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It felt wrong to carry Wind out of the cave and into the snow but his fever was simply too high. He needed to be cooled, now, before he had a chance to slip into another seizure.
Wind whimpered in Time’s arms but it was nothing compared to how he thrashed when Time lowered him onto the snow covered ground. Time ran fingers through Wind’s hair, feeling the heat radiate off him, while Legend shovelled handfuls of snow on top of him.
This was a risk in and of itself, Wind might just go into shock because of his body temperature changing so quickly but Hyrule’s potions had done little to help and Wind was just getting worse. Time could only hope that in their desperation, they didn’t hurt the poor boy more.
“Easy, easy,” Legend’s voice was halting, caught between frustration and fear. “Wind, stop fighting.”
Wind’s hand shot out, knocking Legend square in the jaw. Legend swore, his own hand rushing up to his already swelling face, but he did not hit Wind back. They all knew full well that Wind was scared and confused, the fever still ravaging his small body.
The last of the young hero’s strength abandoned him, arm dropping uselessly in the snow, head tilting side to side as if stuck in a nightmare.
Wind made a sound and it was almost like it was a word. A name, Time realised. In his illness, Wind was calling out for his sister and while it was natural to want family to comfort you, Time thought that Wind instead was calling out for her because he was convinced that she was still in danger.
“Aryll is safe.” Time assured him.
The cold was already seeping into Time’s own body and his scars ached. Legend had tucked his hands into his armpits, his breath puffs of smoke.
“Go back to the others.” Time said to him.
“No way.” Legend shot back.
From within the cave, they heard echoing voices. An argument, and a perfect opportunity to get Legend out of the cold.
“Legend, I need to stay with Wind. Can I trust you to make sure they won’t kill each other in there?”
“You go sort that shit out.” Legend said. “I’m not leaving him.”
Wind whimpered, squirming. His eyes opened briefly but they were dazed, his mumblings still little more than than that. The snow was working, at least a little, but it wasn’t working fast enough.
“Link.” Time said. “Please. They need you.”
Legend’s glower had little strength given that his lips were almost blue. He at last relented, tearing back into the cave and immediately yelling at Twilight and Warriors to shut the fuck up. Crude, but effective. Scratch that, now the two of them were ganging up on Legend.
A shouting match was better than staying out here and getting hypothermia, though Time hoped that soon enough they’ll come to their senses and realise that arguing wasn’t what anyone needed right now.
Time readjusted, old injuries stiff in the cold air, and he failed to stop a grimace from forming. With Wind so ill, and Four starting to show signs of developing the same fever though Four had still been denying it last Time tried to bring it up, Time didn’t have time to wallow in his own self pity no matter how much his body ached.
The yelling cut off just as Twilight was saying something very creative and very inappropriate.
Time’s head spun a little from the sudden quiet.
He glanced back towards the cave but all he could see was the light of the fire flickering against one of the walls. He was in the wrong spot to see any more than that but he was hardly going to move away from Wind to see what his foolish brothers were up to and yet he felt concern tug at him.
The others would hardly hurt each other, even in the heat of an argument. At the end of the day, they were all heroes in their own right and they knew when to back down.
Then, a voice echoed from inside. Champion, Time thought, given that it was rough from disuse.
“Get him on his side.”
Panic flared through Time.
Someone else was sick. Four maybe, considering he was a little out of it earlier, but it could be anyone. With so many people travelling together, it was inevitable that whatever illness one developed, the others shared. Sky often took it the worst, his chronic fatigue making him susceptible more so than many of the others who were in the prime of their lives.
Time rose to his feet but it must be snowing again because his vision pulsed white.
The argument inside must be fully over because Twilight and Warriors were now working in tandem, with Warriors reporting whoever’s vitals he was assessing with Twilight soothing the newest victim.
Time was proud of his boys. He always had been, and will be, but whenever they jumped into action like that he couldn’t help but appreciate his companions for their strength and bravery even in the face of uncertainty.
The snow fell harder around him as he took a step towards the cave. Wind was still passing in and out of consciousness, unable to stay awake yet, but he would be okay alone for long enough for Time to see who had become ill and just how bad their condition was.
Each step was more difficult than the last and it was like the snow beneath him was trying to swallow him whole and yet when he glanced down, it wasn’t even to his ankles.
The voices were echoing again within the cave, more distant than ever before.
In fact, the cave itself was shifting further away from Time as if he were walking backwards not forwards. His muscles were stiff from the cold but when Time tried to stretch out his shoulder, his arm would not rise. Time blinked, snow falling harder, his vision nearly pure white.
It was a snow storm, it must be. Time needed to bring Wind back inside because even if the fire worsened his fever again, it would be better than staying out during a storm.
Time twisted on his heel but his torso kept moving unbidden even when his legs stayed where they were. He was falling, Time realised dimly, slower than the snow around him.
Wind was still in his pile of snow, twitching a little as he tried to stir. Wind’s eyes cracked open as Time lay there on his side and for a moment Time thought that Wind was fully waking up. Wind whimpered instead, eyes closing once more.
Time should stand up.
He should stand up, go to Wind, comfort the poor boy and bring him back inside the cave.
Time needed to stand up.
Wind started struggling a little again, calling out for his sister, begging an invisible enemy to let her go.
Wind was just a few feet away from him, lost in his feverish mutterings, but when Time tried to reach out to him, to assure him that he was safe, his whole arm just shook strongly and then dropped.
Time needed to stand up. He needed to do anything but just lie there in the snow, watching Wind go from feverish nightmare to complete unconsciousness back to almost awareness. He needed to do anything at all but he couldn’t.
Even his voice failed him when he tried to call Legend back out there, perhaps the snow storm was simply too strong. Except, there wasn’t a storm at all, Time realised. For how cold it was, there wasn’t any more snow that had landed than as there was before.
In his desperation to help Wind’s fever go down, Time had apparently made himself immediately ill.
No matter. Time has been sick before, he could cope. His companions, his brothers, needed him to be strong at this moment and he refused to let any of them down, least of all Wind. Time steeled himself, taking a deep breath before pushing himself up off the ground. The moment that Time thought that he was upright, he was already falling again.
Time didn’t know if he ever even hit the ground before everything just simply ceased to exist.
There were hands touching him. Monsters. Link was in danger, he needed to fight. He needed to grip onto that sword that was too big for him, he needed to fight or he was going to die and if he died then all of Hyrule was going to fall and he could not allow that to happen.
Link thrashed against the things that bound him, the monsters snarls almost like Hylian voices as he managed to knock one of them back.
Fire burned through his veins as he gave off a yell, tackling the monster to the right of him. Link crashed to the ground on top of the monster, whaling hits down upon it. The monster gave off a cry but Link did his best to ignore it, moving onto the next closet enemy.
Link stumbled over a body, another monster no doubt, and his legs crumpled beneath him. He blinked quickly, already trying to push himself up, and found that his hands sunk deep into snow.
Snow?
There was no snow here. The snow disappeared, but the body of the monster he had tripped on remained there. It was shifting, stirring, and a fear settled deep in Link’s chest.
If this monster was to rise, the monster that must be none other than the demon king himself, all would fall.
Link would fail.
He would fail Hyrule. He would fail Saria. He would fail the Deku Tree.
Link gave off a roar, ready to defeat the Demon King that had trapped Termina in this cycle of- It hadn’t been the Demon King. The Demon King had caused the war but it had been the little imp that had called upon the moon to fall down.
The monsters were crowding him now, leaving footprints in the snow. There was no snow. There had never been any snow.
He heard the little imp’s laughter but when Link spun, he found only more monsters with no sign of the little boy or that mask who had taken over him.
“Time!” One of the voices shouted. “It’s us! Just calm down, you’re okay.”
Time. Link was running out of time. There was three days remaining. No, there was less, the hours were passing too quickly. The Demon King was coming and the moon was falling but those had not happened at the same time but somehow he was still running out of time here in the snow that shouldn’t exist.
Link whined, wanting nothing but for Saria to hold him.
Saria was with her people. Not Link’s people because Link had never been one of them. Link was Hylian, he had never been like Saria no matter how much he wanted to be.
“Time, it’s okay,” A different voice rumbled.
The snow was falling and the monsters were crowding closer to him.
The body on the ground, the one that flickered between the Demon King and that of a little boy that Link should know, was moving again. Trying to rise.
“Time don’t!”
Link roared, letting all of his hate and pain and fear fuel him as he launched forward towards the Demon King who had destroyed so much.
Link crashed into the ground instead, Monsters pinning him down.
“It’s Wind, Time!” A voice echoed. “Get a hold of yourself, Old Man, it’s just us.”
Wind. The wind was blowing. The Deku Tree was dying and the wind was blowing and Link couldn’t even cry because there were people he needed to save.
“It’s no use,” A monster grunted. “He’s completely out of it.”
“Time, please,”
Link thrashed against the weight that had him pinned against the snow that shouldn’t be there, a cold seeping not just into his clothes but into his very soul.
“Try this.”
Fighting hard, Link was almost dizzy when the monsters that had been holding him down suddenly lifted. He roared, lashing out, but hands gripped onto his arms hard. Arms wrapped around him tightly from behind, keeping him from standing fully and he roared again.
Link’s head was forced back and before he realised that his mouth had opened on instinct, there was a liquid running down his throat.
Link choked, jolting forward, but the monsters that held him kept his mouth closed until he had a choice between drowning and swallowing.
No, not monsters. Monsters weren’t holding him, brothers were.
Time sagged forward but they let him this time, the cold snow ever colder as he just knelt there gasping for breath.
“Time?”
Hyrule’s eyes were wide and watering, a half used potion bottle still in his shaking hand.
Time blinked quickly, trying to make sense of what was going on. He was surrounded by worried heroes, Hyrule the closest to him. It had been Twilight who had restrained him from behind, the same Twilight who was now sitting back and breathing hard himself as if it had taken all of his strength to hold him for long enough for Time to drink whatever the hell he had just drunk.
Wind was still half buried in snow but he was trying to rise, the poor boys face still flushed red with fever, his eyes unfocused and fluttering as if he was struggling to stay awake at all.
And Warriors. Oh Goddess, Warriors. He was knelt next to Time too, concern clear on his face through the mess of blood and cuts. Even Warriors’ scarf had been stained red, one of his eyes already blossoming into a dark bruise, the eye itself looking bloodshot.
Time looked down onto his own hands and saw Warrior’s blood all of them.
Time scrambled up and his brothers surged to keep him on the ground but he shoved them off. He took all of three steps before he was on his knees again throwing up. His stomach clenched as he vomited again, and he distantly felt a hand rubbing his back but he shoved that off too, underserving of any love right now.
“Time,” Warriors mumbled. “It’s alright. This wasn’t you.”
But it was. In his confusion he had damn near killed Warriors and yet Warriors was here claiming that this hadn’t been all his fault. Worse than that, Time had been about to move onto killing Wind too, Wind the boy that was so small and so brave and had already been through so much.
The boy who was already so sick himself that Time had brought him out here to try to manage his fever.
Time pushed himself up off the ground, disgusted with himself, but his legs buckled. Twilight and Warriors guided him back to the ground, even though Time heard Warriors bite back a hiss of pain.
Hyrule was still hovering too, eyes flicking between Time and Wind.
“Go to him.” Time grunted.
Hyrule nodded, scurrying over to check over to check over Wind.
“Time,” Twilight said. “Are you…”
“I’m fine.” Time managed. “I… I’ll go on patrol.”
“No,” Warriors said.
Time looked up at Warriors on instinct but the moment he saw the blood again, he had to turned away, breathing through another bout of nausea.
“You’re sick,” Warriors said. “I’ll go on-“
“Absolutely not.” Hyrule called from Wind’s side. “I need to check you over too. Twilight, can you come stay with Wind please? The snow is working on his fever but he’s still can’t stay awake fully. Time, you and Warriors come back inside with me so I can assess you both and also check on Four.”
Time stilted, suddenly remembering why Legend had left his side what felt like an eternity ago.
There was only Twilight, Warriors, Wind and Hyrule out here in the snow with Time which left Legend, Champion and Four in the cave itself.
“Four’s sick?” Time croaked.
Hyrule grimaced, then nodded.
“He started vomiting when you were out here helping Wind. Legend helped calm him, and last I checked Four was sleeping in Legend’s arms, but I need to monitor his fever seeing as how quickly Wind and your illnesses progressed.”
“I’m not sick.” Time said firmly.
All eyes locked onto Time, even Wind’s half open ones.
“I’m not sick.” He tried again.
“You were pretty confused for someone not sick.” Hyrule said gently.
Hyrule stood but Wind latched onto him, the sickly boy burying himself into Hyrule’s warmth despite the fever still ravaging his small body.
Twilight shifted into his wolf form, going over the boy and nudging him gently away from Hyrule. Wind whimpered, not wanting to leave Hyrule, but Hyrule pressed a kiss atop Wind’s head and coaxed Wind into latching onto Wolfie instead.
Almost instantly Wind was asleep, curled up against Wolfie with enough of the snow touching him to continue to cool him off.
“I think Wind will only need a little longer out here.” Hyrule assured Twilight. “Warriors, please follow me. Time, do you feel strong enough to walk?”
Of course Time was strong enough to walk, his companions looked to him as a leader though he was hardly deserving of such a title now that he had hurt Warriors so badly.
He stood and was instantly on the ground again.
Hands gripped onto Time’s arms and for a terrifying moment he thought that they were monsters again. He forced himself to breathe, reminding himself that these were not monsters but his brothers.
Every step felt disjointed, Time’s head spinning a little and his throat still burning with acid.
He tried to prove to them, Warriors most of all, that he was back to his normal self again, but Time could feel himself drifting and he didn’t quite remember lying down before he dully realised he was nestled on a bedroll, a weight leaning up against him.
Time blinked, exhausted, wondering just how long he had been laying here.
It wasn’t just one weight on him, he realised, but two. Wind was draped on top of him, breathing deeply and evenly for the first time since he came down with his fever days ago, while a much heavier weight was making his arm fall asleep.
Warriors.
His face had been patched up, the blood washed away. There was a bandage across one of Warriors’ eyes and guilt tore deep into Time because the only reason that Warriors was hurt at all was because of Time.
Warriors was asleep too, looking relaxed despite the bruising and small cuts.
Time’s own hands had been washed of Warriors’ blood, but Time didn’t think he would ever be fully clean of it.
Careful not to wake either Wind or Warriors, Time tried to look around to the others. Hyrule was sandwiched between Legend and Four and Time couldn’t help but wonder how long Hyrule had gone without sleep while trying to tend to so many of their little group.
At least Four seemed to be doing better, though Time had not seen how sickly he had gotten. Four had the normal colour in his face, no sign of fever at least at a distance, and Legend was sleeping deeply on Hyrule’s other side.
Champion was stoking the fire and when he met Time’s eye, he offered a little wave in greeting.
Twilight had been sitting beside Champion but he now stood and came over, kneeling by Time, Wind and Warriors.
Twilight reached out, hand pressing against Time’s forehead and as much as Time wanted to lean into the touch, he didn’t let himself. Time did not deserve any gentle love, from Twilight or anyone else, not when he could very well have killed the boys that were now sleeping on top of him.
“Much better,” Twilight said quietly, giving Time a warm smile.
“I’m sorry.” Time whispered.
His eyes burned and he swore he could still feel the blood on his hands.
“I’m sorry.” He said again, voice cracking.
“Time, it wasn’t you fault.” Twilight said. “They’re fine, see?”
“I’m sorry.” Time repeated.
Wind readjusted, burying closer against him.
Warriors hummed in his sleep, hand creeping up against Time’s chest before settling up against his neck.
“I’m sorry.” Time said and he was crying.
“It’s okay,” Warrior’s voice rumbled. “I love you, brother.”
“I love all my brothers.” Wind said, his own voice still heavy with sleep. “Aryll's gonna love you too.”
The exhaustion weighed heavier than his brothers did and Time found that he couldn’t stay awake for much longer, even if he did not feel deserving of their forgiveness.