Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dark Link was as old as the Hero’s Spirit. He hadn’t really been 'alive' back then, but he had existed. Where there is light, there have to be shadows, after all. That‘s what he had always been. A shadow of the Hero, a counterpart to the Light. Where the Hero shone brightly in the Light, Dark hid himself away in the shadows.

And then, for some reason, some idiot long ago came to the conclusion that, since the Hero was good, and Dark was his counterpart, he had to be evil. Completely ignoring that, one, dark does not equal evil, and two, that 'counterpart' does not mean 'polar opposite in every aspect'.

That was when the fighting started. Whatever evil overlord was trying to take over the world in that era pulled him from the unawareness one rests in when they exist without being alive, build a body with dark magic, tethered Dark‘s soul to it and ordered him to go kill the hero.

When he refused (why would he kill the Hero? They Hero had done nothing to him.), the guy that had pulled him from the shadows simply took over his mind.

It was a lesson Dark had learned the hard way. There is always someone stronger than you. And especially in the beginning, every Evil Guy Of The Century was leagues above him.

In the end, not only was the Big Bad stronger than Dark, so was the Hero. The fight didn’t even last very long, it was his very first one after all, and no matter how much knowledge he inherited from every incarnation of the Hero, it doesn’t help much when you’ve never used it before.

The moment he 'died' was the moment the control over his mind snapped. Can’t control something you can’t reach.

Unfortunately, the spell that had first made him a body had attached itself to his soul.

It wasn’t the original mages spell anymore, it was self-sustaining and Dark could control it to some extent, but the crux of the matter was that he couldn’t die, since he wasn’t really alive in the first place. He couldn’t reincarnate. He always reformed, again and again, always in the image of the Hero of that time.

(Oh, he tried to go back to the unawareness and nothingness he knew. He tried so much. But he was always pulled back. He stopped trying after a while. (You don’t stay suicidal when you realise that nothing works.))

And more often than not, there was a new Evil, that tried to use him to kill the Hero.

Sometimes, they didn’t bother looking for him and just created a new shadow. Those never lasted long. Even if they managed to get a soul, they were build as a counterpart to the specific Hero they were summoned from, and so they only ever lasted as long as that reincarnation did.

He envied them, sometimes. He could never cease existing as long as the Hero’s Spirit still did, he cursed Demise for the damned reincarnation cycle he had created.

After a while, the Heroes started attacking him even when he wasn’t being controlled. Maybe they had fought so often that their soul remembered him even when they had never met him, maybe they also assumed that dark meant bad, or maybe they had heard stories about Heroes of different eras that fought an evil shadow of themselves.

(It would have been nice symbolism, if it weren’t for him being an actual person.)

It went like that for a long time. He lost track, usually hiding as soon as he realised he was 'alive' again.

With every time he was defeated, he came back stronger. He gained experience. He honed his magic skills. He learned about the world around him.

And yet. And yet, the Light always found him, sooner or later another Hero came and struck him down. It wasn’t always the Hero who‘s face he was wearing. Sometimes it was a different Hero, coming decades later. But it always happened.

At first, he hated it. He hated that his counterpart continued to hurt him.

He tried hating the Hero, for a while. It only ever stuck until he laid eyes on him again. How could he hate these people, most of them children, that just followed the command of a goddess trying to protect her people.

He felt pity for them, after he realised that. Pity for these kids that had to carry a burden most adults would not have managed to shoulder.

~

When he could feel himself with a body yet again, he followed his by now deeply ingrained routine, blinking away the spots that clung to his sight.

Where was he? Dark sat up, ignoring the dizziness that came with it.

A forest. A quick glance at the sky told him it was nighttime. Gods, as much as he hated that first mage that build the spell forcing him into a body, the guy sure knew what a body needed. Night Vision had helped him quite a bit.

A short walk brought him to a stream, the sound and smell of water being easy to find and follow.

He didn’t need to eat and drink, technically, just like he didn’t need to breathe, but it helped him stay grounded, and also gave him some energy, so he did it regardless.

The water also helped with his dry throat. It was always dry when he came back. Not a pleasant feeling.

When he finished drinking, he studied his reflection. A young face stared back at him, maybe sixteen years old. (That was old, for a Hero. Either the guy had already been on at least one quest or this was one of the rare peaceful times.)

(Good for Dark though. His body never aged, and he didn’t want to be stuck in the body of a seven year old for years… again.)

His eyes held the familiar blood red they always had, standing out as the only speck of colour between his ashen skin, stark white hair and black clothing. (Another thing he had to thank that cursed mage for. He always woke clothed. Even though he looked like he came from a funeral every time.)

He stood and dusted himself off. He shouldn’t waste any more time. He needed to find a place to hide.

As he started walking away, a thought occurred to him. It made him stop.

Did he? Did he have to hide away again? It never helped. Maybe he could try something different this time.

If no place was safe for him, maybe he should try a different time.

The Hero of Time had been familiar with the magic he needed to influence and travel through time. He had inherited that knowledge after a while, like he always did.

A portal through time. Quite the piece of work. Time was a delicate thing. And traveling through it without any aiding tools, like, say, a certain ocarina, was a complicated endeavour.

He still managed to, of course. But it wasn’t easy.

He pushed that portal to the absolute limit it could reach without an anchor.

He couldn’t pinpoint the exact amount, something between 6000 to 8000 years to the future, that should be more than enough.

But fate seemed to hate him for some reason. The moment Dark stepped through that portal (and what a nauseating experience that was. Had he eaten anything, he surely would have thrown up), he felt a presence connect to him.

It was big. And powerful. And quite simple-minded. An overwhelming sense of hate and malice was attached to what felt like sentient dark magic. And it was creeping to his mind. Through his magic.

Now, Dark had had to deal with his fair share of mind control. The kind he was most familiar with, the one that he was feeling right now, was rather simple. A dark magic user connects to Dark‘s magic and uses that to get to his mind. Back in the early days he had been very vulnerable in that regard, since his magic was what was keeping him 'alive'.

But he was stronger now. So, he did the first thing he could think of to prevent this presence from reaching his mind.

He cut off his magic.

Okay, it sounded more simple than it actually was. He didn’t throw out his magic or anything like that. He just separated his mind from it.

Magic was what sustained his body, but he didn’t have to be in active control of the magic in his body to control the body, (like a Hylian didn’t need to think about breathing or making their heart beat,) and whatever that Being that tried to take him over was, it couldn’t control his body without controlling his mind, and the only way to reach his mind was through his magic, which was no longer connected to it.

Dark took a deep breath to help calm himself. That was one crisis averted. It just had one… unfortunate consequence.

If his mind was not connected to his magic, he couldn’t actively use it. The result? He was practically powerless. In a completely foreign environment. Great.

~

Dark wandered around for a while, trying to get a picture of his surroundings.

From what he could tell, this Hyrule (if it was still called that, but it hadn’t changed its name in a really long time, so he didn’t think it would now) was absolutely massive.

He had landed in a pretty deserted place. It was like a plateau, cliffs on every side. And being a little more specific, he was next to a small wooden hut that looked like it hadn’t been used in over a hundred years.

It had an uncomfortable looking bed made from some wood and animal fur, and a crude wooden table. In front of the cabin were a huge trunk you could sit on and a fire pit.

From the looks of it he had arrived at sundown, and with the night it got colder.

A fire was lit quickly, even without magic. None of the Heroes would have survived if they didn’t know how to build a simple fire, and Dark himself had also made them quite a few times.

The cold couldn’t hurt him like it did with Hylians (or humans in general, really), but it was still rather uncomfortable.

Sitting by a fire had always had something soothing, almost hypnotising about it. Staring into the flames allowed Dark to forget himself for a while.

Looking back, that had been stupid. You don’t just let your guard down, no matter how alone and cut off you think you are, but Dark was tired from making that portal, and even though the old habit of constantly being alert usually gave him some trouble when he tried to sleep, this time he managed to nod off without meaning too.

He woke to the sounds of someone walking around, and opened his eyes to the sight of a blonde boy with strikingly blue eyes setting up a pot over the fire.

The boy turned to look at him, and his eyes (blue, so blue, like the ocean, like ice, like the sky, like lightning, he couldn’t tell) bored right into his soul.

They looked at each other for a second.

The boy broke the silence.

"Want something to eat?"

Chapter Text

Wild had been… more, every since he came from the Shrine of Resurrection.

The name Link just didn’t feel right anymore. He was Link once, he knew that, but…

He was the wind and the forests and the cliffs and the fields and the rain. He was more than just Link.

Link died 100 years ago. And he remembered being Link, at least a little bit, but he‘s not anymore, and he‘s fine with that. He‘s Wild now. It‘s what feels right.

With being Wild came some new things that Link didn’t have.

He could tell what the weather was going to be like, even without looking at his slate.

He had never gotten lost in the vast expanse of wilderness that covered most of Hyrule, yet managed to completely loose orientation when he stepped into Gerudo Town or Hateno.

He just knew what plants he could eat, which insects he needed to brew a specific elixir, how to approach a deer if he wanted to ride on it‘s back, and where to shoot to kill quickly and painless if he wanted to eat it.

(He never killed animals for anything else. Only ever to eat, always with a prayer for it‘s soul, thanking it for keeping him fed for another day.)

He could tell how people felt just by being near them. Impa‘s hope and grief when he first met her. Purah‘s strange mix of childish excitement and calculating concentration when she was working on something. The random merchants happiness when Link handed over some rupees in exchange for wares.

And he could sense magic now. He never quite figured out how to summon it himself, but with this new sense it was almost second nature to use elemental weapons, to find the nearest statue of the goddess, to know when a dragon spirit was nearby.

It was also how he immediately knew of the wrongness of the monsters , he could feel the Malice in their bodies and minds before he even knew what it was called. He disliked killing, yes, but he felt nothing for the monsters he cut down daily.

Which brought him to the stranger in front of him. The guy radiated dark magic, yet it didn’t feel like the Malice he was so familiar with. It didn’t feel like the burning anger and hatred and, well, malice.

It was dark magic, there was no mistaking it, but Wild knew that dark didn’t necessarily mean evil (a topic Zelda had ranted on for hours after she had studied a time known as the Twilight Era, the memory had come to him when he had visited Kakariko village (he almost whished it hadn’t. Zelda’s rants could be mind numbingly long)), and this guy just felt… weary. Lonely. Tired.

Like there had been a fire, once, but it had long since burned out, leaving only cold grey ashes behind.

So, when the guy woke up, Wild did what he usually did when he met a new person.

"Want something to eat?"

Dark stared at the boy in front of him.

The Hero of this era. It had to be the Hero. But he didn’t feel like the Hero.

He could recognise the Hero‘s Spirit, always, it was the counterpart to his existence after all, but… this was not the soul he knew from all the other Heroes. The Hero usually had the same one.

Had Hylia finally allowed that worn out soul to rest? Or maybe something else had happened. He didn’t know.

But this boy, right here. He carried the Hero‘s Spirit. This was the Hero, without a doubt.

So then… why wasn’t he attacking him?

He must have been staring for longer than he thought, because the Hero looked at him with a worried expression now.

"Uh... Are you okay?"

Dark quickly shook himself from his thoughts.

"Yes, I‘m fine. Just… a bit surprised at someone else being here."

It wasn’t a lie. What was the Hero doing here? There didn’t seem to be anyone else around.

"Ohh! Yeah, I‘ve never really met anyone up here, either. So, do you want food?"

Why was he offering Dark food!? This wasn’t- people weren’t friendly to him! They were afraid, or angry, never… this.

"…sure." There had to be a catch, right? Or did this boy not realise who- what he was?

The Hero’s face split into a smile, his bright blue eyes lighting up (did- did they actually light up? Or was it just a trick of the light…).

"Awesome! I wanted to make dinner anyways, so I can cook for both of us. Any preferences?"

Was he just going along with this?

"Meat."

He was. Hopefully he wasn’t making a mistake. If the Hero changed his mind and attacked him in the state he was in right now, Dark would be dead in seconds.

Well. Not like he could back out now.

~

"So, why’re you up here anyways?"

The Hero didn’t look at Dark, busy with stirring what looked and smelled like meat stew (with a ladle he had pulled from seemingly nowhere. It had appeared in a flash of blue after he tapped the stone with the Sheikah symbol on his belt), but that didn’t stop him from talking. (The guy was really chatty for a Hero.)

"Uh, I was just… around. Wanted to be alone for a while, this is where I ended up." Again, not a lie. Just not the whole truth either.

The Hero hummed, thoughtful. "Are you a ghost?"

What.

"What?"

"Well, the only person I ever met up here was the dead king from one hundred years ago. He‘s why I‘m here, actually. Wanted to tell him I‘m getting ready to fulfil his request now. Couldn’t find him though. Guess he moved on."

Huh. Dark felt there was a story behind that, but he didn’t want to ask.

"No. I‘m… not a ghost."

The Hero smiled again.

"That‘s good, then. I don’t think ghosts can eat. Though, the king still asked me to cook something for him… eh, I‘ll have to ask the next ghost I see."

Dark raised an eyebrow. "How often do you meet ghosts?"

The Hero was still smiling, but it looked sad now. "More often than I‘d like."

They fell into silence after that, only the bubbling stew and the occasional animal making sounds.

~

Later, the Hero pulled two bowls and spoons from the weird glowing slate on his hip and filled them with the steaming meal.

He handed one of the bowls to Dark and sat down next to him.

Dark stared at the stew in his hands. It smelled great.

He glanced at the Hero. The boy was munching on his food happily, shoving spoon after spoon into his mouth.

Carefully, Dark started eating.

And immediately sped up.

Maybe it was because he hadn’t eaten anything since he had woken up, but this was by far the best stew he had ever tasted.

"Do you like it?"

Instead of answering, Dark nodded. Then kept eating.

The Hero laughed. "I‘m glad."

Once he was finished with his bowl, he turned to the Hero.

"Where‘d you learn cooking like this? Are you, like, a professional chef?" It wouldn’t be too far fetched. The Hero could be literally anyone. Dark had seen weirder.

"Ah, no. I mostly picked it up on the road."

"Really? What do you do for a living?"

The Hero shrugged. "I was a knight before the Calamity, but… nowadays, I‘d say I‘m a traveller, mostly. You?"

Dark looked away. "Yeah, traveller sounds about right."

Then he registered the first half of that sentence. "Calamity?"

The Hero stared at him now, slightly disbelieving, narrowed his eyes and leaned closer, examining him.

"Are you sure you‘re not a ghost?"

Dark leaned away. "Yes, I‘m sure. Just not from around here."

"Hmm." The Hero stood up, and started packing away the dishes, making them disappear into the slate (at least, that‘s where Dark assumed they disappeared to).

Then he held out a hand towards Dark.

"Uh. What are we doing?"

"I need to show you something."

Hesitantly, Dark grabbed the Hero’s wrist.

"This‘ll probably be really disorienting the first time, so hold on tight.", the Hero said, grinning.

"Wait, what are we doing-"

His question was cut off when the Hero tapped something on his stone slab again and they were pulled into an endless nothing of Blue.

(Yes, Blue with a capital 'B'. Just blue wouldn’t cut it.)

~

After what felt like seconds and hours simultaneously, the world reappeared.

Dark stumbled, but the Hero, still holding his arm, managed to catch him.

"You good?"

He blinked his eyes to clear away the spots dancing in his vision.

"I’m fine. It‘s not as bad as that portal was."

The Hero looked intrigued, but Dark cut him off before he could ask.

"So, what did you want to show me?"

"Ah, right!" The Hero turned around and started walking towards the edge of- wait a minute, were they standing on top of that weird blue-glowing tower Dark had noticed when he arrived!?

He quickly shook himself out of his shock and followed the Hero.

The boy was standing at the edge of the tower, leaning over the railing dangerously far.

When he noticed Dark standing next to him, he pointed into the distance.

"It‘s a bit hard to make out at night, but can you see that black-purple-red smoke-stuff over there?"

Dark had no problem seeing at night, but the smoke the Hero was pointing at was still quite far away. "I see it."

The Hero nodded. "That‘s Hyrule Castle."

Dark frowned. "What happened?"

The Hero sighed and sat down on the railing, feet dangling over the edge.

"One hundred years ago, this guy called Calamity Ganon showed up, killed a bunch of people, took over a lot of really powerful Sheikah tech, killed some more people, and was then beaten up and imprisoned in the castle by Zelda, who‘s been waiting for the Hero to show up ever since so they can finish Ganon off."

He snickered. "Oh, Impa would be so disappointed if she heard me tell the story like that."

Dark was a little confused. This boy was the Hero, was he not?

"What happened to the Hero?"

The boy smiled again, sad, almost melancholic.

"He died. They put him in the Shrine of Resurrection, but it didn’t work quite like they thought it would. The shrine took his memories, and the person that came out of it a hundred years later was someone else."

His gaze, still resting on the castle, turned into a determined glare.

"I‘m still going to beat that stupid pig into the ground. He hurt a lot of people, including some that were the old Hero‘s friends. I‘m not Link anymore, but I still want to help!"

Not Link… so that‘s why he didn’t recognise the Hero‘s soul. It wasn’t the one he was familiar with.

(For some reason, he liked this one better already.)

But if this wasn’t Link…

"So, what‘s your name then?"

The Hero turned around again, looking like he had been pulled from his thoughts.

"Oh, right, I didn’t introduce myself. Man, Impa would be disappointed. I‘m Wild."

Dark nodded. "You can call me Dark."

Wild squinted his eyes at him. "That‘s a weird name."

Dark raised an eyebrow. "And yours isn’t?"

Wild blinked and laughed. "Touché."

Chapter Text

"AAAAHHHH!"

Dark was clinging to Wild‘s back while they slowly descended, thanks to the Hero‘s paraglider.

The moment they touched the ground he let go, causing him to fall to his knees.

"Oh goddesses, let‘s never do that again."

Wild had a teasing smirk on his face.

"Why? Are you afraid of heights?"

"N-no! Of course not!"

He quickly stood up and dusted himself off.

"Mhm. I totally believe you." Wild was still grinning.

Honestly, it wasn’t the height Dark was afraid of. He just really didn’t like not being near the ground. He was fine as long as he had something to stand on.

But he also didn’t feel like explaining that. Changing the topic sounded like a great idea right now.

"So, what are you going to do now?"

Wild shrugged.

"Well, I‘m finished with what I wanted to do here. I was planning on swinging by Hateno soon. Y‘know, make some preparations for the fight against Ganon. If the Blights are anything to go by, he won’t be easy to take down."

Dark though for a moment.

"Actually. Any chance I could help you with that? I really don’t like the guy."

That was, for once, the whole truth. There wasn’t much to like about a blob of sentient hatred, and Wild‘s tale (if you could call it that) of the history of this era didn’t help.

Also, he really wanted his powers back.

Wild looked surprised now, and more than a little concerned.

"I mean… if you want to? It‘s just, like, really dangerous?"

Dark waved the Hero’s concerns of.

"I can fight just fine, if that‘s what you’re worried about."

It had been a while since he had to rely on just a weapon with no magic at his disposal, but that was how most heroes fought, so he knew the theory, at least.

"Oh! Okay. Didn’t take you for the fighting type."

"What? Why?"

"Well, you don’t have a weapon."

Dark stopped. That was a valid point actually. No powers meant to magic shadow-swords.

Damn. He‘d have to find a good weapon soon. Otherwise he wouldn’t be getting far.

Wild pulled him from his thoughts.

"Do you need one? I have lots to spare!"

Dark blinked. He looked at Wild again, closer this time.

The boy was wearing what looked like normal dark-coloured clothing made for travel, and had a simple wooden shield and a bow strapped to his back. A short blade that looked like it could be traditional Sheikah gear hung by his side.

Yeah, Wild had to have some more weapons stored away somewhere, probably that slate of his.

"I would appreciate that, yes."

Like predicted, Wild grabbed his slate and started swiping around on it.

"What do you want? I have lots of swords, bows, some elemental weapons and rods, a few spears, a torch, a pitchfork…"

Dark took a moment to process how much stuff apparently fit into that little thing. Just what had the Sheikah been up too since the last time he was alive and present?

Then, he frowned.

"Uh. Do you have something… bigger?" He was used to being able to form his weapon into whatever shape he wanted, but he still preferred the heavier ones.

Wild looked up at him, surprised.

"I have some clubs and claymores, but I‘ve never actually met someone using those. Well, except for Moblins, but you know what I mean."

He started tapping something on the slate. Apparently those weren’t stored as easily accessible as most others.

"Personally, I don’t like two handed weapons. Too slow for me. I prefer using a bow, if possible. I still take them when I find them, of course, just don’t use them."

In a flash of Blue, a massive sword with dark blue and golden ornaments appeared.

"This is a Royal Claymore. Do you need a shield, too?"

Dark shook his head and took the Royal Claymore from Wild, weighing it in his hands. It felt like it could do quite a lot of damage. Yeah, he could work with this.

He took a few swings at empty air to get a feel for it, then strapped the sword into the belt over his back (which had conveniently come with his clothes) and adjusted it a little to make the weapon easier to grab. And also to make sure it wouldn’t drag on the ground.

For all that this body was at a convenient age, it sure wasn’t tall. Well, you couldn’t have everything.

(He ignored Wild‘s incredulous stare at seeing him handle a sword almost as tall as he was with no discernible difficulties.)

He turned back to Wild.

"You do realise that it‘s incredibly stupid to just hand a weapon to a stranger, right?"

"What? We‘re not strangers!", Wild protested. "We introduced ourselves and everything!"

Dark stared at him for a moment, trying to detect any hint of Wild joking. He came up empty.

Slowly, he lowered his head into his hands and sighed. Apparently, a lack of self-preservation instincts wasn’t just a Link-problem, but a Hero-problem in general.

~

"Where is this Hateno village, anyways?"

That‘s where Wild had told him he wanted to go. Then the Hero had turned around and started catching frogs in the nearest pond.

(Yes, it was still the middle of the night. Dark had no clue how Wild was finding, let alone catching these frogs.)

"It‘s pretty far to the East from here, near the coast. Usually I‘d just teleport there, but I wanted to clear the road from here to the Dueling Peaks Stable again. Merchants use it pretty frequently, and I haven’t taken it since the last Blood Moon."

Dark didn’t know what a Blood Moon was, but it did not sound like a good thing. He didn’t get to ask though, since Wild was still talking.

"You really can’t be from around here if you don’t know where Hateno is. It‘s, like, the biggest Hylian settlement in all of Hyrule."

"Yeah. Like I said. I’m not from here."

They lapsed into silence for a bit.

"What do you need all these frogs for anyways?"

"Elixirs."

"What? Like, potions?"

"Sure, if you wanna call them that."

"What kind of potion is made from frogs?!"

"Hasty Elixiers. You can make them with Hightail Lizards too. These are Hot-Footed Frogs, by the way. There’s a rarer kind called Tireless Frogs, those make great stamina potions. I should still have some in my slate, it keeps them in a stasis. Really useful for storing food, too."

Wild said that like it was completely normal to just be carrying around a bunch of frogs. (For him, it probably was.)

"Are- are all… elixirs made like that? What about the red one?", Dark hesitantly asked. Pictures of earlier Heroes drinking copious amounts of Red Potions came to his mind.

"You mean Hearty Elixir? Sure, I use Hearty Lizards for those, but they‘re not that common. Hearty elixirs are really strong medicine, though. Most injuries heal pretty well after a meal and a good night’s sleep."

He climbed out of the pond, putting his boots back on.

"I still have a bunch of them just in case, of course. I prefer making them with Monster guts, but horns are alright too."

Dark was feeling very sick now.

"I‘m assuming that all elixirs are made with- with monster parts?"

Wild nodded happily, entirely oblivious to Dark‘s mood.

"Of course! They‘re the base for all kinds of elixirs!"

Dark was suddenly really glad that he never had to take a potion. Either his body fixed itself after a while or he got hurt so bad that he died again.

(Hold on, didn’t Dark technically count as a monster? Would that- no, NO, he was not going to follow that train of thought!)

He needed to change the topic, and quickly. He did not feel like vomiting tonight.

"Hey, how are you planning to get off the plateau anyways?"

That stupid teasing smirk came back.

"Oh, you’re not gonna like this."

(He didn’t. He really, really didn’t. Dark was starting to hate that paraglider with a passion.)

~

After roughly 30 minutes of walking, they reached a place that Wild called the Outpost Ruins. The boy had also mentioned that there would probably be some monsters there, and he had been right.

A handful of Bokoblins and two Moblins were scattered around a campfire, sleeping.

Dark crouched down behind a wall, the shadows coming to his help by partially hiding him even without him actively calling on them.

(Good to know they actually liked him and didn’t just follow him when he could control them.)

"They‘re all asleep, if we sneak up on them we should be able to take them out without-" A hissing noise interrupted him.

His head whipped towards the the source. Wild was standing on top of the wall Dark was crouching behind. In his hands he held his bow, carefully and steady, aimed directly at the campfire with an arrow ready to be let loose.

Except the arrow had a round, red coloured head, with a lit fuse sticking out of it.

"Wild, what is that." It was more a despairing statement than it was a question.

Wild had a grin on his face, stretched further than any Dark had seen on him before.

It pulled on the scars that covered half of his face in a way that couldn’t be comfortable, but Wild didn’t seem to mind. (How had Dark not noticed before how menacing those scars made the Hero look?)

A maniac glint appeared in Wild‘s eyes as he answered the question (in a tone way to innocent and chipper for the entire picture).

"A bomb arrow!"

Chapter Text

Wild’s arrow hit the campfire dead on. The sound of an explosion rang out, accompanied by a flash of fire so bright that Dark involuntarily flinched back.

Immediately, chaos broke out. All of the monsters woke abruptly, several of them catching on fire.

Wild didn’t waste any time and jumped of the wall towards them, firing three arrows (that all hit a monsters head with a precision that actually kind of scared Dark) before he even hit the ground.

He was still grinning.

A broadsword materialized in his hands and he darted around between the monsters, slashing and stabbing with what looked like well practiced clean and fluid motions, but with an erratic ferocity that seemed more fitting for a wild animal.

After a few seconds of staring Dark managed to force himself into motion.

All the monsters were preoccupied with Wild, so the Moblin, whose head got bashed in with the claymore moments later, never saw him coming.

Dark used the momentum he still had and transitioned into a spin attack, taking out two more Bokoblins.

“Dark, duck!” Wild called out.

He threw himself to the ground immediately, barely dodging the sword Wild had thrown at the Moblin standing behind him, what?

The sword then proceeded to shatter.

“Wild, what the fuck!?”

“It was about to break anyways!” Wild answered with a spear now in his hands as he stabbed the last Bokoblin, like he saw nothing wrong with throwing around swords that shattered like glass. (He probably didn’t.)

Dark quickly killed the Moblin before it could get back up, and then turned back to Wild, who was stretching like he just finished a minor workout.

“Man, that felt good. Haven’t fought a camp this small in a while.”

Dark decided to just ignore that and looked around the camp, where the dead monster’s bodies were still strewn around.

“Shouldn’t those disappear?”

Wild started examining the bodies while he answered.  “They will, in a few hours. That’s why I have to be fast with this.”

When Dark realised what Wild was doing he quickly turned around and tried to calm his flipping stomach.

(When Wild had told him elixirs were brewed with monster parts, he had failed to consider how the Hero got those.)

~

Luckily, they didn’t run into any more groups of monsters after that, only the occasional Bokoblin.

The East Post Ruins, as Wild called them, were a lot bigger than the Outpost Ruins had been.

They walked in a comfortable silence, and Dark almost didn’t notice how the sky’s colour slowly turned from the inky black-blue of the night to the warm gray shades that announced the morning coming closer.

He did notice when the sun crept over the horizon, mostly because it hit him right in face, causing him to hiss and back away into the closest shadow on instinct.

He only registered what he was doing when he felt Wild’s questioning gaze on him.

“Does it hurt you?”

He suppressed the urge to melt away (not that he could like this. Stupid Ganon) and shook his hand in a so-so motion.

“Not yet. I just... can’t take prolonged direct contact.” His answer came out gruffer than he had wanted it to. He really didn’t like light.

Wild eyed him with an unreadable expression. Then he started taking of his hood and handed it to Dark.

“I can get you your own in Hateno. Keep it for now.”

“I...” How did you respond to something like this? “...thank you.”

Wild just waved his hand and smiled. “It’s nothing. Not like I need it right now.”

Dark stared for a second longer, and then put the hood on, taking care to cover his entire neck and head. The piece of cloth was too big on him, but that just helped him with wrapping it around his entire upper body.

(It smelled like forest and ocean and snow and desert and smoke and food all at once. Wild must have been using this hood for a while now.)

Wild looked... different without the hood. He had it down most of the time, but seeing him completely without it was weird.

Dark could see that his scars didn’t just cover the entire left half his face, but stretched down all the way to his neck and then disappeared underneath his tunic. He noticed that Wild’s left hand was also scarred. The mark probably covered his entire left side.

“He died.” Wild had said when Dark had asked what happened to the Hero. It felt a lot more real when you could see the scar proving him right.

Dark quickly shook himself from his thoughts. A glance at the Hero told him that Wild hadn’t noticed him staring, the boy was doing something with his slate.

“Let’s keep going.”

~

By noon, they had reached the Dueling Peaks (did Wild know the name of every place in Hyrule!? This was staring to get surreal).

“What happened here? This couldn’t have formed naturally, right?”

“Well, Shay from the Lakeside Stable says a dragon split the mountain so people could pass through easier. It was probably Farosh, she’s closest to here. It’s funny; the Koroks actually call the mountain Dragon’s Pass.”

That made sense. Dragon spirits were extremely powerful, even if they were peaceful.  And forest spirits always had a very... literal way of naming things.

Wait...

Dark tripped on nothing. “You understand the Koroks language?”

“Uh, yeah? Have been able to understand and speak it since I came from the shrine.” Wild said, like it was completely normal to just understand and speak a language usually unintelligible to anyone but spirits and magical entities. (For him, it probably was.)

“Huh.” Dark answered, because what else was he supposed to say to that.

~

Soon, they reached the Dueling Peaks Stable. It was hard to miss, what with the giant horse head on top of the tent.

“Wild! It’s been a while since you’ve come here! How’ve you been?” The man behind the counter was waving at the Hero, calling out to him.

“That’s Tasseren, he’s the manager here.” Wild explained, before answering: “I’m good! Sorry I haven’t visited for so long.”

By now, they had reached the counter.

“It’s no problem; I know you’re very busy.” Tasseren assured Wild. “Heard from a traveller from Faron that she heard from a merchant in the Gerudo Canyon that they heard from a Goron that visited Gerudo Town that the last Divine Beast’s been calmed down. That your doing?”

At Wild’s nod, he laughed loudly. “Hah! I knew it! Rensa owes me twenty rupees now!”

The man took a deep breath to calm himself, and returned to a normal volume.

“Anyways, what can I do for you and your friend?”

“Well, I was going to make lunch first. Could you get Sugar and Milk ready?”

As they made their way to the cooking pot set up next to the entrance to the tent, Dark threw Wild a questioning look.

“Sugar and Milk?”

Wild nodded enthusiastically. “Two of my horses. Sugar is really sweet and calm, I’m sure she’ll love you.”

Dark allowed a small smile on his face. “Do you name all your horses after food?”

Wild scratched his chin, also smiling. “Well, other than those two there’re Curry, Fruitcake and Charcoal.”

“Charcoal isn’t food, though?”

“I know that!” Wild exclaimed. A second of silence. “Now.”

He took out his slate and started looking through the inventory. “You do eat stuff that doesn’t have meat in it, right? Cause I wanted to make crepes.”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

Wild seemed to really enjoy cooking. He was smiling and humming the entire time.

He also made cooking look easy. Dark could do some basic recipes like soup or roasted fruits and meat, but Wild somehow whipped together a pile of crepes, a much more complicated food, in just a few minutes. In a pot over a campfire.

(It was kind of hilarious. Dark had never seen or met a Hero that could actually cook. None of them ever managed anything more complicated than cooking stew or baking a plain cake. Yet here Wild was, cooking like it was second nature.)

“Do you want Wildberries or Honey on yours?” 

“Berries.”

Wild filled two crepes with whipped cream and some kind of small pink berry (probably the Wildberries then) and handed the plate to Dark.

“Don’t wait too long; they taste best when they’re still warm.”

Dark quickly came to the conclusion that, no, the stew had had nothing to do with him not having eaten anything before, Wild was just a really good cook.

Other people seemed to think that too, because a minute or so later two children (Wild introduced them as Shibo and Darton, Rensa’s kids, so Tasseren’s nephews) came over, begging Wild to make them Wildberry Crepes too.

He happily did so, handing them the plates while also sneaking each of them some Honey Candy he pulled from the slate.

~

Once everyone had eaten, Tasseren brought two horses over.

One was a tall, completely white stallion. He looked almost haughty with his head held high.

The other one was a slightly smaller, rounder mare. Huge brown and white spots made up her fur, and her mane was long and brown.

“I’m assuming the white one is Milk?”

“That’s right. Here, take this and give it to Sugar, she’ll be fine with you after that.” He handed him an apple.

Dark carefully stepped closer to the horse and held the apple in her direction.

Sugar noticed the apple and took it from his hand. After she finished it, she stepped closer to Dark and started nosing his hand, probably looking for more.

He stroked her nose and neck as consolation when she didn’t find anything, which seemed to be enough to cheer her up.

Wild climbed onto Milk’s back and turned to Dark.

“I probably should have asked this before, but have you ridden a horse before?”

Dark had to think for a moment on how to phrase the answer to that.

“I know how to.”

There. That wasn’t a lie. He might have never actually done it himself, but plenty of Heroes had a horse and knew how to ride. (A shocking amount of them had a horse named Epona that always looked the same.)

Apparently Wild was satisfied with that answer, because he just said “Great!” and started turning his horse around.

Dark climbed onto Sugar’s back and grabbed the reins. Riding couldn’t be that hard, right?

Chapter Text

Riding turned out to be quite easy. Once Dark figured out he had to keep his back straight and how to give signals, the ride went pretty smoothly.

Meanwhile Wild regularly sped up for the sole purpose of running over Bokoblins and then slowed down until Dark and Sugar had caught up. (Milk seemed way to satisfied about killing so many monsters. That horse was scary.)

Travelling via horseback was a lot faster than walking, and despite the leisurely pace they set they could see the village on its hill a few hours later.

And 'village' was definitely the right term to use, because it was small.

"Didn’t you say this was the biggest settlement in all of Hyrule?"

Wild frowned, thinking. "Well, I suppose Gerudo Town is also pretty big, but it has a wall, so it feels smaller. Why? Something wrong?"

"No, it‘s just… not as big as I expected."

When Wild had called it the biggest settlement, he had imagined something like Castle Town. Though, from what he could remember Hyrule Castle had had some huge ruins in front of it. Wild hadn’t been exaggerating when he said the Calamity killed a lot of people.

When they reached the village gate, the Hero called out to the man standing there with a pitchfork in hand. "Thadd, hi!"

"Wild! Nice to see you use the gate for once, usually you just pop out of nowhere!"

"Ah, sorry about that. It‘s just much more convenient…" Wild explained with a sheepish smile.

Thadd waved him off. "No no, it‘s alright. Just… come and say hello sometime, yes?"

"Promise."

After that, they made their way to Wild‘s house. Most people in the village called out greetings to the Hero, and he responded to everyone with their name. (Not just places but people too- How long did the boy spend travelling around?)

~

Once they had parked the horses by the open shed next to Wild’s house, they started the long way up the hill towards the building Wild called the 'Tech Lab'.

"You know, it‘s funny. I don’t think I ever stayed in that house for longer than a night."

Dark shot him a confused look.

"Why do you have it, then?"

"Eh, it was a pretty spontaneous purchase. They were gonna demolish it, so I said I would take it, Bolson said I‘d never be able to afford that, and then  it became personal and I had to prove him wrong, so he we are."

He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Though, I suppose I wouldn’t really have a good place for the Champions weapons otherwise."

Then he remembered that Dark didn’t know what he was talking about and explained.

"Ah, the champions were the people that got chosen one hundred years ago to face Ganon. I- Link was one of them. They all died. When I helped the different tribes calm the Divine Beasts- those are these huge Sheikah constructs by the way- they gave me the weapons the Champions used back then. They feel too… important to just put in the Sheika Slate and leave them there, but I‘m not very good at keeping weapons intact, and I didn’t want to break them. So I hung them up in my house."

Dark frowned. "What‘s up with that anyways? The sword you threw just shattered."

Wild laughed, embarrassed.

"Yeah, like I said, I‘m not good at keeping weapons intact. I know how to fight with pretty much everything I can get my hands on, but unfortunately not a single thing about weapon care transferred over from Link. After a while I found this function in the Sheikah Slate. It can charge a weapon with some extra power for one strike, but it breaks afterwards. Since I can’t keep the weapons from breaking anyways, I thought 'why not use it'. Works pretty well."

Dark stared at him for a full five seconds, contemplating. Eventually, he said: "I know a thing or two about weapon maintenance. I could show you a bit, if you want…?"

Wild lit up. (No, really, why did it look like his eyes glowed when he smiled like this?)

"Really!? Thank you so much! No one here really knows much about that kind of stuff. Most soldiers died back in the calamity, and anyone who survived the initial attack is dead by now and only taught the basics to their kids."

Wow. That was a… depressing reason. It made sense, sadly, but still.

"…it‘s no problem. Can‘t have you break any important weapons, after all."

"Funny you should say that- I managed to break the Master Sword once."

Dark choked.

"Excuse me, WHAT?! How did you manage that?"

"Well, I was making dinner, and didn’t have any knives, so I used her to cut the meat. I asked first, of course, and she said it was fine. Apparently she hadn’t tasted anything but monsters since she was forged? I don’t know, she talks weird, I think Purah would understand more than I can.

Anyways, so I was making dinner, and then once everything was in the pot, I realised I didn’t have enough firewood, so I started chopping trees, but I didn’t have an axe on me, so I used the sword. After the third tree, she kinda just… dissolved? I kept the hilt, and she reappeared a few minutes later, told me that she had fun but is too old for stuff like that and went to sleep."

Dark was officially stunned speechless.

He could remember how most heroes treated the Master Sword.

Some loved and respected her for being the sword of the goddess, a gift bestowed upon them to fulfil their quest.

Some resented her, for the burden she represented.

And Wild used her as a kitchen knife, apparently.

The situation was so absurd, had he been anyone else, he would have burst into laughter.

Wild didn’t seem to notice the mild crisis Dark was going through. He crossed his arms behind his head and looked at the sky.

"I like Fi. She‘s nice. I figured it‘d be best to let her rest for I while before I go to challenge Ganon, so I haven’t used her in a while."

A moment later he perked up and completely jumped topics.

"Oh, we‘re almost there!"

Indeed, they had almost made it up the entire hill. You could see the ocean from up here.

(For some reason, it made him remember the Era of the Great Sea. The memories of that time were a little fuzzy, like everything after the time split (and hadn’t that been confusing. Having three different minds and sets of memories melt back into one after the timeline had been fixed had been anything but comfortable), but he still remembered trying to find a good place to hide, which wasn’t that easy when the entire land is just tiny little islands. After a while he had just given up and settled down underwater. Not like he needed to breathe.)

~

Wild swung open the door to the lab and exclaimed a loud: "Purah! I‘m back!"

"Wild Child! About time you turned up, the last Divine Beast’s been inactive for three weeks now! What took you so long?"

Dark searched for the source of the voice, which turned out to be a little girl, around six years old if he had to guess, standing on a stool at the table.

…okay.

That- yeah, no, he wasn’t going to question that. He‘d seen weirder stuff.

(Just look at the Hero of Time. The guy was a walking paradox. This little girl being a genius Sheikah researcher over a hundred years old? Not that hard to believe.)

Wild looked mildly embarrassed, and took a deep breath to start explaining.

"Well, I ran some errands for a few people from Gerudo town, then I wanted to come over but heard from someone that there was supposed to be a fairy fountain in the desert, so I went looking for that. After that I got distracted, raided some monster camps near the roads, spent a week searching for Koroks, visited Korok forest, did some shrines, got a new curry recipe I had to try, fought a Lynel with a pot lid and a ladle, fell into a river, climbed Mount Lanayru to visit Naydra so I could check up on her after the whole Malice-infection she had, she‘s fine by the way, decided I should visit the Great Plateau to see the Ghost King again but he wasn’t there, and then we cleared the road from there to here."

He blinked at Purah innocently.

The girl blinked back.

"Cool. So, who‘s this?"

Wild smiled.

"Right! This is Dark, my new friend!"

The girl examined Dark for a few seconds, making him feel a little uncomfortable. But then she relaxed and smiled.

"Well, nice to meet 'cha. I‘m Purah. Do make sure our Wild Child doesn’t get into too much trouble, he‘s not that great at keeping track of things."

Wild’s indignant shout of "Hey!" went ignored, everyone in the room knew it was true.

Purah turned back to Wild and the two of them started talking about pretty complicated sounding technological stuff, which Dark tuned out. He didn’t understand any of it anyways.

This allowed him to focus on something entirely else.

Friend.

Wild had called him his friend.

It… felt nice.

(Maybe… he could get used to this.)

Chapter Text

The jungles of the Faron region were uncomfortably warm and humid. The air felt thick and was swarming with insects, and carried the smell of water and something sweet.

Wild had changed into his climbing gear, as it was more open than his usual attire, but was unbothered otherwise, weaving through the thicket to reach the banana trees scattered around.

Meanwhile Dark was torn between being thankful that his body couldn’t get heatstrokes and cursing himself for wearing exclusively black.

(There wasn’t much else that went with white hair, ash coloured skin and red eyes. White, maybe. No, you could see every stain on white clothing…)

The new hood Wild had bought for him in Hateno (dyed black, and even bigger than Wild‘s. It was perfect) certainly didn’t help either, but he had to wear that. The sun wasn’t any friendlier here than it was elsewhere.

"Hey Wild?"

The Hero looked down from where he was hanging on a tree, looking around the area.

He let go of the trunk and flung himself towards the ground, somehow landing without breaking his legs.

"What‘s up?"

Dark handed him an armful of Mighty Bananas, which Wild took and stored in the slate.

"You said we‘d be looking for Bananas, and we have a lot of those now, but you mentioned some other fruit too?"

"You mean Hearty Durian?"

"Yeah, that." Dark said. "What is that?"

Wild looked at him, a bit shocked, but managed to catch himself pretty quickly.

"Uh, how do I explain these? They‘re spiky green balls, they grow on trees, and… You know what, I have a picture in the Compendium, give me a second."

The picture on the slate quickly revealed that, yes, there wasn’t really a way to describe them other than 'spiky green balls'.

"Well, that‘s not really helpful. Everything here is green."

Wild shrugged. "They also smell really bad, if that helps? Like foul onions."

"That-" Dark paused. He could pick up something foul-smelling under the sweet scent of bananas and tropical plants.

"That does help, actually."

They went back to searching, Dark following his nose more than his eyes this time.

"What‘s so special about them, anyways?"

Wild was back to climbing trees, but that didn’t stop him from holding a conversation.

"Well, if you cook them right they‘re super healthy. They have a similar effect to Hearty Elixir, though a bit weaker, except they actually taste good once you get over the smell."

He paused for a moment to jump from one tree to the next.

"A Gerudo also warned me not to drink alcohol when I‘ve eaten durian before, something about stomach cramps, but that‘s not really relevant since I don’t drink."

"Still good to know, I suppose. For when you’re older." Dark answered.

He carefully climbed over some roots and started picking the spiky fruits from the small tree he had found.

Wild landed next to him.

"I guess. I‘ll have to convince Furosa I‘m old enough somehow first. Might get complicated."

"Really? Why?"

"Well, I haven’t aged physically since I came from the shrine. And it‘s been almost two years now."

He said that nonchalantly, like it was just something that happened. (For him, it probably was. How would he know better?)

Dark hummed. There weren’t any durians left on this tree.

"You’re lucky your body is around seventeen then. I don’t age either, and let me tell you, looking like an eight year old for goddess knows how long is not fun."

Wild had to laugh at that.

"I can imagine."

He went back to looking for more trees.

"You look like sixteen now, though? How‘d that happen?"

"Ah, it‘s…" Dark turned away. He didn’t like talking about this.

"I get a new body, every time I die."

"Whoa, really? Whenever I die Mipha- she was one of the champions back then, her ghost hangs out around me with the others- anyways, she just fixes me right up!"

"Wait what? You‘ve died!? Like, you you, not Link?"

"Yeah." Wild looked mildly embarrassed.

"Apparently, shield surfing down a cliff with a shield that‘s almost broken isn’t the smartest idea."

"That… totally sound like something you‘d do, yes. But still! You can’t just die, you’re not immortal!"

Wild looked confused now.

"Um. It’s a possibility, actually. Like I said, I don’t age, and when I die from injuries Mipha heals me. Purah kinda freaked out when I told her about it."

Oh.

That sounded like it made sense.

That was not a good thing.

Dark huffed. "Trust me, immorality isn’t as great as it sounds."

Wild shrugged again, unworried.

"I guess. I‘ll cross that bridge when I get to it. No need to worry about it now."

They fell into silence again.

Then Wild pointed somewhere from his tree, completely changing the topic again.

"I think I see more durian trees over there!"

(Wild was very easily distracted, Dark was starting to notice.)

~

A few hours and many durians and bananas later, Wild called out to Dark again.

"Hey, just a quick heads up, it’s gonna start storming soon. We should head back to the stable!"

Dark looked at the sky, which was still blue and clear, no clouds in sight.

"How can you tell? It looks pretty sunny to me."

Wild climbed from the tree he was on and started packing away his bow and sword, exchanging them for a wooden bow and a small club with sharp bones tied to it.

"Dunno. I just can. It feels like a… tingling, in my bones. Hard to explain. Hey, can you hand me your claymore? You don’t want to have any metal gear out during a thunderstorm."

Wild was tapping his slate now, changing back to his Hylinan Set. This time, he actually put the Hood up, probably in preparation for the rain.

Dark gave the sword to Wild.

Immediately, he felt more vulnerable without the by now familiar weight on his back.

Wild seemed to pick up on it somehow, and pulled a huge club with a big piece of bone attached from the slate.

"Dragonbone Moblin Club. You can switch back once the storm passes."

"Thanks."

Like Wild had predicted, the sky started filling with clouds a few minutes later. By the time the two of them were back on the road it was raining heavily.

Wild didn’t seem to mind the downpour, he actually looked quite happy.

Dark couldn’t say the same for himself. He didn’t have anything against the weather, but wet socks was one of those things he could gladly live without.

That was when the thunder came.

And by that I mean that lightning struck maybe two arm lengths next to them.

The grass immediately caught fire, which was put out just as fast from the rain.

"Why does it strike so close!? That‘s not how lightning is supposed to work!"

"It‘s only like this here in the Faron region. I think the storms here have something magical on them, it‘s really the only explanation I could think of that makes them this strong. Probably a side effect from Farosh coming here every day. But don’t worry, as long as you’re not wearing metal the chances of getting hit are really low!"

"Have you been struck by lightning before?"

"Yeah. Ugh, I was really stupid back then. There was a riddle, to open a shrine. It said that a specific spot had to be struck by lightning. Me, being an idiot, didn’t think of just dropping something made from metal there. Instead, I put on the parts of Rubber set I already had, downed a level three Electro Elixir and stood there with a sword held up. It really fucking hurt."

Wild laughed quietly. "Man, Mipha was so mad when I came to. Kept scolding me until the energy ran out and I couldn’t see her anymore."

"This is the second time you mentioned her. What was she like?"

Wild got a faraway look in his eyes.

"She was one of the champions, like I said. A Zora princess. She was very kind, everyone loved her. She… she was Link‘s fiancée. I know I don’t really know her, but… I think if I did, I would miss her a lot."

Dark hummed, thoughtful, and left it at that.

(Missing someone. It wasn’t something he could relate to, but it didn’t sound nice.)

~

After a while of walking, they made it to the Lakeside Stable.

It was well into the evening by now, so most people had retreated into their beds.

Anly, the manager, still greeted them, but other than him, no one was up anymore.

"Good evening, lads. What can I do for you?"

Wild summoned two red rupees from the slate.

(Dark should really work on getting his own money. He was starting to feel guilty for having Wild pay for everything. (On the other hand, he had seen how much money Wild had. And with that many gemstones, the Hero could probably single-handedly crash the economy.))

"Two normal beds, please."

Inside, Wild used the slate to dry his clothes by storing them away and pulling them back out.

He offered the same for Dark, but he only handed over the hood. The rest of his clothes were made from magic, they were already starting to dry and would probably be finished within the next two minutes.

Wild stretched before he went to bed, making his spine pop.

"Huh. Haven’t slept in a bed in a while. I only sleep, like, once a week, and usually outside."

He said that like it was completely normal to sleep only once a week. (For him, it probably was.)

Well, it wasn’t like Dark could talk. He didn’t need much sleep either, and he couldn’t even remember when he had last slept in an actual bed.

Most innkeepers got scared by his appearance.

The stable owners seemed pretty nonjudgmental in that regard. Or maybe it just assured them enough to see Wild with him.

Falling asleep did, once again, pose a bit of a challenge. In the end, he managed by matching his breathing to the slower pace of Wild, who had been out five minutes after he lay down.

He made it through the night without nightmares. That was something, at least.

Chapter Text

Dark was starting to question whether the Hyrule of this era had anything other than sprawling wilderness with the occasional stable in between.

Really. He hadn’t seen much else yet. For its enormous size, most of Hyrule was pretty devoid of people.

It made sense when you considered the history, but it also felt a little weird to go from one stable in the middle of nowhere (in Faron) to another stable in the middle of nowhere (in Akkala).

Specifically, they teleported to the East Akkala stable, because apparently there were two.

"I thought you wanted to go visit the other researcher? Why didn’t you port us straight to the lab? Or does the lab not have of those landing spots?"

Maybe this was just the closest shrine.

Actually, it was awfully convenient that each stable seemed to have one of those nearby.

(Probably a coincidence, but the Sheikah were involved, so you never knew.)

Wild turned around to face him, walking to the stable backwards.

"The Lab does have one of those, I just wanted breakfast first and stables have fire pits and pots."

Ah. Yeah. That made sense. Breakfast was very important, after all.

"I‘m feeling like Paella. You good with that?"

Dark raised an eyebrow at the Hero.

"For breakfast? Isn’t that more of a dinner food?"

Wild‘s eyes grew wide and he stumbled, barely managing not to fall over by flapping his arms.

"There‘s specific food for different times of the day?!"

~

Wild still ended up making Paella.

~

After breakfast, the two of them started walking up the hill the Lab was set on.

Why were both the Labs on top of hills anyways? That only made them less accessible.

…actually, that was probably the reason. From what Wild had told him about the Sheikah researchers, they tended to blow things up.

(It was hypocritical, coming from the Hero. Wild loved explosions way too much.)

When they came close to the top, Dark noticed something near the road ahead.

"That thing over there looks just like those metal things over at the Dueling Peaks Stable."

"Wait, what?"

Wild sounded annoyed.

"Ah, shit. Right, last blood moon was a month ago. Okay, I got this, just stay behind me."

Then he pulled out a blue glowing shield and slowed his pace.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Dark was getting worried now.

And then the pile of metal came to life.

Or, well, it started glowing a sinister red-purple (wait a minute, wasn’t that the same stuff he felt from Ganon? How had he not noticed that before??) and turned towards them, Dark wasn’t sure if that counted as 'coming to life'.

And then a beam of red light from the things eye pointed at Wild.

"Wild, what-"

"Shush, I need to concentrate!"

The thing was beeping now. That couldn’t be good.

Maybe a second after Dark thought that, the thing shot a laser at Wild.

The blindingly white beam of light came racing towards them, and the Hero raised his shield.

And somehow parried the laser, by swinging his shield just as it hit.

One bright flash and the thing exploded, falling apart.

Dark just stood there for a moment, processing.

Wild was entirely unbothered, happily collecting the metal parts the thing had dropped.

Finally, he managed to snap out of his shock.

"Wild, what the hell was that."

"Just a Decaying Guardian. They can be dangerous, but if you know how to handle them they‘re pretty easy to take out, since they can’t move."

"You‘re saying that like some of them can." Dark said, and immediately regretted it because he dreaded the answer.

"Well, there‘s the Stalkers, those can walk. Then there‘s Skywatchers, but those are pretty easy to avoid."

Suddenly, Wild‘s expression darkened and a shiver went up Dark‘s spine.

"Turrets, however, are the stuff of nightmares."

In an instant, his face was back to the easygoing smile it had been resting on before, and Dark was staring to feel whiplash from the fast changes in mood.

"But those are only at Hyrule Castle, and I have no intention of ever going anywhere near those again, so let’s just forget about them for now."

Dark felt like he should point out that they had to go to Hyrule Castle sooner or later because that‘s were Ganon was, but decided that it would be better not to remind Wild of that and just go along with it for now.

~

"Hi Robbie!"

A really short man with some weird goggles turned around when he heard Wild‘s voice. Probably Robbie then.

(Why were all these Sheikah people so short?)

"Wild! Hello, hello, come in!"

The man waved at them enthusiastically.

"How can I help you, kid?"

"I need to use Cherry. Been running low on arrows."

What? Dark looked at Wild confused.

"Didn’t you have over three hundred arrows just yesterday?"

Dark remembered that pretty well, because Wild had mentioned it offhand, like it was a totally normal amount of arrows to be carrying around. (For him, it probably was.)

Wild also looked confused for a moment, before his face cleared in understanding and he laughed.

"Ah, no, I mean ancient arrows. I have plenty of the normal ones. And the elemental ones. And the bomb arrows."

"What‘s the difference?"

Wild opened his mouth to explain, but was interrupted by Robbie.

"Oh, Ancient Arrows are miracles of technology! Just one hit can do a tremendous amount of damage! And they are the most effective way of destroying guardians!"

The researcher was gesturing wildly during his little speech.

Wild nodded along. "Sounds about right. I like them since I use my bows a lot, but Robbie makes lots of other weapons too."

The Hero stood in front of a machine in the middle of the room now, and pulled out his slate.

"Welcome back, *beep* FamiliarNameMissing! Insert materials and rupees. Receive ancient equipment in exchange."

Wild tapped around on his slate, and frowned.

"Oh man, I don’t have enough Ancient Cores for everything."

He clicked something, and the robot (who was apparently named Cherry? That‘s what Wild called it. Her?) made a sound.

"Transaction complete."

"Perfect. Thanks, Cherry."

He turned back to Dark.

"Okay, I‘ll have to go farm some more Guardian parts. Luckily, there‘s a whole bunch of them here in Akkala."

Dark‘s stomach dropped.

"The- the walking ones? Are you s-sure that‘s safe?"

"Not at all!" Wild chirped. "But don’t worry, I‘m good at this!"

Then he frowned, and put a hand to his chin.

"Though, you don’t have any experience fighting Guardians… I think it might be better if you just stayed here until I‘m back. That okay?"

"Yes, that‘s fine!" Dark answered, maybe a little too quickly. (You couldn’t blame him. Who in their right mind would willingly face off against laser shooting killer robots?)

Wild just shrugged and accepted the answer.

"Okay then. See you in a bit!"

He pulled out his slate and dissolved into Blue ribbons.

"Huh. So that‘s what that looks like from the outside."

Dark and Robbie stood there for a few seconds, neither really sure what to do.

"Sooo, who are you? I don’t think Wild introduced you."

"Dark."

"Hm. Edgy. Want to hear about the Ancient Bladesaw?"

"The what now?"

Wild was hanging on his paraglider, slowly gliding towards the Torin Wetland. There were usually some Guardians down there.

The length of the flight allowed him some time to think.

Wild was pretty sure by now that Dark wasn’t Hylian, despite looking similar to one.

He wasn’t sure what exactly Dark was, but that wasn’t important.

Because he was certain that Dark was on his side. His distaste for Ganon was really obvious.

Wild had also noticed that his first impression had been right- Dark was lonely.

At least, he had been. Wild felt like the guy was warming up to him.

The ground was coming closer now, and Wild could see a Stalker walking around already.

Quickly, he put his paraglider away and lifted his bow, time crawling to a snail pace around him.

A beat, and the Guardian was facing in his direction.

Wild‘s shot struck true, like it always did.

The machine whirled to attention, searching for its attacker.

By the time it had located the Hero, two more arrows had hit its eye.

Wild did have ancient arrows now, but he wanted to save those for Ganon. Or emergencies. Both were valid reasons to use them.

When he felt that he wouldn’t be able to hold on like this much longer, he put away the bow and pulled a Claymore from his Slate instead.

With a shout, Wild came down on the Guardian. The attack severed two of its legs, and left a huge dent in its casing.

The Guardian was momentarily stunned, and Wild used the time to change weapons yet again.

He didn’t like fighting with big weapons, so instead he pulled the out a Guardian Sword++ (gotta love the loot from Tests of Strength) and brought his shield back up.

He also tapped his Slate to exchange his Hood for the Diamond Circlet he had found under Lomei Labyrinth.

(And hadn’t that been a fun day. The chest in the middle of the room had obviously been a trap, and he had gotten the Travel Medaillon first, but the trap had been to tempting in the end. Having Hylia knows how many Decayed Guardians activate and zero in on you at once was… well, it was close to what Wild imagined a heart attack might feel like.)

As long as there was only one Guardian they were pretty easy to take down, Wild thought, while ducking away from a laser and cutting away more of its legs.

They weren’t as fun to fight as other monsters, though.

Wild loved the rush of battle, he relished in it. Camps, Talus, Hinox, Molduga, Lynel, he loved fighting those. They were fun to take down.

Guardians, however, had way too many bad memories attached, and considering that Wild didn’t have many from before his one hundred year nap, that was quite a feat.

When he had first come across a Guardian on the Great Plateu, while trying to collect all the Runes for his Sheikah Slate, his first response had been panic.

Seeing Guardians made his scars ache, making it a dead giveaway what had killed the original owner of this body.

No, fighting Guardians was not fun.

But it did feel extremely satisfying to see them explode and fall apart into pieces.

Wild really couldn’t blame Dark for not wanting to fight them. It had taken some getting used to for him too, and as far as he knew, he was the only person in all of Hyrule that fought the machines at all.

Besides, what he said in the Lab wasn’t just an excuse to go alone (even if that was part of it. Wild had a bit of a hunch that Dark would have come with him if he hadn’t brought it up himself. The guy did not like admitting to weaknesses).

Without experience in fighting Guardians, it was really dangerous.

Wild didn’t know how often Mipha or a fairy had to save him from falling to their lasers (again) until he finally learned to parry them.

By now, he could do it with a pot lid, but he had done that exactly once to prove he could and just stuck to stronger shields after that.

He might not understand what 'self preservation' and 'sanity' were all about, but he saw no reason to waste perfectly good shields or cooking utensils.

~

After an hour of hunting for Guardian parts, Wild teleported back to the Tech Lab.

He opened the door and stopped short.

Because he had not expected to come back to Dark swinging around an Ancient Bladesaw, with what looked like a genuine (if small) smile on his face.

Dark rarely smiled. (Wild might or might not have made it a personal quest to get him to smile more. Just maybe. Smiling was healthy. At least that‘s what Mipha had told him once.)

"Wild, you‘re back!" That was Robbie.

"You won’t believe how much data I got on the Ancient Bladesaw while you were gone!"

Dark had deactivated the weapon now and came over.

"Hey, uh, any chance I can keep this? I like it."

Yeah, Wild could see that.

"Sure, why not. I‘ll pay for it."

Wild was about to pull the rupees and materials from his slate, but Robbie interrupted him.

"Nonsense, my boy! Keep your money, all the data I got makes up for the cost. Besides, your friend here is a natural with this weapon!"

"Oh! Thank you!" That was very generous of Robbie.

"I‘m still paying the rupees though. I thought you guys needed the funds."

"Ah, well, if you insist I won’t say no."

Wild pulled out the rupees he remembered Cherry usually wanted for a Bladesaw.

He had more than enough of them anyways, so he could share them no problem.

After that, he went back to Cherry and purchased an Ancient Bow, the last weapon he wanted to buy here. They were awfully expensive, but also extremely strong.

Cherry transferred the bow directly into his slate, like she always did when he bought from her.

"Okay, I‘m done here!"

He turned back to Dark, who was busy with wrapping himself up in his cloak. (Wild didn’t even want to think about how inconvenient and annoying an allergy to sunlight must be. No wonder Dark was always a bit grumpy.)

His friend looked up when he heard Wild calling.

"Great. Where to next?"

"Kakariko. I need to visit Cotera."

Wild noticed Dark stiffen at the mention of the village. It was making him nervous. (Like, really nervous. Wild probably would have been able to tell even without his sixth sense making it obvious.)

Weird. Oh well, maybe he just didn’t like crowds.

Chapter Text

The Blue faded, and Dark took stock of his surroundings.

They were standing on top of a hill, encircled by steep mountains. In the valley they formed stood a village.

Just like Hateno, Kakariko was smaller than expected.

A stream ran through the village, and there were multiple patches scattered around, growing carrots, pumpkins and plum trees.

He could also hear clucking, so there was probably a cucco coop nearby.

He might have been standing and staring for a bit too long, because he was pulled out of his thoughts by Wild grabbing his wrist and dragging him in the other direction.

"Wha- Hey!"

"You were taking too long."

When it came to anything but cooking, Wild was not very patient.

~

"Have you met a Great Fairy before?"

"No." He tended to stay away from them. Great Fairies were powerful, something he generally tried to avoid.

Also, dark magic and fairy magic didn’t mix well.

It wasn’t as extreme as it was with the direct opposites, light and dark magic, which completely neutralised or destroyed each other, depending on how much you have on both sides.

(A fitting comparison would be mixing hot and cold water. If you had the same amount of both, you‘d get normal water that isn’t hot or cold. But if you have a gallon of hot water and put in a spoon of cold, you still have a gallon of hot water (maybe half a degree less hot), and the cold water vanishes like it was never even there).

Fairy magic and dark magic just naturally avoided each other, and there wasn’t really anything you could do about it.

(A fitting comparison would be the futile effort of mixing oil and water. It just didn’t.)

Actually, now that he was thinking about it, fairies probably really enjoyed Wild’s company. The Hero did have magic around him, but it wasn’t the classic light magic most Hylians had.

Wild reminded him more of the magic found in nature and spirits, the one that was so old it probably came directly from the elements.

It was a magic that acted more passively than most other kinds.

(You could only really use it actively if you had truly enormous amounts of it, which was usually reserved for the oldest of spirits or actual gods and goddesses.)

But that kind of magic attracted fairies, which was the reason fairies were often found in nature.

(Another fitting comparison would be how light draws in moths (it was ironic that most fairies didn’t really care much for light magic), but it was probably insulting to compare a fairy to a moth.)

Dark could already tell there was a Fairy Fountain here. From the way he was staring to feel uncomfortably warm and his skin was itching he could confidently say that they were getting close. (A fairy had told him once that he felt the other way around for her, like plunging into freezing cold water.)

It wasn’t harmful in any way, like the sun was in the long run, just really unpleasant.

"We‘re here! That‘s the Fountain!"

Wild pointed at a huge flower sitting on the forest floor, a pool of water in its middle. A handful of fairies were swirling around it, glowing in different colours, bathing the clearing in light.

Other flowers were growing around the Fountain, and some carrots were poking out of the ground.

Dark opted to stay near the edge of the clearing, since the mild uncomfortableness had turned into something that felt like what he knew as the symptoms of pollen allergy mixed with a fever.

(Again, not actually harmful, just extremely unpleasant, especially for someone that was usually immune to stuff like illness and allergies on account of not having a real biological body.)

The fairies seemed to feel the same, seeing as there was a radius around him not a single one entered.

Wild was happily chatting away, apparently not having any problems with understanding their chimes and chirps.

Even the Great Fairy, which appeared when Wild stepped onto the giant flower, spoke in her native language with the Hero.

Which meant Dark didn’t understand anything of what was said.

Which meant he startled badly when the Great Fairy snatched Wild up and dived into her fountain.

…were all Great Fairies like that? If so, not meeting one up until today had totally been worth not having the allergy-fever he was experiencing right now.

~

Wild eventually re-emerged from the Fountain and together they started putting away all the clothing pieces that had been pulled out of the slate to enhance them.

There was some knights armour in the pile, a ruby circlet, what looked like Zora armour, thick clothing suitable for low temperatures, an outfit that reminded him of the clothing Sheikah wore for stealth, something that looked like traditional Gerudo gear (weren’t Gerudo all women? Why was there a set of clothes for males?), a bright red shirt with a weird white symbol on it, Wild‘s climbing gear, and a brilliant blue tunic with white embroidery.

(Wow, Wild had a lot of clothes.)

Once everything was put away, Wild looked at the time. And promptly freaked out.

"It‘s eight PM already!? I promised Koko I was gonna show her my carrot cake recipe the next time I‘m here!"

He took off, running towards the village.

Dark sighed and got up to follow him, but a voice interrupted him.

"And what are you doing here?" It didn’t sound reproachful, just curious.

He shrugged. "I‘m following Wild around, mostly."

The Great Fairy hummed.

"Curious. A darkling travelling with the Hero. What‘s your name?"

"Dark."

"Ah. Creative." the fairy said, dryly. "I take it you want to get rid of the Calamity Beast? You don’t reek of its malice the same way its followers do."

He just nodded.

She smiled at him. "Well, good luck then. Literally everyone wants that thing gone."

She turned to dive back under, but stopped for a moment.

"My name is Cotera."

Then she disappeared.

That… honestly went better than he expected.

After that, Dark hurried back the shrine he and Wild had arrived at. The itching was starting to get unbearable.

~

Somehow, Dark made it through the village without being seen.

It was a little sad. The Sheikah seemed to have lost many people, and the ones that were still here were clearly not the frightening competent ninja he (and many Heroes) remembered.

He found Wild by the open fireplace, showing a little girl how to bake.

Right now, he was pulling a finished cake from the pot.

"-this works best with an oven, but you can make it in a pot too. See? Like this."

The girl nodded excitedly.

When she looked up and noticed Dark, the girl squeaked in fright and hid behind Wild.

"Koko? What‘s the matter?"

"S-scary man!"

Wild looked up, confused.

"What? Do you mean Dark?" he asked, while gesturing at him.

When Koko nodded, he crouched down to her height and smiled reassuringly.

"Don’t worry, he‘s my friend! Dark looks a bit scary but he‘s really nice!"

The girl looked at him with big eyes.

"R-really?"

Wild nodded. "Really. Hey, tell you what." Now he was whispering, like he was telling a secret. "He really likes cake too. How about you give him a piece of our carrot cake."

The girl nodded, still a little nervous, and cut a piece from the finished cake.

She held out the plate towards him.

"H-here you go, Mister Dark."

And Dark? Dark took the cake and tried to swallow the wave of emotions that overcame him.

"Wah! Mister Wild, I made your friend cry!"

What? He put a hand to his face, and found his cheeks were wet.

"Hey, it‘s okay Mister! You don’t have to eat the cake if you don’t want to!"

It was cute how worried she was. Like she actually cared. (She probably did. Why…?) 

Dark smiled at her, softly, and it came to him easier than it ever had before.

"Don’t worry, it‘s not that." he said, and his voice sounded raw, "I‘m just really happy. No one ever gave me cake before."

Well, aside from Wild, no one gave him anything. Usually, people were afraid. Especially children.

Yet somehow, Wild managed to convince a child Dark was nice and meant no harm.

"What? That‘s so sad! Do you want some more? I can make a new one!" 

It felt… nice.

That wasn’t the right the word to describe it in any way, far too small and meaningless to convey what he felt right now. He doubted there even were words for it.

(A fitting comparison would be a spark that springs into existence. It’s small. It can’t light a fire on its own. But it still chases away the darkness full of ashes for a moment, and it’s not much, but it‘s a start.)

(Maybe, he could start living again.)

Chapter Text

They did bake another cake, this one with pumpkin. It tasted great.

When the sun started setting, Koko said goodbye and ran home.

Wild looked after her, smiling. "She‘s a sweetheart, isn’t she? And such a great cook."

"She is." Dark agreed.

They stood in silence for a few seconds.

"Well, I still have to visit Impa. She seems to know a lot about the Calamity, maybe she has some tips for taking down Ganon."

Interesting.

Dark wondered if she was also a soul that somehow got entangled with the reincarnation cycle or if Impa was just a really popular Sheikah name.

There seemed to be a lot of them.

Wild turned to look at the sky, and sighed.

"Man, I hate having to plan for stuff like this. Takes all the fun out of fighting. But I won’t risk it after Thunder Blight."

Dark shot a questioning look at Wild.

"You don’t plan your fights? I mean, I get not planning for every monster encounter, but boss battles?"

Wild shrugged.

"Not really? I mean, I make sure to have lots of weapons on hand, and learning attack patterns is pretty important, but other than that it‘s mostly 'hit it till it dies'."

"… I don’t know why I expected anything else."

Wild hummed, amused. "Yeah, I am pretty good at faking it. If you move with enough confidence people think you know what you’re doing, for some reason."

A pause. "Though, blowing stuff up usually works, so in a way I do know what I‘m doing."

~

The house of the village elder was impossible to miss. It was big, it had a waterfall and pond, and two Sheikah men standing guard in front of it.

The guards didn’t really do much, they just greeted Wild and let them through. They did look at Dark warily, but that was just the natural effect he had on people. They didn’t seem suspicious.

(He didn’t know whether he should be glad or worry. On one hand, it was great that they didn’t attack him or anything like that. On the other hand, he was a literal being of darkness, walking into the house of the village elder, and these guards didn’t even ask for his name.)

Wild opened the door and walked in, not closing it behind him.

…rude. Dark made sure to close the door before he followed Wild.

"Wild. How nice of you to visit."

The voice had come from the other side of the room. A really old looking (and really small) lady sat there.

"Hi Impa."

Impa lifted her hat, allowing her to actually look at the Hero.

"Hmm. You haven’t grown one bit. Tell me, have you made progress with your memories?"

Wild was fidgeting. He seemed nervous.

"Ah, not really. Some flashes here and there, but nothing big."

Impa hummed, but she had disappointment written over her face.

Then she noticed Dark standing by the door.

"…and who is that?"

Her eyes narrowed. "You are not human like you pretend to be. Why are you following our Hero? I can tell you are a creature of darkness. Are you the Hero‘s Shadow, that so many legends speak of?"

Dark tensed, panic rising in his chest.

There was silence, for a few seconds. He didn’t know how to react.

Usually people were attacking by now, or he would have run off already. But running wasn’t an option, and Wild…

"Huh? What do you mean?" Wild was just looking at Impa with mild confusion, his head tilted to the side.

Now Impa looked confused too.

"Can you not tell? He reeks of dark magic!"

"Uh, yeah? I know that. But what do mean with 'Hero's Shadow'? He‘s my friend!"

That actually made Impa pause.

"Your friend."

She turned to look at Dark, who still hadn’t moved, mostly because he was still panicking about how to react.

"Hmm. He does not look like he means harm. But… you are the Shadow, yes?"

Well, no one was attacking.

He nodded.

"And you do not plan on harming Wild in any way? You do not work for Ganon?"

"No!"

The word just slipped out, with a lot more force than he wanted to.

He had never harmed a Hero. Never deliberately or with his free will intact, anyways.

And Wild was the first of those Heroes to ever treat him as a friend. He‘d never hurt him!

(Actually, Wild was his first ever friend, period. Kinda sad, but it was too late to do anything about it now.)

"No." He said again, quieter this time. "Ganon has to go. I‘ll kill the bastard myself if I have to."

He could try, at least. Might get difficult.

"Nah, I‘ll take care of him. But seriously, what‘s all this 'Hero‘s Shadow' stuff you’re talking about?"

Wild‘s words pulled Dark out of his thoughts. Right. He wouldn’t go against Ganon alone. That‘s what the Hero was for.

"It‘s… a long story. And not a happy one."

Impa was frowning. "I would like to hear it. I feel like I‘m missing something here."

"…fine."

Dark took a deep breath, and sighed. He hated thinking about this. The memories of every fight, every time he lost control, every death- it hurt.

But Wild just looked curious and a bit worried, and Impa was clearly suspicious but also confused and not hostile.

So he sat down and started talking.

"Okay. So, really long ago, the Goddess Hylia created the Hero‘s Spirit-"

Impa could barely believe what she was hearing.

She knew the stories of Heroes fighting a dark, twisted version of themselves.

What these legends failed to mention was that said version of the Hero was mind controlled or that the Hero attacked first.

Usually she wouldn’t believe something like this, but the way Dark, as he had introduced himself, was behaving clued her in that something wasn’t right.

She knew what acting and lying looked like, and while the boy was nervous and tense, it wasn’t because of that.

There was genuine fear in his eyes, a wariness that could only come from years of paranoia and hurt. And talking about his past clearly pained him.

And listening to what he was saying, it was understandable.

Impa couldn’t imagine what it must feel like to be forced to live, when all you ever did was die.

Wild was looking more worried and upset the longer Dark spoke.

Once he had finished his tale, the silence pressed down on them. No one moved or said anything.

Then Wild broke it by standing up and walking towards Dark.

And hugged him.

Dark froze, first. After a second, he relaxed and slumped into the Hero‘s hold.

They stayed like that.

Impa smiled to herself. She shouldn’t have worried. Wild had proven multiple times to be an excellent judge of character.

When Wild took a step back, Dark found himself missing the warmth almost immediately.

(He decided he liked hugs. They were nice.)

Now that he could see the Hero‘s face, he noted that he looked absolutely furious.

"If I ever get my hands on any of the people that hurt you…"

He cut himself off there, and Dark was very thankful, because he really didn’t want to know what Wild was thinking.

There was an extremely threatening, practically venomous undertone to that statement, and he was glad that it wasn’t directed at him.

Wild shook his head, and concentrated on breathing. It seemed to help him calm down.

"Anyways. You never told me you could use magic!" And just like that Wild had bounced back to how Dark knew him.

"Seriously? That‘s what you got from all that?"

Wild shrugged. "Hey, I don’t really know much about magic! And I haven’t seen you use any!"

"I can’t right now. Cause of Ganon. Didn’t I just explain this?"

Wild ignored the last part and nodded to himself. "So when we get rid of Ganon you can use magic again?"

"That is the gist of it, yes."

"Awesome! I wanna see cool magic stuff!" Wild sounded really excited about it.

Dark sighed, but he wasn’t really annoyed. From the way Wild was grinning, he knew it too.

"Sure. When Ganon‘s gone I‘ll show you some 'cool magic stuff'."

Impa chuckled, and Dark jumped. (He totally hadn’t forgotten she was there, what makes you think that?)

"It‘s getting late boys. The Inn should still be open."

Wild groaned. "Ugh. Fine."

They turned to leave, when Impa called after them.

"And good luck. With your fight. Don’t die on us again." She smiled. "Both of you."

Wild grinned widely and gave a thumbs up.

Dark smiled, too. (He was doing that a lot, lately. It felt good. Maybe he should keep it up.)

~

"Didn’t Impa say we should go to the Inn?"

Wild was going in the right direction, but stopped at the pond in the middle of the village.

A statue of the goddess sat in the middle. Wild was going towards it.

"Yeah, and we will. But I have some Spirit Orbs."

Dark didn’t know what that meant, but he ignored it in favour of watching.

Wild stopped in front of the statue, closed his eyes and clasped his hands in front of his chest.

Something in the air shifted. It felt like it was crackling with energy, and a light appeared around the statue.

It was pressing down heavily, and made Dark‘s stomach flip around. He buried himself deeper in his hood to escape the rays.

He had felt the presence of the goddess before. But he had never been this close.

And he was desperately hoping she would leave soon, because otherwise he‘d have to deal with what could be described as heavy sunburn despite his clothes and hood covering every inch of skin.

Wild started glowing for a moment. It was over after a few seconds.

The light vanished and Wild opened his eyes, flexing his hands. He looked… healthier, somehow.

"Huh. She said I‘m almost back to my original strength. Guess there can’t be many shrines left."

He turned around and looked at Dark.

"Hylia says hi, by the way. She also apologised for not being able to help you. Apparently none of the other Heroes can hear her? Weird. I thought that‘s why Hylian ears looked like this."

"Wait, you talk to her?" First Koroks, then the Master Sword, Fairies, and now Hylia? Was there anyone Wild didn’t understand?

Wild leaned closer, talking quieter.

"I think she really needs someone to talk to. Hasn’t had anyone in millennia. Zelda would have been able to once she unlocked her powers, but then she had to seal herself and Ganon away. And Hylia seems lonely. I try to chat a bit every time I find a statue."

That was really nice of Wild, but the fact that they were talking about a goddess here made the entire thing seem absurd.

"I‘m sure she appreciates it."

Wild smiled, and started walking again, this time actually to the Inn.

Somehow, Dark managed to fall asleep without all that much trouble this time.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

They were back out in the field again.

Wild had teleported them to Woodland stable, and after some vegetable stew for breakfast, they started making their way towards Hyrule Castle through the 'Crenel Hills', as Wild called them when Dark asked.

(Mind you, sarcastically. Apparently, Wild really did know the name of every place in Hyrule. And didn’t see anything weird with that. Like it was completely normal to have an incredibly detailed map of an entire country memorised to the point you know the names of everything. (For Wild, it probably was.))

They were walking without much trouble, when suddenly, the Sheika slate started beeping.

"Oh! There’s a shrine around here!"

He held the slate out in front of him and slowly moved in a circle. When the beeping got faster, he stopped.

"Hey, Dark? Think I can go do this shrine real quick? I‘m the only one that can enter them, so…"

"It‘s fine." Dark waved him off. "I‘ll just wait here."

Wild nodded. "I‘ll be quick!"

Then he ran over the hill, following the steadily increasing beeping.

Dark turned around and stood under a tree near the path, because standing in the shade was much preferable to standing in the sun.

He planned on just waiting there until Wild came back, but that plan got destroyed a few minutes later when someone else walked down the path and spotted him.

"Oh! Hello there!" The person, it was a young man with black hair, waved at him.

"Uh. Hi." Dark answered, awkwardly, because he really didn’t know how to handle himself in conversations with  complete strangers.

The man looked a bit uneasy, and when he came closer, there was a noticeable gap between them.

So Dark was still scary, even to adults. Good to know. Wild must really be doing a lot for calming people down. (He already knew that after Koko, but still.)

"What do you want?"

The man before him twitched and blinked, like he was shaken from his thoughts, and gave him a wide smile.

(It looked fake.)

"I simply wanted to ask if you were interested in purchasing some top quality Mighty Bananas! Only ninety-nine rupees a hand!"

What? "A hand?"

The mans smile turned a touch more real.

"Indeed, good sir! A bundle of bananas is called a hand! A single one is called a finger, and multiple hands growing together are referred to as a buch or a stalk!"

Huh. Banana trivia. He‘d have to tell Wild about this later.

"I don’t have any money."

(Technically, that was a lie, he had found two green rupees on the ground. Practically, however, that was nothing, so it didn’t really matter.)

"Ah." The man looked a little disappointed, but also strangely relieved at that.

"Well, no matter. I do have a second proposal."

Here, the man made a dramatic pause and a wide flourishing hand gesture.

"Can I interest you in joining the Yiga Clan?"

The what now?

"Yoga Clan?"

The mans eye twitched.

"Yiga Clan!"

Dark shot the man a dubious look. "What does it do?"

"Well, we eliminate everyone standing in the way of our Lord Ganon! We strife for revenge against the Royal family after their betrayal!"

Wow, this guy was very straightforward.

But he apparently also worshipped Ganon. And according to him there was an entire group of people that did.

(It sounded more like a cult than a clan, but people usually didn’t react well to being told they’re part of a cult, so he didn’t say that.)

(It was also an incredibly stupid thing to do, because from what he could tell, this Ganon was a manifestation of pure hatred fuelled by magic. The monster certainly wouldn’t care if some people were 'on his side', he would kill them all the same.)

"Um. Assume I know nothing that happened in the last few thousand years. What exactly do you want revenge for?"

The man seemed entirely unconcerned with this statement and just kept talking.  He seemed to really liked this topic.

"Oh, it‘s a horrible tale! Ten thousand years ago, the Sheikah were an advanced civilisation, with great power and technology! They aided Hyrule‘s Royal family in the fight against Lord Ganon! But then, the king of that time decided the Sheikah were too powerful and dangerous.

He exiled them. After that, the Sheikah split into two factions. There were those who sought a simple, peaceful life. They settled down.

But the other group, united in their hatred for the crown because of the betrayal, banded together! And when Lord Ganon re-emerged, they declared themselves the Yiga Clan! With our ambition and hard work, the Hero will fall! Lord Ganon will rise again! For the Mighty Banana! For Master Kohga!"

Dark blinked.

That was a lot of info to take in at once. But…

"I thought there was no one left of the Royal family? You can’t get revenge on someone that‘s already dead, can you?"

Whatever kind of answer the man was expecting, this was clearly not it, because he had to pause and actually think about it for a moment.

"But- well, I- hmm." Now the man was looking troubled, and put his hand to his chin, thinking hard.

"This is a valid concern you‘re raising. We still need to get out revenge on the Hero for throwing Master Kohga down the bottomless pit, but after that…"

He snapped his fingers. "I think you should talk to Master Kohga."

"Didn’t you just say he got thrown down a bottomless pit?"

"Yes, yes I did. But our glorious leader has mastered the ancient Yiga Techniques, and as such had not problem with teleporting himself out of his predicament! Unfortunately, by the time he did so, the Hero had already escaped with the treasure."

This story kept getting more and more ridiculous. Just what had Wild been up to before Dark appeared?

"You know what? I think I will have some words with this Master Kohga."

Maybe he could pound some sense into these people and explain why helping Ganon was a horrible idea, for everyone involved.

From what he could tell, they were a bunch of nutcases worshipping bananas. Shouldn’t be too hard to convince them.

The man seemed actually surprised now.

"You will? Huh. This is the first time someone agreed to come after I made the offer."

That last part was muttered under his breath, and Dark probably wasn’t supposed to hear it.

(Not his fault he had excellent ears.)

(Literally. He didn’t design his body.)

The man quickly snapped back into character. "Oh, of course! Here, just-"

He stepped closer.

"Just grab my arm and hold on. I‘ll teleport us. …try not to throw up, yes? It can be a bit disorienting the first time."

Dark sighed. "I‘m used to it. Just… do your thing. And bring me back here once we‘re done."

The man nodded, and in a poof of white smoke, they disappeared.

(Why couldn’t anyone invent some form of instant travel that didn’t involve getting dizzy and twisting stomachs.

By the goddesses, he missed his shadow travel.)

When Wild came back, he expected to find Dark standing around somewhere.

But he wasn’t.

Wild looked around, confused.

This was the place they had been at, so where…

A faint scent of banana registered to him.

Yiga.

Well. That couldn’t be good.

Sure, the Yiga were a bunch of incompetent fools, and Dark could take care of himself.

But Wild was still worried. And he wouldn’t stand for any of his friends getting hurt. (Not again.)

A few clicks on the slate had him decked out in the Sheikah Stealth set and teleporting to the Gerudo Highlands.

Yeah, Dark had been right. These Yiga people weren’t the brightest.

They were more loyal to their leader than Ganon, and said leader didn’t have much of a plan.

It was really easy to convince him. The conversation went something like this:

"Why do you want to help Ganon?"

"To get revenge on the Royal family!"

"But the Royal family is already dead?"

"Uh…"

"And you do realise that Ganon will kill you all, right? Or has he ever given any indication that he even knows you exist?"

"Not really, no. Hmm. Maybe I should rethink the goals of the Clan. You can’t eat Bananas if you’re dead, after all!"

It took a little more arguing on Darks side and it sounded a lot more flamboyant on Kohga‘s, but that was the gist of it.

(Yes, the way these guys spoke of bananas warranted a capital letter.)

So now Dark was standing in the corner of the room in the back, watching as Kohga held a speech about Independence, how they weren’t working for Ganon anymore, and the 'glory of the Mighty Banana', whatever that meant.

Then he noticed Wild, standing pressed to a wall, in full Sheikah gear, watching everything with a very confused expression.

He scanned the room. Everyone seemed pretty focused on their leaders speech.

Good.

Carefully, he made his way over to the Hero.

Sneaking into the hideout was easy as ever. Even easier than usual, actually, since there didn’t seem to be any guards around.

Wild crept through the tunnels, with urgency, but still taking care not to make any noise.

There was a voice coming from the room in the back. He concentrated for a moment.

There were a lot of people in that room.

He stepped around the corner, pressed against the wall.

Master Kohga (didn’t he throw that guy down the bottomless pit?) was standing on a podium, holding a speech.

"- is why I think we should become independent! We don’t need Lo- I mean, Ganon! Until we can decide on a new purpose for our Clan, let us focus on spreading the Glory of the Mighty Banana-"

What. Wild‘s brain shut down and rebooted, like his slate did that one time he tried to reprogram the Cryonis rune to create magnetic ice. (It didn’t work. Like he said, the slate shut down and rebooted.)

Dark was standing in the corner, and was coming over to him now.

"Hey, Wild. Do you know a recipe for banana bread?" Dark was whispering, but Wild didn’t think any of the Yiga would have noticed them even if they spoke at a normal volume.

He whispered back anyways. "I do, yes. Why? What happened here?"

Dark shrugged.

"I just told them the Royal family is already dead and that Ganon‘s gonna kill them when he wins. Then Kogha went off and started-" he gestured at the Yiga- "this."

Wild frowned. "And what you need banana bread for?"

"Well, these guys decided to abandon Ganon. And they seem to really like bananas. So now you, the Hero, give them improved bananas, proving you‘re better than Ganon."

Wild looked between the Yiga and Dark. Then he grinned.

"You know what? That plan is so absurd, it could have come from me."

Dark huffed. "Guess you‘re rubbing off on me."

Wild laughed, quietly. "Give me an hour. I‘ll come back with so much banana stuff. Have a lot of those from when we went looking in Faron."

True to his word, Wild came back an hour later.

He pulled a freshly baked banana bread from his slate and handed it to Dark.

Almost immediately, Kogha paused in his speech (yes, that was still going. Dark stopped listening twenty minutes in.)

"What is that? It smells of the golden goodness that are Bananas, but… better??"

Then he noticed Wild.

"Hey! What are you doing here?"

Wild pointed at the bread and shouted back.

"I heard you stopped worshiping Ganon, so I made banana bread! And banana pie. And fried bananas. And-" Dark elbowed him. "Well, you get the point!"

"Truly?" Kogha looked intrigued, and all the other Yiga did too.

Dark nodded. "It‘s true! And he‘s a great cook, too!"

"Hmm…" Kogha thought for a moment.

"Very well! Bring me this Banana bread!"

Wild could barely believe what he was seeing.

Master Kogha had tried his banana bread, paused for a second, and then loudly proclaimed that they should make it their new goal to help him get rid of Ganon because they needed more of this food and couldn’t afford Wild dying.

So, the Yiga Clan was on his side now.

And currently, the Yiga Clan was throwing a really big party. There was banana food everywhere, somehow the number of people in the room had doubled, and Wild was pretty sure that at least a third of them were drunk.

Dark was back in his corner, and he was starting to look uncomfortable.

Wild went over to him.

"Hey, you okay?"

Dark grimaced. "It‘s loud. And there’s too many people."

Ah. Wild nodded in understanding.

"Wanna leave? I think we‘re done here anyways."

"Yes. Yes please." Dark sounded incredibly relieved.

Wild pulled out his slate and grabbed Darks arm. One click later, they were on their way back to the Crenel Hills.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

From up close, the destruction of and around Hyrule Castle was all the more obvious.

Dark could feel Ganon very clearly now. The magic and malice mixed together around them, wafting through the air like ashes, pressing down on his lungs. Breathing was distinctly uncomfortable.

He could also feel light magic, probably the princess, a flickering candle compared to the inferno that was Ganon, but shining bright nonetheless.

Not bright enough to hurt him between all the dark magic, though. Which was definitely Not Good.

Zelda, actively using her power? He shouldn’t be able to get near that without repercussions. But after fighting off something like Ganon for one hundred years, it made sense that she was tiring.

(Still Not Good, but it made sense.)

Dark turned around when he heard the lift of the shrine Wild had disappeared into a few minutes ago. The hero stepped out, looking at his slate.

"Okay, we’ve got an emergency exit and entrance."

Currently, the two of them were underneath Hyrule Castle. After Dark had vehemently protested using the paraglider, Wild had found a raft somewhere and brought them across the castle moat with the help of a 'Korok Leaf'.

(Dark wanted to ask why Wild was carrying a giant leaf in his slate, but he didn’t. The Hero had no sense of what was considered normal, and he had given up on trying to explain it.)

"Great. Then let’s get going."

~

Wild pressed the bookshelf forward with the Magnesis rune. They stepped into the castle library.

Almost immediately, a Lizalfos turned and tried to jump them, but Wild reacted and slammed the still hovering bookshelf down on the monster.

There was a sickening crunch, and when Wild lifted the shelf the Lizalfos stayed down.

"…that is one heavy shelf." Dark commented (, suddenly very glad that the Sheikah slate could only store things up to a certain size, which this shelf surpassed).

After that they split up to look around. This library was full of hundred year old books after all, something interesting had to be there.

Dark started looking through shelves. All of the books were withered and covered in dust (actually, it was probably ash). Clearly, a hundred years of exposure to Malice hadn’t been good for them.

He didn’t want to pull any of them out, afraid they might fall apart in his hands.

Wild was moving around more shelves and disappeared into the walls somewhere behind him, but Dark ignored it.

An open book was lying on one of the tables. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a recipe book.

"Hey Wild! I think I found something you‘ll like!"

Wild came back from behind the wall, covered in dust. "I found the king‘s journal and some rare ores! You?"

Dark just pointed at the book. Wild stepped closer and looked over the page.

"It‘s a recipe for fruit cake. And it says this is Zelda’s favourite food! Awesome!"

He snapped a picture with the slate. "I‘ll try it later. And if we finish this today I can have Zelda tell me if I made it right!"

The Hero seemed really exited about that.

Dark got curious. "Do you remember the princess?"

Wild‘s look turned thoughtful. "A little. I… I think she didn’t like me much in the beginning, but it got better after a while. In the end, it was Link’s death that caused her to unlock her sacred powers."

Dark paused. "Wait, I thought Link died during the Calamity?"

Wild nodded.

"Then… she sealed Ganon directly after using her powers for the first time?!"

"Uh, maybe not directly, but-"

"That… what? Most Zelda‘s have years to train their powers! And even then, they usually just deliver the last blow after whoever they‘re fighting was severely weakened!"

If that wasn’t the case, then this Zelda must be one of the most powerful ones to ever exist.

Wild shrugged. "Nope, that was the first time. The king put a lot of pressure on her, made her pray at the holy springs, but that didn’t work at all."

And now he was confused. "How was praying supposed to help? It‘s her power, not the goddesses."

Wild blinked. "Wow. That explains a lot, actually. Poor Rhoam. He would probably feel even worse now. Maybe- hey!"

Wild stopped talking, drew his bow and shot an arrow, which pierced the eye of one of the two Lizalfos that had crept up behind them.

The second one jerked away and readied its weapon, but before it could do anything Dark had rammed his Bladesaw into the monsters side. It sailed a few meters through the air and didn’t move again.

"Woah." Dark looked at the weapon in his hands, stunned. "I didn’t even put that much strength behind it! And this thing isn’t nearly heavy enough to deliver a blow like that!"

Wild laughed. "Don’t question it too much. Ancient weapons are confusing, and complicated, but definitely efficient."

~

They made their way through a long corridor, dispatching any monsters they ran into, Wild with his bow and Dark with his Bladesaw. The ancient weapon was quickly becoming his favourite.

(It sucked that he probably wouldn’t be able to replicate it with magic once he got his powers back, but maybe he could just buy a bunch and store them away somewhere he wouldn’t lose them instead. …let‘s hope Wild would be okay with lending him a few thousand rupees and some guardian parts.)

~

Soon, they reached a new room. The Moblin inside was quickly taken care of.

It was a relatively small room, but the walls were lined with weapon racks, and filled with swords, bows and Halberds.

Wild immediately started storing them away in his slate. (At least he left the ones that were so rusted they would have fallen apart after three hits.)

Unfortunately, they ran into a problem after that.

"So… how do we get over there?"

The only way to keep going was at the end of a staircase. A broken staircase, that was missing quite a big chunk.

Wild promptly started scaling the wall.

After some hesitation, Dark followed him. The wall was made from rough stone, but still not easy to cling to. It took him several minutes to cross the gap.

When he was close enough, Wild grabbed him and pulled him for the last stretch.

"I don’t know how you manage to climb like that all the time." Had he actually needed air, he would be panting. As it was, he just felt his muscles burning from the strain.

(And he didn’t even weight that much. Being made from magic had its perks. Wild, on the other hand, had a perfectly normal weight for a Hylian, which made him climbing around like a monkey even more impressive.)

Wild just laughed at him.

Two corners and a door later they found the dining hall.

Which was filled with Moblins.

Two minutes later the Dining hall was filled with dead Moblins and Wild was collecting all the food that was lying around. Apparently, the monsters had actually used this room for its intended purpose.

Wild also pointedly ignored the balcony, so they continued walking through the corridors.

Behind another door, the two of them were suddenly faced with-

"By the Golden Goddesses, what is that!?"

Wild knocked an arrow and shot the eye that was growing in the Malice around them. It gave a high-pitched shriek and started leaking Malice, shrivelling up.

"Dunno. I‘ve been calling them Malice-Eyes, the slate doesn’t recognise them as anything."

As soon as the eye was gone, the Malice-Growth puffed away in black smoke.

"That was disgusting!" And really unhealthy. Magic should not do stuff like that. Ganon was corrupting it, like a disease of some kind.

Nonetheless, they continued on, walking through the door that had been uncovered. It led them to another eye (Dark fought his twisting stomach when Wild hit it with another arrow) and a balcony. (Also an electric sword, but that disappeared into the slate so fast that Dark didn’t even get a chance to really look at it.)

As soon as they stepped out on the balcony, three different red lights focused on them. Wild immediately pulled them back inside.

"And that‘s why I didn’t want to go outside."

"Completely understandable."

Unfortunately, the only other way to go was still blocked off by Malice.

"Guess we don’t really have a choice, do we?“

Wild did not look happy about it.

They backtracked all the way to the balcony at the dining hall.

From there, they went right. Dark was beginning to understand Wild‘s hesitation even more, because they had to stay away from the edge to avoid one of those turrets the Hero had mentioned back in Akkala. The drones were also not something they wanted to be spotted by.

There was a passage to the sanctum on top of the castle, which held the highest concentration of Malice, so that‘s where Ganon probably was.

They couldn’t use that passage, however, because a turret sat on either side of the door, and Dark learned why Wild hated them so much.

Rapid fire. Why. Who thought building these things was a good idea?!

And there were multiple of them, all along the way.

They were sprinting almost the entire time, Wild had to take a stamina elixir somewhere in the middle to keep going, and the lasers still barely missed them!

They reached another staircase, but using it was impossible. A turret was stationed right next to it, no one would be able to get up there without being shot down.

"…I have an idea. Can you hold on to my back?" Wild pulled the paraglider out.

"What?" Dark was confused, but did as he was told.

Wild went into a crouch, and seemed to be concentrating on something. The wind around them picked up, and with a shout of "Hold on tight!" Wild snapped his glider open and jumped.

An updraft formed underneath them, and together with a burst of green light they took off the ground.

For a few seconds they were suspended in the air, and Dark had to suppress the urge to scream.

Then Wild touched down on the ground again. He had steered them through a hole in the wall, right into another room.

There was also a dead Moblin. Wild must have shot it while still in the air.

The green light from earlier landed next to them, and now that Dark was actually focusing on it instead of panicking, he realised it wasn’t actually a light, but a ghost.

The ghost of a Rito, pretty young if he had to guess.

"Thanks for the help, Revali." Wild nodded at the the Rito.

The ghost waved his wing dismissively. "I know I‘m great, no need to thank me."

…okay. Arrogant much?

"This is Princess Zelda’s room. I recognise it. Good luck with the fight. From all of us."

As soon as he said that, the ghost vanished.

"One of your Champion-friends?" Dark asked Wild. The Hero nodded.

"Revali. He was a great archer." A smile spread on his face. "Knows it, too. I don’t think he knows the meaning of the word 'modesty'."

"I can tell. And I’ve known him for maybe ten seconds."

Dark started looking around the room. There was paper strewn around, and most of the roof had collapsed. There was what looked like the remains of a staircase that lead to the bridge outside.

Meanwhile Wild had moved across the room. He was leafing through a book lying on the desk.

"Anything interesting?" Dark asked as he came over.

Wild hummed. "It‘s Zelda‘s diary."

"Wha- Wild! You can’t just go around reading other people‘s diaries!"

Wild looked at him confused. "Why? I do it all the time." He said that like it was normal to just go around, reading peoples diaries. (For him, it probably was.)

Wild turned back to the book. "It says some things about… me. About Link. I don’t think we were much alike. Link and me, I mean."

"Hmm." Dark thought about it.

Link‘s personality could wildly differ between reincarnations, and he didn’t know the Link from this Era anyways.

But a few core characteristics always stayed the same, like a general recklessness, the inability to ignore someone in need, and the inexplicable urge to destroy any pottery that entered the field of vision.

Wild had the first two of these things. But that likely wasn’t what he meant.

"What was he like?"

Wild shifted uncomfortably where he stood.

"Well, it says here that he didn’t like talking. That he felt like he couldn’t bear the duty of being the Hero. And from what I remember he was… really stoic. And serious. And… he never really showed others his emotions? I don’t know, it‘s… weird. I don’t like remembering that kind of stuff. It feels wrong.

I mean, I know they‘re my memories, but at the same time they’re not, and it‘s all so weird!" Wild was getting frustrated, he could tell.

"Is that why you looked so nervous when Impa asked if you had recovered anything?" Dark remembered that pretty well, because it had struck him as odd.

Wild sighed, and put a hand to his head. "Yeah. It‘s- I‘m glad for all the memories I can get, because I know I had friends like the Champions and Zelda and I don’t want to forget them, but at the same time it‘s like I‘m an entirely different person now."

Dark raised an eyebrow. "You are."

Wild‘s head snapped up, and he turned to look at Dark, confused.

"What?"

"A different person, I mean. Trust me, I know Link. You? Entirely different soul. You‘re the Hero, but you’re not Link."

Wild looked slightly dazed.

"I‘m… not?"

Dark shook his head. "It‘s probably why you felt you should change your name. You‘re not Link. You‘re Wild."

Wild still had a faraway look in his eyes, but it turned a bit more solid and determined at that.

"I‘m not Link. I mean I knew I wasn’t Link, but having it confirmed…"

He fully focused on Dark again, and smiled. "Man, this explains a lot. Thank you."

Dark shrugged. "Hey, I‘m glad you’re not. Him and I don’t really get along."

Wild nodded. "Right."

He put Zelda’s diary back on the desk.

"C‘mon. We‘ve got an evil pig to beat up."

A pause.

"Uh. The way to the sanctum collapsed."

Wild looked around for a moment.

"I think we could reach it with my paraglider if we climb to the top of this tower!"

"Wait what-?"

Outside the visible spectrum, the ghosts of the Champions watched as Wild climbed the tower of Zelda‘s room, with his newest friend struggling to follow him.

"Shouldn’t there be an easier way to do this?" Daruk asked.

"Definitely. But you know the Wild Child. When does he ever do things the easy way?" Revali answered.

Mipha sighed. "Sometimes I wish he would."

Urbosa patted her shoulder sympathetically. "Me too, Mipha, me too. But that wouldn’t be like him at all."

They watched for a while longer.

Eventually, Daruk spoke up again. "Do you think the little guy would be proud of him?"

Mipha was the one who answered. "Definitely. Link would be happy that someone took over protecting Hyrule in his stead."

A sad smile made its way onto her face.

"They would have gotten along well, I think."

Chapter Text

They stood at the entrance to the sanctum.

Hopefully, when they left it, it would be with the princess and Ganon gone.

Dark turned to the Hero. "You ready for this?"

Wild was still clicking around on the slate, looking through his clothes. In a flash, his traveling tunic was replaced by a bright blue one, with white embroidery all over. It looked like it was made from very high quality material, more like something you‘d see royalty wear.

Wild must have noticed Dark‘s look, because he began explaining.

"It‘s the Champion‘s tunic. All the Champions got a pice of cloth in this exact shade of blue, with embroidery of their Divine Beast, or the Master Sword in this case. It‘s pretty good armour. I… I wasn’t going to wear it, cause it was Link‘s and all that, but… I think I can, now."

He pulled something else from the slate.

"…is that what you wanted all those bananas for?"

Wild nodded, exited. "Yeah! I made simmered fruit out of them. That way the strength boost is strongest."

Dark leaned closer and squinted his eyes at the giant bowl of simmered bananas.

"Why is it sparkling? Did you put glitter in this?!"

"Oh, that‘s from the dragon horn shard. Makes the effect last longer."

"…I‘m not even gonna question that. How does it work? I mean, what‘s so special about the bananas?"

Wild shrugged, already eating. "No clue. Impa told me they help build muscles, and Purah said something about stimulating the production of red blood cells and 'hemoglobins', whatever that means. I deal with tech, not biology."

He shoved more of the fruit into his mouth. (It was fascinating (and also slightly disturbing) how fast Wild could eat if he wanted to.)

"I‘m pretty sure there’s magic involved somehow, but I‘m not sure how much. I mean, some magic has to be there, otherwise the dragon horn wouldn’t enhance it, but it‘s not enough for me to really tell."

Wild handed the now halfway emptied bowl to Dark.

"The effect should last for thirty minutes at least!"

Like always, the food tasted great. There was definitely some magic in it, because otherwise it wouldn’t have done much for Dark, but he could feel the boost it was giving him.

Once the bowl was empty, he handed it back to Wild, who was rocking back and forth on the spot he was standing.

He had equipped the Master Sword. She was pulsing in a bright blue, a shade rather similar to Wild‘s tunic. (Not quite Blue, but close.)

Looks like the Sword was just as eager as Wild to get this done.

They stepped into the sanctum.

Wild‘s gaze shot to the roof, where a lump of Malice was hanging.

It bore the same patterns he knew from Sheikah machinery and shrines, glowing a sinister purplish red.

As soon as he came closer, a golden glow started emanating from it. (Was that- was Zelda also in there?!)

"Please! My power isn’t strong enough… I can’t hold him!"

Next to him, Dark gave no indication he had heard the voice, but he seemed to notice something else, because he tensed.

The same moment, Wild felt it too. His instincts (magical and otherwise) screamed at him, and he moved just in time to not get hit by the laser that suddenly came from the ceiling.

It swung around, like whoever was aiming it was just shooting blindly, cutting open the Malice-clump from the inside.

This had the unfortunate side-effect of also cutting up the floor, and when the thing came falling down, it tore them downwards into the deep.

Free falling was something Wild enjoyed quite a lot, but in that moment he was more concerned about Dark, who looked like he was trying very hard not to scream as they tumbled towards the ground.

Luckily, because free falling was something Wild enjoyed quite a lot, he had a lot of experience with it.

(Jumping from every tower, mountain and especially Shatterback Point had caused Mipha many headaches. Yes, she was a ghost. No, that didn’t stop her from getting headaches at Wild‘s antics, apparently.)

Turning around, he managed to gain control of his fall and grabbed Dark, who immediately latched on, before he snapped open the paraglider.

The slower descent allowed them to take in the abomination that had come from the Malice.

A grotesque creature made of various parts of Sheikah tech and Malice had appeared, reminiscent of a spider, if the spider had red hair, various weapons attached, was made from bubbling Malice, and had a face that looked like it fell asleep on top of a still hot stove.

In short, it was very ugly, and almost malformed enough to edge more towards funny (in a disturbing way) than terrifying.

Almost.

Dark, on the other hand, was radiating disgust. And he wasn’t trying to hide it, if the grimace on his face was anything to go by.

"You okay?"

"That- magic isn’t supposed to look, act or feel like that. It’s totally corrupted. I think the only way to get rid of it would be to completely destroy it."

"Woah. It’s that bad?"

Wild carefully reached out with his magic senses, which he had kept reeled in tightly before, since all the Malice in the air around the castle was very unpleasant to feel.

He immediately pulled them back in, because Holy Hylia That Was Disgusting. "Okay, yeah, it’s that bad."

Wild put away the glider, dropping them the last meter. Quickly, while the monster was still disoriented from it‘s fall, he snapped a picture for the Compendium.

"Calamity Ganon, huh?"

"Wild, I don’t think this is the right time for photography."

"Yeah, yeah, fine." He hooked the slate back onto his belt and pulled up a Falcon Bow instead.

(This one was a gift from Teba, modified to still be light in weight and easy to draw while also resulting in a much more powerful shot. He could even fire multiple arrows with it, something that usually only worked with bigger bows. It was his absolute favourite, and he would forever be grateful that Dark showed him how to take proper care of it.)

Ganon had fully turned around now, and started screaming in their faces.

Why he did so, Wild couldn’t fathom, but he didn’t need to think about it because not a second later, a beam of blinding white-blue light crashed down on Ganon.

The Champions had fired the Divine Beasts.

And the Divine Beasts were overwhelmingly powerful. The laser continued on for a full minute.

Sadly, Spider-Ganon went right back to screeching once it stopped, this time much more angry.

"Guess that wasn’t quite enough." Wild commented. Dark didn’t answer, but he activated the Bladesaw and got ready to charge.

Wild followed his example and drew an Ancient Arrow.

Ganon readied an ancient fire blade. That couldn’t be good.

~

It wasn’t good, but, Wild thought to himself as he used another updraft to gain height, Ganon had sorely miscalculated the effects the fire would have on the battle.

Another arrow flew and hit the Calamity right in the face. It screeched, furious, and tried to swing at Wild, but didn’t get far when Dark used it‘s distraction to drive the Bladesaw into the same spot the arrow had just hit.

This entire fight seemed way to easy to Wild, considering the trouble he had with the Thunderblight. There had to be something more to it, right?

Because for all the weapons Ganon had attached to his body, he only seemed to use one, and he also wasn’t very smart.

The Blights had had tactics, but Ganon just seemed angry, wildly swinging at them without thinking.

~

A few minutes later Ganon had coated himself in a glowing orange shield, but Wild quickly figured out he could destroy it by throwing back the lasers the monster aimed at him.

This had the bonus of stunning Ganon, which got him a face full of Fi or Bladesaw, depending on who was closer.

Finally, after what felt like fifteen whole minutes (which might not seem like long, but in an active fight that was half an eternity. Fights usually lasted no longer than a few minutes, (unless it was a battle of endurance, which this was clearly not)) and Wild was starting to feel the results of parrying so many lasers. His shield arm would probably be one big bruise by tomorrow.

Dark seemed to be doing well, he was still swinging that Bladesaw with vigour. But Wild could tell by his pinched face and the slight trembling in his arms whenever he stood still for a moment that the drawn out fight was wearing on him.

Finally, after one particularly well-placed hit with the Master Sword, Calamity Ganon collapsed.

Wild watched, panting, how the monster began leaking Malice like the Blights had done.

He looked over to Dark, who- was even more tense than before?

Dark noticed his gaze, and shook his head.

"It‘s not over yet."

Unfortunately, he was right.

Ganon exploded into purple-red light, and all the Malice around them started swirling together, black smoke billowing between the glowing ash-flakes.

Dark could feel how every bit of Ganons awareness and Malice was pulling towards Hyrule Field outside, condensing tightly together.

The Calamity was gathering all of his strength.

Which meant he wasn’t monitoring Hyrule anymore.

Dark carefully reached out towards his magic.

His theory was proven correct, because the Malice around him completely ignored it.

From there, it only took a thought to reconnect. For a moment it was disorienting, but as soon as that passed relief flooded him.

He knew that he hadn’t physically changed, but he felt stronger now, more secure. Fighting with no magic was harder and took a lot more energy, so he was incredibly glad to have it back.

The cloud of glowing ash-flakes left the pit they had fallen in through the hole in the ceiling (ground? They were underground, right? What do you call the ceiling if it‘s also the ground?), and Wild ran after it for a few steps.

Then the Hero started glowing, exploded into golden sparks, and took after Ganon.

…what. Since when could he do that?

Dark’s question was answered a second later when he felt some light magic reaching out to him.

He shied back instinctively, which made the Light halt.

"Look, princess, I‘m touched you thought of me but I‘d prefer to get away without burns today. I‘ll get out on my own."

He didn’t know if Zelda could hear him, but she seemed to understand the sentiment, as the light magic backed away.

Dark nodded to himself, took a deep breath (not that he needed it, but it still helped him center himself) and let himself fall away into the shadows, who welcomed him with their to him by now well-know embrace.

He let himself drift in the black of nothingness for a moment.

This state of not-being was his favourite. No body to deal with, no unpleasant sensations (because there weren’t any beyond magic), and a tranquility that you just couldn’t reach while corporeal.

Oh, how much he wanted to just slip away into the abyss, with no consciousness or awareness…

But he knew he couldn’t stay like this.

For one, he could already feel the spell responsible for his body tugging at his being, urging him to return to the physical realm like it always did.

Also, Wild needed him. That reason was a lot more motivating than the first one.

With something akin to a movement (it wasn’t really one, you can’t move if you’re literally nothing) he broke the surface to the physical world, emerging from the shadows on Hyrule Field next to Wild (while pulling his hood down further. The sun was hanging low in the sky, but it was still there).

The sight that greeted him was not a welcome one.

A gigantic flaming boar made of Malice stood on the field, shooting lasers around, clearly moving in a blind rage with no lick of sense dedicated to actually aiming at Wild.

Meanwhile Wild held a glowing golden Bow of Light in his hands, trying to aim at glowing golden circles on the Dark Beasts side, which didn’t seem to be working out very well because said Dark Beast was still moving around, turning faster than Wild could run.

"Need a hand?"

Wild huffed. "I don’t need a hand, I need a horse. This would be so much easier if I had Curry. She‘s the fastest runner."

"Okay. I‘ll be right back."

"Wait, wh-?"

Dark didn’t hear the ending of that sentence, but he could imagine where it was going.

Two steps and he stood behind Dueling Peaks Stable. Even from here you could see Ganon, the sinister purple-red flames making it impossible to miss him.

Quickly, he made his way to the other side of the stable, to the entrance.

Many people stood there, many more than there had been when he had visited the stable with Wild.

Everyone was watching the giant boar in silence. When he came around from behind the tent, many of them flinched away from him.

"Excuse me! Tasseren, right?"

The stable owners eyes widened in recognition.

"I need to borrow Curry. See, Wild‘s in a bit of a… situation."

Tasseren‘s gaze flicked to Ganon and back.

"Of course. Usually I wouldn’t hand out horses to people that don’t own them, but I think we can make an exception here."

~

Dragging a horse through the shadows was not fun at all, but he managed.

Her brownish orange fur gave away why she had been named Curry.

The mare didn’t seem to have much of a temper, and once she realised that the sun was back she stopped panicking.

Wild was still running around. Dark called out to him.

"Hey, I‘ve got your horse!"

The Hero turned around, and while he looked a bit confused, the sight of his horse also brought relief to his face. He gave a sharp whistle, and Curry broke away from Dark‘s side, running towards Wild.

Wild jumped to her back and took the reins without ever slowing from the gallop.

From there, things went much more smoothly.

Every arrow that sailed through the air hit its mark, and soon, a giant yellow eyeball opened on Ganon’s back. (Dark was this close to hurling up breakfast when he saw it. Just… Why.)

The arrow struck, and Ganon stumbled backwards. A glowing golden light broke from his forehead, revealing the form of who Dark could only assume to be Princess Zelda.

The girl was glowing so brightly, it hurt to look at her. Dark couldn’t tell if it was just him, what with how he got along with light and light magic (which the princess was radiating like the sun), but he had to step behind Wild to shield himself from the rays.

Then, impossibly, the light got brighter.

It was searing hot. Dark could imagine what was happening to Ganon right now, and quickly came to the conclusion that he should probably get away if he didn’t want the same to happen to him.

So, he let himself melt away into Wild‘s shadow.

Wild watched with bated breath as the sphere of light closed around Ganon, how it grew brighter one more time, and them vanished without a trace.

The sky lost it‘s unnatural blood-red colour, turning back to the yellow, turquoise and soft pink he knew from sunsets in the field.

Zelda stood there, before him, with her back towards him.

"I‘ve… been trying to keep watch over you all this time. I couldn’t always, with Ganon there and my power weakening, but… I‘ve witnessed your struggles to help all of us, and your trials in battle. I‘m so glad- no, so proud that you made it, despite your situation."

Finally, she turned to face him.

"It‘s nice to meet you, Wild. I… I know you probably don’t remember much about me, but I hope we can be friends."

Zelda felt sad. It made sense, Wild thought, she had lost all of her friends and family after all, but…

Ganon was defeated. They had won. She shouldn’t be sad right now. So, Wild did what he always did when he thought someone needed it.

He stepped closer and hugged her.

Zelda was surprised, at first, but leaned into it after a second.

"We won." It was a disbelieving whisper, probably more to herself than to Wild.

"We really did it. I-…"

Wild took a step back. "Princess-"

Before he could get further, Zelda interrupted him.

"I think we‘re beneath that point. Besides, there‘s no kingdom to be princess of left. Please, just call me Zelda."

She smiled at him, and it was a smile as warm as the sun. "The same goes for your friend, too… speaking of, where is he?"

Wild turned around. Hadn’t Dark been behind him a moment ago?

"Ow…" A groan came from a bit further down.

Dark came climbing from Wild‘s shadow (…since when could he do that?), and flopped down on the ground.

"Fuck, that hurts."

Wild looked closer. Dark‘s arms and part of his face were riddled with heavy burn marks.

He still lifted his head to look at Zelda. "Nice to meet you, I guess."

Understandably, Wild freaked out a little.

"Dark?! Are you okay?! Do you need an elixer?!"

His friend waved him off. "Nah, it‘s fine. They’ll be gone in a few days."

Zelda looked worried. "Are you quite sure? Those wounds look rather bad!"

Dark nodded (well, as much as one could nod while lying on the ground). "Yes, I am. I can’t really get permanently injured. Usually, this would be gone by tomorrow morning, but Light-burns always take a bit longer to heal."

"Light… burns?" Zelda looked at her hands. "Did… I do that?"

"Hey, I said it’s fine!" Dark snapped. Wild was glad he did, because Zelda had started feeling horribly guilty and he didn’t like that. "You weren’t aiming at me, and you did what you had too. I‘m okay, you‘re okay, Ganon‘s dead, it‘s fine."

Wild nodded decidedly, to show he agreed.

"O-okay then. It‘s nice to meet you, too, Dark."

Wild smiled, happy, and pulled out the slate.

"Great! If everyone‘s fine, I‘d like to head to Hateno now, because I‘m pretty sure Purah saw the fight and she‘ll kill me if we don’t show up soon."

"Purah? She‘s still alive?" Zelda sounded hopeful.

"Yeah, just… probably not the way you remember her." Wild laughed a little at the thought of showing five-year-old Purah to Zelda with no explanation.

"Alright, everyone hold on."

Dark picked himself up from the ground and grabbed Wild‘s arm. "What‘s the people-limit on the teleport, anyways?"

"Five. Why?"

Zelda‘s eyes lit up. "It is? How do you know?"

Wild pointed at the slate. "It says so right here."

Dark squinted at the screen. "That‘s Sheikah script. Ugh, haven’t seen that in a while. Give me a moment…"

Zelda turned to Wild, astonished. "You can read it?"

Wild nodded, confused. "Yes? Shouldn’t I?"

Zelda, much more questioning and with a look of disbelief in her eyes, turned to Dark, who shrugged. "Hey, don’t ask me. I‘ve tried to make sense of it. It doesn’t. Just accept he‘s a little insane and move on."

"Wha- Hey! I‘m not insane!"

Dark raised an eyebrow, shooting a look that practically screamed 'Really?'.

"Okay fine, maybe a little-"

Dark clicked the last confirmation to start the teleport, effectively cutting Wild off.

Over Hyrule Castle, five ghosts watched the trio dissolve into Blue ribbons.

King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule heaved a sigh.

"It is done. Now, I can finally move on."

With those words, he dissolved into green flames, that soon vanished completely.

The Champions looked at each other.

"We can’t leave the Wild Child now, can we?" asked Revali.

"Heavens no!" Urbosa exclaimed. "He wouldn’t survive till the end of the year without us!"

All four of them broke into laughter, before dissolving not unlike the King did a few minutes ago, invisibly returning to the Hero‘s side.

Chapter Text

The days following the battle against the Dark Beast Ganon felt almost unreal.

Wild had offered that Zelda could move in to his house, and while the princess had initially worried about intruding, he had assured her that he didn’t really need it, because he was always on the move anyways.

(That had only made her more worried, but after some more persuasion on Wild‘s part and a talk with Purah, she relented.)

Despite this, they spent the following few days in the village.

Wild was always out and about, playing with the children, helping redecorate the house (not that there was much decoration, aside from the Champion’s weapons and the stuff Bolson had gifted the Hero), looking for and playing with Koroks, picking apples, talking to people, or hanging out in the tech lab.

In contrast to that, Dark stayed in the house most day.

It felt a bit weird, since he was used to being outside, but not having to worry about the sun while his burns healed definitely outweighed that.

As a consequence, he spent a lot of time with Zelda, who wanted some time to adjust to the new situation before she went out and met more people.

The princess was… well, not much like a princess, really.

Aside from the posh accent she spoke in (she was trying to break that, it was an unfortunate habit from spending so much time at court) she acted nothing like the princesses Dark knew from various Heroes experiences.

If anything, she reminded him of a scholar, an impression that only got stronger when she started pestering him with questions about magic and history once she realised how old he was.

He didn’t mind talking about past eras, and it was nice to discuss magic with someone that actually understood how it worked to some extent (not that there were hard rules for magic, but Wild literally didn’t think about it more than 'snap means lightning, why? Magic').

Zelda also voiced her desire to start her research again, which brought up the problem of the Sheikah slate.

Zelda wanted the slate to document her research, the Camera rune being an invaluable asset.

Wild wanted the slate because it held all of his stuff, because he actually needed all of the runes, and because he relied on the Adventure log to keep him on track of things pretty heavily.

However, that problem was quickly solved when Purah revealed that she had been working on blueprints for something she called the Purah Pad, basically a Sheikah slate missing most of the runes and with much more limited storage space. She also said something about a 'Chat rune', so that was cool.

The plans were as good as finished, she just needed to contact Robbie to help build it, and with Wild there now it wasn’t a problem.

Zelda had been delighted when she learned that Wild could cook.

Apparently, one hundred years of not eating meant you were hungry, something Wild wholeheartedly agreed with.

He made fruit cake, like planned. The princess tried it and promptly declared it the best cake she had ever eaten. Dark agreed.

Things were peaceful. It was nice.

~

Everyone had seen the giant boar appear, and everyone had seen him disappear in a bright flash of light, together with all the Malice all over the country.

Those that lived too far away to see, like the people of Lurelin and the Gerudo, had been able to feel his defeat, as the presence of the Evil that had plagued them all for so long burned away under Zelda‘s magic.

It sent a wave of joy and hope through all of Hyrule, people all over the country rejoicing in the monsters death, and a festive atmosphere spreading everywhere.

In other words, literally every settlement (not that there were many) was preparing big celebrations.

Hateno village was no different in that regard.

A week after the Fight, the final preparations were being made.

Hateno was decked out in colourful garlands, stalls for food had been set up, and a few people that knew how to play instruments had sat together and practiced some songs.

Many people from outside the village, like travelling vendors, had also arrived, the news of a celebration having spread fast after Wild had told someone about it while he visited the Dueling Peaks stable to check up on Curry.

It was shaping up to be the biggest festival in the region since the Calamity.

Wild wanted to contribute somehow, and decided to make a stall selling apple pie (because he had hundreds of apples in his slate, somehow). But he also didn’t want to be stuck at the stall all evening.

So, he went and convinced Purah and Symin to handle it. Purah was hesitant at first, but Wild explained that there wasn’t a reason to hide anymore. Ganon was dead and the Yiga not out for blood anymore (and explaining that had been something of a nightmare. Looking back now, the entire situation seemed absolutely ridiculous).

Zelda wanted to visit the festival too. It would make a great opportunity to introduce herself, and she felt a bit more ready for social contact now.

Dark didn’t really want to go. (His presence would likely kill the mood, threatening as it was.)

But Wild had insisted that he leave the house and have some fun for once. "Just stick to me or Zel if you don’t want to be alone! People know you by now, it‘ll be fine!"

(He might have also bribed him with a promise of Honeyed Fruit, but that wasn’t important right now.)

(And yes, he had started referring to the princess as Zel. She didn’t seem to mind, but expressed her frustration over the fact that Wild‘s name did not have a short form.)

Wild had decided to dress up for the occasion. He was wearing his Champion tunic and a clean pair of pants. Also, Zelda had forced him to brush his hair. (There were so many twigs and leaves in there. So. Many.)

The princess was wearing blue too, but had decided against a dress. She didn’t want her first impression on people to be too formal, she said.

The celebration was set to begin in the late afternoon. So, a few hours after midday, people were starting to gather.

Most were setting up their stalls, which was also what Wild and Dark were doing.

"How many apple pies did you bake?" Dark asked when he set down the fifth one Wild had handed him.

"Twenty. I hope that was enough."

"Wild, there‘s not that many people here. I‘m pretty sure you’re good."

It was true. Even with so many visitors from all over Necluda (and even some from Faron, though most of those probably went to Lurelin since it was closer), there couldn’t be more than fifty.

On one hand, it was a bitter reminder of how many had been lost to the Calamity. But on the other, it was prove that they had survived. That the fight had not been for nothing.

(It was also great for Dark, who really didn’t like crowds.)

Wild raised an eyebrow at him. "You do realise that the fruit cake I made was double the size of these, and we ate the entire thing with just three people in thirty minutes, right?"

Dark raised a finger, about to say something, but then lowered it. "Point."

A few minutes later all twenty pies had been set up and Purah and Symin arrived. Zelda was also with them.

"Oh, I‘m so exited! It’s been so long since I’ve been at a real festival!"

Wild nodded exited. "I can’t remember being on one, so it’s basically my first one ever!"

"Oh, I‘m sure you’ll love it! There‘ll be music, and food, and… well, I think it‘s the overall atmosphere, really."

They both sounded very happy. Dark found himself smiling too.

(Why? Was.. was happiness contagious?!)

~

Later that evening, Dark had to admit that Wild had been right.

Hatenos inhabitants recognised him as Wild‘s friend, and the ones that didn’t know him saw everyone else was fine with him being around.

Zelda had been right, too. Despite it‘s small size, the atmosphere of the festival was great. Being surrounded by so many celebrating people in good moods, together with the music, felt pretty nice.

His worries about Wild making too many pies had proven to be unnecessary, they were sold out two hours in.

But, no matter how great it was, Dark was not used to spending so much time around so many people.

It was late evening, the sun had set, the festival was still going strong, and Dark was starting to feel exhausted from social contact.

All the noises around him were grating at his ears, and he was slowly becoming hyper-aware of his surroundings.

A quick scan of the area told him that Wild was animatedly talking to Purah about… something. The Hero probably wouldn’t want to leave yet.

Oh well. He began walking back towards Wild’s house. It was rather cut off from the rest of the village. He would find some peace and quiet there.

Meanwhile…

Wild was elated, and the longer he was around, the more he started feeling like he was drunk. (Well, what he imagined being drunk felt like. Furosa had denied his request for a Noble Pursuit, after all.)

Apparently, spending multiple hours around lots of people with high emotions wasn’t such a good idea when you had a sense that picked up on said emotions. Who knew?

Zelda was having a great time.

It had been so long since she had been able to just relax and have fun, even when ignoring the one hundred years of being stuck with Ganon.

She was getting along with the people, too. At first, she had been afraid that they might resent her, but that wasn’t the case at all. They had welcomed her without a second thought.

She was listening to the music, when suddenly, a voice appeared in her head.

"-lo? Hello? Can you hear me?"

…she knew that voice.

"Goddess Hylia?"

The voice laughed. "Oh great, it works! Just call me Hylia, Zelda dear. What happened? Why did the connection break?"

What?

Both the Master Sword and Hylia had spoken to her, in that incredibly short timeframe between awakening her powers and sealing Ganon. But during her time in the castle, no voice had reached her.

"Uhm. It was probably because I was inside the seal with Ganon?"

"What? No, I know that! I meant after! When you got out! I could have reached you, but before I got to do so, you cut off again!"

Zelda thought for a moment. "Ah, it must have been the magical exhaustion. I didn’t have much left after getting rid of Ganon…"

Silence. Then a confused: "Wait, what? What do you mean 'getting rid of Ganon'? Where did you seal him that it took so much magic?"

"What?" Now Zelda was confused. "I didn’t seal him again! That didn’t work the first or the second time, trying again would have been stupid! I burned away his essence."

How Hylia managed to convey 'shocked silence' through a mental link, Zelda would never understand.

"Holy shit, you completely killed him. Wow. That’s a first. Explains why that damned curse broke, though."

"What? What curse?"

"Ah, right. I think you guys know it as the Reincarnation Cycle? Which, really, that‘s not a fitting name at all. Every soul gets reincarnated. Well, except Ganon’s now, seeing as you destroyed it."

"So… that‘s good then?"

"Definitely! It means Ganon won’t be revived, which means I won’t need a Hero anymore! Stupid curse made it so the Hero‘s Spirit was permanently attached to Link‘s soul. Wasn’t healthy for him. That part got broken with Wild already, but this means I can get rid of it entirely!"

There was a brief pause.

"Speaking of that, where is the shadow? You call him Dark, I think. I‘m pretty sure he‘d like to hear about this."

"Oh, I think I saw him leave earlier. He probably went back to the house."

~

She was right. Dark was at Link‘s house, sitting at the fireplace, which was lit. He was staring into the flames, and didn’t look like he was fully there.

When Zelda stepped closer, his head snapped up.

"Oh, it’s just you." He sounded relieved.

Zelda finished walking over and sat down next to him. "Too much?"

Dark pulled up his knees and sighed. "Yeah."

She smiled at him reassuringly. "Don’t worry about it. When I was younger, I couldn’t stand large social gatherings either. But I got used to it with time. As princess, I had to attend a lot of them."

Dark looked at her, horrified. "That sounds awful."

She laughed. "It was at first, but like I said, I got used to it. Later, some even became fun."

A dubious look was on Darks face. "I‘m not sure I believe that."

They fell into silence. You could still hear the sounds of the celebration, but with the hill and space between them, it was muffled and much less loud.

"Hylia just talked to me. She wanted me to tell you that I apparently broke the Reincarnation Cycle curse."

With how fast Dark spun his head, Zelda was surprised she didn’t hear his neck snap.

"Really?" His voice was quiet.

"Uhm, yes?" she said, confused by his reaction. "She also said she‘ll get rid of the Hero’s Spirit."

Dark stared at her with wide eyes. "That… that would end me."

"Wait, wha-?" Zelda was shocked, but she didn’t get to finish her sentence, because Dark interrupted it.

"Fucking finally!" Then he seemed to remember something. "Wait, she‘s going to wait till Wild dies naturally, right?"

Zelda directed the question to Hylia.

"That was the plan, yes. Why? Is there a problem?"

Zelda relayed the answer.

"Well, Wild may or may not be immortal. We don’t know for sure."

"What."

"What."

Dark shrugged. "Yeah, he stopped aging after the Shrine of Resurrection, and Mipha‘s ghost keeps healing him whenever he gets fatally wounded."

"Hmm. That does complicate things, yes. Can you tell him I‘m sorry?"

Zelda was about to, but stopped when Dark smiled.

It was a small smile, like they always were from what she had seen, but it was the most genuine yet.

"But… I think, if Wild sticks around I can live with living for some more. I‘ve been here for millennia, the void can wait a little longer."

Zelda was still a bit confused, but she was starting to grasp what was going on.

"You really care about Wild, huh?"

Dark snorted at that. "He‘s my first and only friend, what did you expect?"

That just sounded sad.

"What am I, chopped liver? We’ve been sitting around together in the same house for a week now, I think you can consider me a friend."

Dark blinked, and turned back to the fire.

"Thanks. That… means more to me than you can probably imagine."

Zelda didn’t answer, just hummed, staring into the flames.

They just kept sitting there, loosing their gazes in the fire, until Purah showed up with Wild tumbling behind her, looking like he was drunk.

"I thought there was no alcohol here?"

"There isn’t." Purah grumbled. "He managed to get drunk on happiness."

(She had been upset earlier that day when Symin told her that alcohol would be bad for the body of a five year old. Then she became even more upset when he revealed that no one in Hateno knew how to brew.)

The Blue faded, and Dark looked around.

Lots of trees, grass, flowers and glowing bean stalks. Yup, this was Korok Forest.

The dense aura of spirit- and nature magic might have also been a clue, but glowing bean stalks were pretty telling.

There were also lots of Koroks around. Most of them hid behind roots or leaves, watching from afar, but a good portion of them cheered when they spottet Wild and hopped over to greet him.

Dark could understand their language just fine, he was a being of magic after all, but so many of them were talking at once that he couldn’t make out a word.

Finally, Wild put a stop to it by calling out.

"Guys, guys, stop!" It didn’t come of as very serious, seeing as he was grinning while doing so. "Come on, please. I‘m here on Hero business."

That t least got them to back off a bit.

He turned and grabbed Dark‘s wrist. "The pedestal‘s this way."

Despite technically not being part of the Lost Woods, Korok Forest was just as confusing to anyone who couldn’t instinctively navigate it like Koroks (or Wild).

Dark could not, which was why he took care not to let go of Wild. You did not want to get lost in the Lost Woods.

Wild made his way through the thicket, and soon, they reached a stone pedestal surrounded by Silent Princess flowers, as Wild had told him. And also what was probably the Great Deku Tree, because why else would a tree have enough magic to be alive and sentient.

Wild stopped in front of the pedestal, and pulled the Master Sword from his back.

"Alright Fi, this is it. You can go back to sleep now. Thanks for the help."

The sword chimed in response, and lit up weakly for a moment.

Wild stepped forward, and placed her back into the stone socket, where she released a flash of light before returning to her dormant state.

Wild held her for a moment longer, and stepped back.

"Phew! For a second there I was afraid I‘d get thrown into another Trial of the Sword."

He stood there for a second.

"Well, we‘re done here."

"Nooo!" screamed all the Koroks in their immediate vicinity. "Stay and play with us, cousin!"

Wild was then promptly buried under a pile of forest children.

Dark raised an eyebrow. "Cousin?"

Wild shrugged, or tried to at least. "No idea. They‘ve been calling me that since I met the first one."

He tried to stand up, but didn’t get very far.

He shot Dark an apologetic smile.

"Think we can stay for a while?"

Dark just laughed at him.

~

It was five o'clock in the morning, and they were standing in a place Wild called Lanayru Promenade.

The Hero had promised to show him 'something cool', but refused to elaborate.

Wild was dressed in winter gear, and had handed him his warm doublet. And sure, it was a bit chilly here, but nowhere near cold enough for such measures.

After some walking, Wild stopped.

"This is a nice spot."

He sat down on the ground.

"…and what do we do now?"

"We wait."

Dark sighed, but didn’t bother asking again.

They sat there for maybe an hour, when suddenly, the wind started picking up and the temperature dropped.

Wild jumped to his feet.

"Great! Here she comes!"

"Who-"

Dark didn’t need to finish the question, because he could see who Wild meant.

In a tunnel of cold air, surrounded by an icy fog, a dragon spirit was flying leisurely through the promenade.

"That‘s Naydra." Wild explained. His breath was coming out in white puffs, and Dark understood why Wild had insisted on warm clothing now.

It was freezing. The cold was emanating from the dragon, but somehow, the ice combined with her unearthly glow only made her appear more ethereal and beautiful.

"Wow." Dark‘s breath was freezing too, but he ignored the cold as he watched Naydra climb through the air.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of a bow being drawn, and whipped around to find Wild aiming an arrow.

"What are you doing." It was less a question, more a despairing statement.

"Shooting the dragon." Wild said, nonchalantly, like it was the most normal thing in the world to shoot an arrow at a holy dragon spirit. (For him, it probably was.)

"Why?"

"Where do you think I get my dragon scales, horns, claws and teeth?"

"…Wild, what the fu-!"