grabbing a knife to cut the slab in half before giving the rest of it to Wild, who made it disappear with a flash of blue light. “Are you sure that’s enough? Does he not eat that much?” Wild questioned watching Warriors carefully, Warriors could tell he was making mental notes. Maybe he’d have to teach this kid some of his mom’s old recipes .
“I’m preparing more than what he does eat right now, he doesn’t eat much but he does need to eat more often. Best to have it ready so we don’t have to stop on the road or I have to wake you up in the middle of the night so I can feed him.” Wild looked surprised at the idea and Warriors decided to continue. “He had a few teeth, but not all of them, so he can eat solid food. It’s better to have the food in smaller sizes or mashed because he hasn’t entirely gotten a hang of chewing his food yet.” Wild hummed and began to cut up a voltfruit in similar fashion to Warriors, who couldn’t help but snatch a small chunk and pop it in his mouth causing Wild to look slightly annoyed with him.
Warriors chuckled as he set the meat in the cooking pot to brown and he took a look over at Twilight to see how he was handling Erune. Wind had joined the two of them and one of Erune’s hands was pulling on Wind’s cheek causing the younger hero's mouth to twist oddly with the expression he was making, while Twilight was making an effort to untangle Erune’s other hand from his pelt. Warriors huffed in amusement and noticed two of the others approaching. One was shorter than Wind, wore a multicolored tunic, and had straight blonde hair while the other had soft brown hair, grey eyes that reflected the green of the scenery around them, and a barrel-shaped chest covered in a soft green tunic. Warriors gave them a questioning look.
The taller of the two smiled, and Warriors was struck by how harmless it made him look, “Hello, I’m Sky and this is Four.” He said, gesturing to the smaller hero who had an expression of curiosity on his face, but Warriors could tell that he was older than he looked by the analytical look in his violet eyes. “Your wife will probably be worried when you and your son don’t come home.” Sky said concern lacing his voice and his face.
Warriors froze for a moment looking at Sky in confusion before he realized that the man probably didn’t realize why he was confused. “Husband,” he corrected, drawing the others’ attention, well now would probably be the best time to explain things while they were settled down. “My husband will be worried when my sisters explain that my son and I disappeared in the middle of town. Thankfully my eldest sister was watching Hestia, Volga and my twin sister, Linkle, will probably go looking for me.” He sighed, allowing Wild to take over watching the food while he talked.
“Your sister’s name is Linkle? I’m assuming your husband’s name is Volga based on what Time said when he got a good look at your son?” Legend inquired.
“Yes, my husband’s name is Volga and my sister’s name is Linkle, honestly it was her idea to change my name to Link since our parents kept mixing us up. Oh, the woes of being identical twins.” He added on for dramatic effect, but Legend huffed in response.
“Wait, you changed your name? And you have an identical twin sister, but that wouldn’t be possible if you’re a-” Four began to deduce out loud and Warriors knew he was fitting the pieces together but he decided to interrupt the small hero.
“A voe yes, I was born a vai like my sister but wasn’t entirely comfortable being a vai. So, when I was around fourteen Linkle cut my hair, my father retailored my clothes and made me a binder, and I became a voe and gave myself the name Link. So by technical means I’m Erune’s mother,” he had to fight back a slight grimace at calling himself that, apparently he didn’t hide it well and got a few looks of concern. “Not that I have any regrets having Hestia and Erune, it just feels… wrong calling myself their mother.” A heavy hand rested on his spine and Warriors saw Time looking at him reassuringly.
“And your husband…?” Twilight started looking unsure how to finish the question. Wind pinched Twilight’s arm through his tunic before Warriors could respond.
“Volga’s nice, he’s just… weird.” Wind said defensively but unsure of how to explain what Volga was like. Warriors found himself laughing at Wind’s defensiveness, Erune let out a trill that was distinctly impossible for Hylian to make. Warriors moved to pick up his son, finally managing to get him to release Twilight’s pelt, and picked up a small piece of fruit to give to him.
“Volga is odd by Hylian standards, but considering that he’s not Hylian it makes some sense.” Warriors sighed, seeing some fruit juices dripping from Erune’s mouth he quickly tried wiping it away. Having only one set of clothes for him would become a problem really fast if he wasn’t careful, considering how messy an infant could be he knew he didn’t have much of a chance in keeping Erune’s clothes clean. “I’m gonna have to get you a few extra pairs of clothes when we visit a town, huh?” He said mostly to himself in mock conversation, grabbing another piece of fruit for Erune as he began reaching for the food laid out before him.
“Wind and Time know Volga from the war, he wasn’t an ally to Hyrule at first but he was being controlled by a witch by the name of Cia. She saw him as nothing more than a monster and when I accidentally broke her spell on him during one of our battles he immediately collapsed from the injuries he’d accumulated. Zelda and I saw an opportunity, although he was a powerful opponent he had potential to be an even more powerful ally. I had defeated him in battle fairly, so he chose to listen to me only at the time. Dragons are surprisingly complicated beings after all.” He said looking at his son before looking up to gauge the others’ reactions.
Four was the first to speak, “so your husband is a dragon?” Warriors nodded in response waiting to see the younger hero’s reaction. Four looked at Time for a moment, but it didn’t seem as if he was looking for the older man’s opinion but rather analyzing his face. “I’m guessing that means your son is a dragon as well, considering the bite marks on Time’s nose.” He stated factually and Warriors let out a startled chuckle.
“I suppose it is a bit obvious that Time got bitten by something. Erune’s not too fond of crowds and hid himself under my chainmail when I came through the portal, Time startled him a bit is all. Volga is able to take on a Hylian-like form too and I assume he has the black marking on his skin to aid in conserving his body heat when he’s not on Death Mountain which Hestia and Erune inherited from him.”
“Come to think of it, Wars, you keep mentioning your daughter Hestia but what does she look like?” Wind asked and Warriors was thankful for his distraction.
“Well she looks like me for the most part, same red hair and heterochromatic eyes, although she did decide to cut her hair by herself a few weeks ago. I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures of her on me so you’ll have to wait until we end up in my Hyrule to meet her.” Wind pouted slightly and Warriors couldn’t help himself from reaching down and ruffling his hair. Wild handed him a disk with the cooked foods and Warriors decided to set Erune on the ground with the dish on his lap so that he could eat. “Well, are there any other questions?”
“So your son can turn into a dragon?” Asked Sky, Warriors could tell he was more curious than anything.
“Yes and he’s fairly harmless since he’s about the size of your average cat. Although he can do some damage if he gets too riled up, he can breath fire but Volga was quick on teaching him how to manage that. He has wings, but they’re still a little too weak for him to fly as of yet, he may attempt to climb any of you to use as something to jump off of though. There are probably some things I’m forgetting at the moment but we’ll just have to figure it out as we go. Next time we pass a town I will have to get a few things.” He thought for a moment, “oh and Twilight, Erune will probably attempt to steal your pelt to nest in.” Twilight didn’t look surprised by that admission considering the difficulty he had trying to remove Erune from his pelt earlier.
The others looked like they were coming to terms with the information given to them but Warriors was surprised when Wild decided to speak, “the dragons in my Hyrule aren’t necessarily good or evil, they were more like embodyments of forces of nature in Hyrule. Unseen by most but always present. Potentially destructive but entirely part of the world around them.” Warriors hummed and made a mental note to have Wild show him the dragons of his Hyrule, he took a quick look at his son and sighed at seeing how dirty his clothes were. An effort in futility trying to keep a child clean. He thought for a moment on Wild’s words.
“Well if I were to compare Volga to any force of nature he’d probably be a volcano, especially since he has no problem taking lava baths.” Time at least got a chuckle out of that, but the others seemed to take that comparison into consideration. Erune seemed more keen on playing with what was left of his food rather than actually eating it, so Warrior decided to pick him up before he caused a bigger mess. “Is there a stream nearby? I should be getting this one clean.” A few of them nodded in response, “Sprite could you show me? I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something anyway.” Time looked curious but nodded and showed the way.
They walked to the stream in silence, Warriors took off his scarf, overtunic, and chainmail knowing that they would likely get wet while trying to clean Erune. He used the silence to gather his thoughts as he began to remove Erune’s socks while he wiggled on the ground. “So what do you want to talk about, Wars?” Warriors heart ached in reminder of the child who barely reached his hip during the war. Warriors sighed recalling how much pain the war brought, he still couldn’t walk through Castle Town without wearing armor out of fear of being stabbed in the back.
“The war took a lot even though sometimes it even took things before we realized we had them.” He said solumbly, bruising a hand through Erune’s fluffy hair as a way of grounding himself. “Admittedly during the latter half of the war I clung to you as a way to avoid facing my own grief.”
“What do you mean?” Time asked and Warriors could hear the concern and slight bit of fear in his voice.
“Do you remember the one day after battle when you thought I had a stomach injury, after Volga joined our side?” He asked looking at Time and saw the man nod numbly. Warriors steeled himself trying to keep himself calm so that Erune wouldn’t get upset as he went through the practiced motions of cleaning the infant, “I wasn’t injured, I miscarried a child I wasn’t even aware I was carrying. I felt the need to care and look out for you afterwards because I couldn’t come to grips with what happened, I used you to cope and-”
“I don’t care, I don’t care what you think you may have done. You were the closest thing I had to a family back then and I was so happy that for once everyone wasn’t relying on me to fix everything.” Erune whined and Warriors choked back a sob, bouncing him in hopes to calm him.
His voice cracked with emotion “I still think of you as family, Sprite.” Warriors held out his free arm and Time was quickly pressed into his side. Warriors tucked Time’s head under his chin and held the man close, he had so many years to make up with him. Erune chirped and soon Time was chuckling against his chest, Warriors moved his head to see that Erune reached out to grab at Time’s nose.
“Why does it seem like he has something personal against my nose?” Time said with humor in his voice.
“Can’t say for sure but you’ve always had a pretty big nose there kiddo.” Time glared up at him, before taking Erune from his arms and promptly pushing him in the river. Erune, startled by the splash, shifted forms and moved for the high ground, atop Time’s head.
“So that’s how it is? My two sons betray me?” Warriors said while picking himself out of the water.
“You think of me as your son?” Time said mystified and Warriors used the opportunity to pick up the older man, causing Erune to jump onto his shoulder judging by the sharp feeling in his shoulders, and he tossed Time into the deep part of the river. The man surfaced sputtering and laughing, raising his hands in defeat. “How did you even manage to lift me?”
“Volga has a habit of letting the kids sleep in his mouth while he’s a dragon since it keeps them warm and I’ve had to pry his jaws open multiple times while looking for them.” He said offhandedly while cleaning off Erune’s clothes, he’d have to put them back on when he decided to become Hylain again.
“That’s unusual.”
“The kids have a harder time keeping themselves warm than Volga does. Since Volga breathes fire, having the kids sleep in his mouth is like having them lay directly in front of a fireplace.” Warrior shrugged, long past the oddities of his family. He felt Erune curl close to his neck. “We should probably get back to camp, someone’s getting cold.” He took Erune from his shoulders and placed him on his still dry scarf, before removing his wet shirt and replacing it with his tunic. Then he bundled Erune in his scarf and held him close to his chest. He felt Erune shift around in his arm before letting out a high pitched coo.
Time gathered his wet tunic and chainmail before they began the short walk back to camp. Twilight was the first one to look up when they walked back to camp and he balked when he saw the two of them, “what happened to you two?!” He asked in a mix of concern and bewilderment.
Warriors walked past him and sat down on one of the logs close to the fire, next to the curly brown haired boy he’d yet to be introduced to. He set his scarf in his lap and Erune poked his head out of the fabric sensing the presence of the fire, the hero practically jumped at the sight.
Time laughed sheepishly and Warriors figured he’d say it how it is before the man could think of an excuse. “Time is a little gremlin that pushed me in the river, so I picked him up and tossed him in the water like he deserved.” The others’ eyes widened looking at Time then back at him before Time confirmed what he said.
“You must have pretty good power bracelets to be able to lift Time,” Legend said with a curious spark in his eyes. Warriors looked at him confused for a moment before he remembered his power gauntlets at home.
“I think I have an item that you may be thinking of but I left them at home and it would be pretty obvious if I was wearing those gauntlets.”
“So wait, you just picked up Time? Without any magic items? With his armor on?” The hero next to asked, looking gobsmacked. Warriors sighed, setting Erune and his scarf in the kids lap ignoring how the kid jumped before approaching Time who hadn’t gotten to take his armor off yet. Time had his back turned to him so he snuck his hands under the man’s armpits and lifted him off the ground. Time started before sighing in defeat. The others broke out laughing causing Erune to grumble a bit before curling deeper into his scarf.
Warriors found himself curled around his son that night, with Wind on the other side of his scarf ‘helping’ keep Erune warm and the warm presence of Time’s back against his. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long till he got back home but at least he had time to spend with his little brothers again.