Chapter Text

Hylia’s heroes have wings.

This is not a theory, or speculation or myth. It’s simply a fact. If you have the spirit of the hero, you have wings.

That is how it always is. Every hero gains wings to aid them in their quest. For better or worse, Hylia’s Heroes are given flight.

In my essay, I will explain how the wings both aided and hindered Her heroes in their journeys, and how—

“Zelda! Come look at this!” Startling herself out of her writing, Zelda jumped up to go find her hero, heading to the apple tree in the backyard. When she got there, she was met by an inky black void.

“Link, what did you do?”

He looked offended. “It wasn’t my fault this time! I was just picking apples, and this weird portal just appeared out of nowhere!” His magpie wings flapped around nervously.

“You think it’s a portal?”

He thought about it for a second, answering “Yeah. I don’t know how I know, but I do. It’s a portal.”

Zelda frowned, visibly distraught before composing herself. “This sounds like a quest, Link.”

“It does.”

“What are you going to do?”

“What else?” he asked. “I’m gonna go through the weirdass portal in our backyard.’

She hugged him, arms grasping the feathers in his back tightly, mumbling, “Don’t die.”

“I don’t think it would stick if I did.”

It wasn’t nearly as reassuring as he thought it would be.

He stepped through the portal, and abruptly fell into a cow paddock, mud splattering everywhere.

Link Lon was having a bad day. First, he woke up with a pounding headache. Then, The cuccos were more aggressive than usual, not letting him get the eggs. Finally, as he was going to milk the cows, A portal opened up and a body fell through.

“What the fresh FUCK?!” he jolted, jumping back from where he was standing. The body, which was apparently still alive, bolted upright as well, turning to stare at Link. He was about to ask what the hell this person was doing here, when he noticed. The strange person in his paddock had wings.

His hands went to his own, still staring at that strange individual. They were staring back at him too, eyes locked on his own wings, House Wren in origin.

“Who are you?” The stranger's voice was raspier than he anticipated, almost like it pained him to speak.

“I could ask you the same question. What are you doing in my paddock?”

The stranger glared up at the sky, directing their annoyance at Goddess-knows-where. “Fuck if I know! I just wanted to pick some apples, and a portal appeared in my backyard!”

Link sighed. “You’re a hero, aren't you.”

“You are, too.”

“Yeah. This is another quest, isn’t it?”

The stranger frowned. “Guess so. My name’s Link, what’s yours?”

Link stared at them. “Link.”

“Oh,” the stranger realized, “That’s gonna get confusing fast.”

“Exactly my thought. Do you have a nickname?”

The other hero looked at him, and spoke slowly, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to say it. “I guess you could call me Wild. What about you?”

Link thought about it for a moment. He thought about using his old War nickname, before casting it aside. That nickname was for him and his brothers. On a whim he told the other hero “You can call me Time.”

The newly dubbed Wild and Time walked into the ranch, in which Wild was immediately fussed over by Malon.

A few minutes later,there was a crash outside the house.

“ORDONIA ABOVE, WHERE AM I?”

Time and Malon looked at each other.

“I’ll get it,” Time said.

There was a very disgruntled-looking person lying face-down in the mud. There was a wolf pelt around his shoulders, but it was caked in mud from its owner landing in the mud. A pair of barn-owl wings were coming out of his back, the auburn and black feathers stained brown from the mud.

“Ya need a hand there, friend?”

The stranger froze. “Shade?”

“I don't know who that is. Do you need a hand getting out of my paddock?”

He took the hand, standing up and futilely attempting to wipe the mud off himself, only succeeding in smearing it further.

“Where am I? This dont look like Ordon.”

Time sighed. “It isn’t. This is Lon-Lon ranch, and I’m Link.”

“But,” the Hero said, “I’m Link.”

“I know. The one here before you is too. I think, whatever’s goin on is collecting Hylia’s heroes. Did you go through a mysterious black portal as well?”

The stranger stared at him. “Yeah. I- Other heroes, wow.”

“Yeah. We’ve been making nicknames so we can tell who’s who. Pick one for yourself, and we can go inside to try to figure out what’s going on.”

“I-” the new Hero thought to himself. “I can be Twilight?”

“Sounds good. Come on, Twilight. Let’s see if we can figure out what’s going on in this clusterfuck.”

Chapter Text

The colors were having a weird day. When they woke up, They were unusually pissed at each other, giving themselves a headache. Their grandpa had gone to Castletown a few hours before they woke up, so there was nobody else around. They were walking to the forge when they saw it. 

A inky black portal, swirling as if trying to hypnotize them.

“That is Not Good,” a green tinged voice said, where only the others could hear .

“You don’t say,”  a blue shaded voice answered.

“Stop fighting,”  a red voice pleaded. We're giving ourselves a headache!”

“What is that thing?” a melodic violet tone asked. “It feels like dark magic.”

Now is not the time to nerd out, Hyrule could be in danger again!” There was Blue again. 

“Well, what do we do?” 

“What else? We go through the weird portal!”  Blue was immediately yelled at by all of his siblings. 

“ OF ALL THE STUPID IDEAS”

“ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US ALL KILLED”

“PLEASE DO NOT”

“Does anyone have a better idea?” Blue drank in his sibling’s silence, answering with a “thought so. If nobody else has any ideas, I’m gonna go through the portal.”

“Wait!” Red shouted , “We didn’t leave a note for Grandpa! And we don’t have any supplies in case this lasts longer than a few hours.”

“Fine.”

About an hour later, they walked through the portal. 

Link was confused. He had been having strange dreams again, starting with a black vortex, then going into the vortex to see ten others fighting beside him, before moving to a large monster he couldn’t quite see. They unnerved him, though he tried not to show it. The odd part about those dreams is that the others he was fighting besides all had wings as well. He still wasn’t sure what that meant. 

As far as he knew, nobody else in Skyloft, or on the surface had wings. 

Absently, he pulled a feather out of his back, running it over his hands as he thought. It was a pretty feather, the vibrant red contrasting with his tanned skin. 

“LINK HOLY HYLIA!” Someone came in through the door, nearly bursting it down as he bellowed.
“COME HERE THERE'S SOMETHING WEIRD HAPPENING!”

Link barely had time to wonder if this was a Groose problem or an actual problem before he was dragged out of his house, and toward the town square. 

They skidded to a stop in front of the center, where a large crowd had gathered. Large, relatively speaking, it was the entire population of the surface, 50-90 people. 

In the center of it all was a black vortex, exactly the same as he had seen in his dream. It seemed to suck the light inwards, the inky black looking more out of place the longer you looked at it. 

An actual problem then. 

Zelda caught sight of him, and waved him over. “Link! Come look at this!”

He came to the front, where the portal was. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure. It was just here when I came outside this morning. We stuck a broom handle into it, but nothing seemed to happen. It’s just like a doorway or a-”

“Portal?” he interrupted.

“Yeah.”

He sucked in a breath. “Zel, I’ve been having visions about these. I think She wants me to do something.”

“Like what?”

“I’m not sure.” 

“Well,” she said, sucking in a breath, “What else is in these visions?”

He explained everything the best he could. When he was done, Zelda looked upset. 

“What do you think it means?”he asked. 

She started to respond, only for the portal to flare, and a person fell out of it. 

Link and Zelda immediately rushed to help him up, the person stumbling to his feet, looking very green.

Link stared at this strange person, and the multicolored wings coming out of their back. They looked a bit like starling wings, but like the starling couldn’t decide what color to be, so it chose a few different colors, their wings seeming to be divided into sections like their shirt was. 

“Where am I?” The stranger asked, still a bit wobbly on their feet. 

“This is Newtown, on the surface. How did you get here?”

“I walked through the weirdass portal in my backyard, what else?” they paused. “Wait, why did you need to specify ‘on the surface?’ Where else would we be?”

“Skyloft?”

Link looked at the person as if they had grown a second head. “Do you- Do you not know what Skyloft is?”

“Uh, no? Should I? Wait, I might have read about it in a history book somewhere…”

Zelda stared at him. “History book? We only started to move to the surface a few years ago.”

“Move to the– What? Wait, you have wings?” they turned to point at Link. “I thought I was the only one!” His eyes lit up, and he started to talk rapid-fire, their eyes seeming to turn violet as they spoke. 

“Am I in the past? Am I getting to witness Hyrules founding? Oh, your wings look like cardinal wings, Did you know? Wait, of course you did. Dumb question. Did-”

Link cut him off, asking, “In the past?”

The stranger nodded, their eyes still lit up with excitement. “Yeah! The historical record of Hyrule’s founding says that Hylia’s Hero had wings as a sign of Her favor, and came from a land above the clouds called Skyloft!”

Zelda looked at his wings, and looked back to the stranger. “So, Hylians live fully on the surface in your time?”

“Yeah! Wait, what are your names?”

“Zelda.”

“Link. What’s yours?”

The stranger paused, staring at Link. “Also Link.”

“Oh,” Link said, “That’s a weird coincidence.” He froze, remembering Demise. “By any chance, you didn’t face a great evil and save your land, did you?”

The stranger frowned at him. “I did, actually. A wind mage named Vaati. If we’re both named Link, how are we going to tell each other apart?”

Link thought about it for a moment. “Nicknames?” 

“Sounds good. I guess you could call me Four?”

“Then, I guess since Hylians don’t live in the skies anymore, you could call me Sky?”

Zelda cleared her throat. “As fascinating as this is, there is still a temporal portal in the town square.”

“Ah,” Four said. “That might be a problem.”

Link already wasn’t having a good day before the void decided to make its home in his living room. 

He sighed, noting the inky mess that was propped up behind his sofa. 

“What the fuck is this.”

As if on cue, a pair of hylians stepped through the portal. One caught the other, wings flaring out as he caught the collapsed hylian. 

Wait, Wings?

Link stared at the duo, his own wings flaring out as he watched them. They finally noticed him, but he was too busy staring at the item on one's back. 

How did this strange man get the goddess sword? As he looked at it closer, he noticed that the sword looked different somehow, it seemed stronger. 

One of the strangers finally spoke. “What happened to your wings?!”

Link didn’t respond, his heartbeat increasing as he stared at the sword. 

The other, with the multicolored wings spoke this time. “Are- Are you okay?”

“The goddess sword…” He wheeled around to face the first speaker. “Where did you get that?”

He looked at Link, pulling the sword out of its sheath. “I reforged her. Are you the first hero?”

“You… You reforged her? How? She was left behind when Skyloft was raised.”

“We are… Time traveling, I think. I’m from a few hundred years after you, and they're from a couple more after me” 

Link sighed deeply. “I can never catch a break, can I? I’m Link, and you are?”

“Also Link. Both of us are. We’ve just nicknamed ourselves to avoid confusion. For simplicity's sake, can I call you First?” He seemed a little nervous about asking. 

“Why not. Tell me what’s going on.”

Chapter Text

Link woke up on a pile of sand. This wouldn’t be unusual, he fell asleep on the beach all the time. What was unusual was that all around his pile was grass and dirt, no ocean in sight. 

‘Is this one of Tetra’s pranks?’

He jumped off the pile, brushing the sand off of himself and out of his wings. His feathers fluffed out for a second, before returning to their normal state.

 He started to look for the edge of the island. He kept pushing through the foliage, noting how this island seemed to be endless. 

“Great sea, where are you?”

“About 220 miles the other direction, man.”

Link jumped as someone’s voice came from behind him, wheeling around to see… Himself?

“Woah, you look like me!” they shouted at the same time.

Wind waved his hand around, accidentally smacking his doppelganger in the face. 

“Oh, sorry. This is so cool, am I on like, a clone island or something??”

The other boy looked at him. “I don’t think so? Who are you?”

Link beamed proudly, proclaiming “I’m Link, Hero of Winds!”

The other glared at him, taking out a sword and pointing it at him “Try again.”

Link glared back at the stranger. Who did he think he was?

“Of course I am! Who are you and why do you look like me?!”

“Who are you and why do you look like me?” the stranger glared at him for a moment more, before noticing his wings and freezing. 

“Holy shit.”

Link grinned as smugly as he could, staring down the stranger, who looked like he was having an existential crisis.

“ See?"

The other gaped for a moment more, before he started to fidget, shyly raising wings Link didn’t see before. They were the most noticeable difference between the two, the inky black feathers a stark contrast from the black-tipped white of his own. 

“How the fuck…”

“I dunno!”

Ohhhhh, Link thought, “Time travel!” 

The stranger looked at him, confused. “Time travel?”

“I’ve time traveled before, I guess I’m doing it again? And you’re a future hero, since you know who I am?”

“I- I guess? Seems like kind of a logical leap to make.”

“Time travel it is! When exactly am I, and what did you mean by “220 miles away?”

A few hours later, the newly dubbed Spirit and Wind were talking while sitting on Spirit's train when a dark, swirling portal opened up in front of them, a body falling out of it. It was covered in… glitter, it looked like.

“Linkle, I am going to kill you,” the stranger muttered, standing up and shaking glitter out of his wings. Before Spirit could ask who this stranger was, Wind ran into him full force, knocking him over again and getting glitter all over himself. 

“Captain!”

The new person- no, hero. They were a hero if the glitter-colored Falcon wings that were disbelievingly wrapping around Wind were any indication. 

They spoke softly. “Tune?” 

Wind seemed to beam even brighter at that, shouting loudly about how much he loved time travel. The Captain didn’t seem to share the sentiment, but he did seem happy to see Wind again. 

Abruptly, Wind Froze. “I totally forgot to introduce you to Spirit! Spirit, this is the Captain, he’s the Hero of Warriors and he won the War of Eras with me and Mask and Ravio and Midna and Marin, huh, i wonder what happened to Marin, since she said she wasn’t sure if her world actually existed, i wonder if-” he was cut off by the Captain putting his hand over his mouth. 

“Hello there, hero of Spirits? I’m-TUNE DO NOT LICK MY HAND, EW! Sorry.”

Spirit started to giggle. “Nice to meet you, hero of Warriors.”

Wind spit out a mouthful of glitter. “Ew. Anyway, if this is another War of Eras, do ya think we’ll see Mask anytime soon?”

“Mask?”

“The final member of our trio, and our little brother.”

Spirit’s head hurt from trying to figure that out. “I’m not going to bother with that. Are we calling this guy Captain or Warriors?”

“Either works, I guess. Call me whatever.”

“Alrighty. Let's see if Zelda knows what’s going on.”

Chapter Text

Link was going for a flight around Hyrule, far above the chaos of the ground and the swarms of flying monsters. Up here, he could be free. It was the best kind of freedom, he thought. 

 Then, the Void decided to park itself right in front of him. He had too much momentum to stop before he shot through the portal.

Sometimes, Link really hated his life. Like now, for instance. 

Soaring through the air, he crashed into a slab of rock, sliding down it slowly. ‘That’s gonna leave a mark,’ he thought. 

“Oh shit! Are you dead?” someone was emerging from a nearby cave at the time, apparently. 

Link groaned. “Not yet. You?”

The stranger extended his arm. “Need a hand?”

He accepted it, pulling himself up with a grimace. “Thanks,” he said, neatly folding away his wings in a practiced motion, hoping the other hadn’t seen. 

The stranger, who had pink hair for some reason, smirked at him. “No problem. How’d you crash into the mountain?”

“I don’t know! This void appeared out of nowhere, and I had too much momentum to stop before I crashed through.” he pointed to the swirling inky mess in the sky. 

The stranger peered up at it. “Shit, yeah that’d do it.” he sighed, loudly. Link was suddenly made aware of the pink-black wings coming from the stranger’s body. “This is another quest, isn’t it?”

Link gave up hope of stringing together a coherent string of words right there. “Who- what? How? Legendary- How? Hero? What?”

The stranger frowned at him, looking at him with a piercing gaze, and Link would have withered away if he wasn’t in near shock. 

“The hero of Legend?” The mysterious stranger- The hero of Legend! sighed. “Yeah. that’s- that’s me. What’s your name, kid?”

“I- I’m Link. I was- Shit, I was named after you. I’m hundreds of years in the past.”

The hero of Legend blinked, staring at him with a newly renewed glare. Link was present enough to shudder this time, as the hero saw how dirty he looked. How lowly he must have thought of him, muddy and shoeless as he was. 

With a sigh, Link unfolded his own wings, trusting the Hero to not want to resurrect Ganon. “I- uh, I’m your successor.”

The hero looked almost- sad, at that. It was strange, he would have thought the Legendary Hero would have been disgusted in him. 

“You- You’re the hero after me?”

“I- Yeah. Sorry, I'm not much of a hero.” The Legendary hero looked even sadder at that, but Link couldn’t fathom why. 

“This- This sounds like a quest.” He sighed. “Cmon, kid, let’s get a closer look at this portal.” He bolted off the edge of the cliff, flapping his wings to gather momentum. After a moment's hesitation, Link joined him, circling the portal. 

The Hero took out his sword, tapping the portal with it. It seemed to quiver, shaking vigorously, before vanishing. 

“Shit, that’s not good.” The hero looked surprised. He set himself on the ground, landing much more gracefully than Link.

He stumbled, tripping over his feet, nearly faceplanting again, but The Hero caught his arm before he could fall. “Careful. Okay, we need nicknames, I can’t just keep calling you kid.”

Link nodded. “How about we use our titles? I could be Hyrule, and you could be Legend.”

The hero considered it. “Wouldn’t calling you Hyrule get confusing?”

“I guess, but I do like it.”

“Fuck it, Legend and Hyrule it is,” The newly dubbed Legend said. “I guess we should figure out what the hell that portal was. Actually, we need to teach you how to land, the way you’re doing it you’re gonna break your ankle.”

Hyrule nodded, pulling a stray feather out of his hair. “I- alright. Not breaking my ankles sounds good.”

Legend smiled at him “That’s the spirit! Cmon, you need a second instructor, and I need to inform my husband about my new quest.”

Chapter Text

A gateway opened up on Skyloft, in the living room of the First.

 The trio sitting there jumped up, Sky accidentally tripping Four, who grabbed onto First, knocking the man off balance and tripping him as well. The three fell into a pile on the floor, hopelessly tangled. 

Laughing, the trio helped each other up, First leaning slightly on Sky as they organized themselves. 

“Are we goin through this thing or what?” Four was glaring at it, his eyes seeming to reflect blue. 

Sky frowned at it. “Well, it made us meet each other, both times anyone’s gone through it. I guess we should? First, what do you think?”

The older hero shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m worried about leaving Skyloft alone, but I think these portals aren’t going to take no for an answer. Something about them seems persistent.”

“Alright.”

“Alright.”

“Alright.” Taking a breath, Sky walked through the portal, the other two following close behind. 

It closed behind them.

A portal opened up in the living room of Lon-Lon ranch. 

There was nobody in there at the moment, but a few seconds later, Wild entered the room. “Time! The weirdass portal’s back!”

He came rushing in, yanking Wild back from it as he skidded into the room. Ignoring his muttered “aw, I wasn’t gonna go in it” Time dragged him out of the room. 

Twilight was in the kitchen, watching Time drag Wild away from the living room. “What are we gonna do?”

“I don’t have any curse breaking objects here, and I don’t fancy us going through this thing. Maybe I should call Zelda.”

“Or,” Wild interjected, bouncing in the air, “We could go through it and Not be boring. Let’s see where it takes us!”

“With no clear way of getting back? No thanks.”

“How else are we gonna figure out what’s going on?”

“Literally any other way.”

“You’re boooooooooooring.”

“I’m safe.”

“Same difference.”

“We are NOT going through that portal.”

A few minutes later, they went through the portal, Time still grumbling.

It closed behind them.

A portal opens in a sitting room in Hyrule castle. 

The three sitting in there jolted in surprise, Wind dashing toward the portal. 

“Fuck yeah,” Wind exclamed, “Let’s go!”

Warriors grabbed his shirt collar.

“Wait,” He said. “Don’t just jump into random portals willy-nilly. Cmon, Tune, where’s your common sense gone?” 

“You should know better than anyone that I left it on Outset, where it wouldn’t be damaged by your stupidity.”

“Very funny, Mr. challenge the dragon to an arm wrestling battle.”

“It worked!”

“No it didn’t.”

He stuck his tongue out. “Semantics.”

“Do you even know what that word means?”

“Hey, guys?” Spirit chimed in. “We probably shouldn’t be arguing about who won a dragon arm-wrestling contest when the Void has made its home in Hyrule Castle?”

“Oh, yeah. What do you think we should do, Spirit?”

He thought about it for a moment. “We should probably go tell Zelda that the portal opened, and then go through it.”

“Sounds good! You’re outnumbered, Captain.”

“...Alright. Lead the way.”

They went to tell Spirit’s Zelda, and walked through the portal. 

It closed behind them. 

A portal opened in an apple orchard, below the flight lesson going on. 

It took them a while to notice. 

“No, you gotta lift your feet up a little more, yeah like that. Lean your shoulders back as you land, it’ll help you balance.”

“Like this?”

“Great!” 

“Oh, you still need to tip your shoulders, your weight is unevenly distributed.”

He shifted his feet on the branch. “Like that?”

“Amazing.”

They continued to practice landing, until finally; “Hey, what’s that?”

Legend landed next to Ravio, eyes widening as he saw what he was pointing at. “That’s the portal Rulie came from. What the fuck is it doing here?”

“Hmm. Could whatever put it here be trying to come through?”

Legend drew his sword. “Better not be.”

Hyrule landed next to them, stumbling slightly but doing much better than before. “Hold on, we don’t know what that is, let’s not stab it, okay?”

“How have you survived your adventures?”

“Uh… Running mostly. I’m good at running.”

“You know what, I am going to be a hypocrite and tell you that I am concerned about you.”

“Wait,” Ravio said. “Why would that make you a hypocrite?”

“I- I’ll explain later.”

“What are we going to do about the portal?” Hyrule looked concerned. 

Legend sighed. “We go through it, I guess. Hold down the fort, Rav?”

The merchant in question sighed, hopping down from the branch. “You got it, Mr Hero! Go kick those monsters' butts, you two!”

“Will do!”

“I’ll try!”

They drew their swords, walking through. 

The portal closed behind them, leaving a concerned merchant behind. 

Four portals appeared in a diamond pattern, facing each other. 

Each group stepped out, ready to defend or attack. Time spoke first, asking, almost disbelievingly, 

“Captain? Tune?”

The duo turned to stare at him “Do we know you?”

He started to grin. “Of course you do.” he raised his wings, catching the light just the right way to reflect them into the other’s eyes.

“AGHHHH Mask! CUT THAT out?” Warriors started to grin, confusedly shouting “MASK?!”

Wind raced up to him, crashing into him with a small ‘oof.’ He beamed up at him. “WHY ARE YOU TALL! HOW DARE YOU!” 

Warriors followed him a second later, repeating the sentiment. “We are your OLDER Brothers, this is hearsay! Hearsay!”

“Why are you covered in glitter?” 

“Irrelevant. What is important is the utter tragedy you have created by getting taller than us.” 

He rolled his eyes. “Can’t control my aging, Captain.” 

Spirit hesitantly asked; “Is this Mask? I thought he was your younger brother?”

Time started to stare. “Tune, did you clone yourself?”

“No,” he giggled, “That’s Spirit! He’s the hero after me! Wait, who are you all?”

He gestured to the large group around them, most staring at the trio. A pair in the back still hadn’t put their swords down. As he looked around, he noticed. All of the people around him had wings. 

“”Holy Shit that’s a lot of heroes!” 

“Language,” Warriors corrected on impulse. 

“Fuck you.”

“Well, I’m Sky,” One said. Are you all heroes as well?”

Everyone nodded, although the pink-haired hero had to pinch the hero next to him before he nodded as well. 

“And you all went through the weird swirling portals that appeared out of nowhere?”

Everyone nodded again. 

“Great! Well, us too. Who are you all?”

The pink-haired hero in the corner glared. “...You first.”

“Well, I’m Link, Hero of the Skies, but you can all call me Sky!”

A few of the others started to snicker at that. 

“I’m Link, Hero of the Winds!”

“ Hero of the Four Sword.”

“Link, hero of Time.”

“Wild!”

“The hero of the Spirit Tracks. Are all of us really named Link?”

“Seems so. Link, The First Hero, according to Sky.” 

“Hero of Twilight.”

“Captain Link, Hero of Warriors.”

“...Link, Hero of Legend.”

“I, uh, I’m not really a hero but my title is Hero of Hyrule?”

“You are absolutely a hero.”

Before Hyrule could respond, the portals started to glow, before vanishing. In their place was a group of monsters, headed by a lizalfo with a greataxe. 

“Hello there, Heroes.”

Chapter Text

The lizalfo stared down the cluster of heroes. He drew his axe, holding it upwards in a battle-ready stance. 

Four looked at it, shock painting their features before their expression dropped and they glared. 

“Come and meet your doom,” the Lizalfo called.

“Wow,” Legend grimaced, “That’s such a cliche line. You couldn’t have tried anything more original?”

The lizalfo snarled at him. He gestured with his axe, and the swarm of monsters attacked the group. 

The heroes split up, Time and First charging to intercept the Lizalfo, while the others worked to take down the horde. 

A bokoblin charged Four, only to get struck down by First. Nodding at them, he wheeled to intercept an incoming moblin. He was pushed back by the sheer force of it, being saved by one of Wild’s arrows. 

Spirit and Wind were fighting side by side, darting around the monsters and disorienting them. 

Hyrule and Legend had started to pick off the weaker enemies, thinning out the numbers. 

Twilight was taking on the bigger monsters, Sky was covering him. 

They worked surprisingly well together, for a group that had only met a few minutes ago. 

Ducking under a mighty swing of the lizalfo’s axe, Time countered with a swing of his own sword, slashing his arm. 

With a mighty roar, the Lizalfo charged at him with renewed vigor, only for Four to smash his head with the pommel of their sword. 

As the horde was wearing thin, the Lizalfo growled at them, muttering “This isn’t the end of this,” before melting into the shadows.

They all stared at the puddle a moment, before Wild broke the tension. 

“Who wants food?”

As Wild and Twilight cooked, the others started to loosen up, talking to each other. Four had started talking to Spirit about differences in technology between this era and their own. their eyes were a deep violet as they questioned Spirit on different types of fuel sources. 

Sky and First were comparing their Skylofts, while Hyrule looked like he very much wanted to ask First a question from where he was sitting with Legend. His hands kept twitching with pink energy. 

Warriors, Time and Wind hadn’t let go of each other since the battle, Wind attempting to pick up Time despite how much bigger he was than him now. He refused to admit defeat, though. Warriors and Time were talking with Legend about how to best use a hookshot. 

Finally, Wild and Twilight finished, bringing bowls of pumpkin soup to everyone, watching how several faces lit up. 

They settled down next to Hyrule, and Wild began to ask him about his wings. “What kind of bird wings do you have?” 

He grabbed them, looking over the colors. “Superb fairywren. Yours?”

Wild’s eyes lit up. “That is the cutest name for a bird I have ever heard! I’ve got magpie wings. Twi?”

“Barn owl. I agree with Wild, Superb fairywren is an adorable name for a bird.”

Hyrule had turned bright pink as they talked, muttering “Thanks.”

The first two heroes were discussing differences and similarities between their homes.

“And it’s a lot emptier on mine, which doesn’t make any sense considering I come after you.”

“Hm. That is odd. Mine does hold the entire Hylian population at the moment, though. That may be why.”

“No, because up until a few years ago ours did too.”

“Odd. Something may have happened a bit before your time, like a plague or something?”

“Maybe.”

“Oh, by the way, do you all have Loftwings in your time?”

First froze. “Have loftwings?”

“Yeah, like every Skyloftian has a loftwing partner that helps them get around Skyloft?”

First started to smile. “No, but that sounds wonderful.” he looked up at the sky, as if looking back on a memory. “Flying is one of the best experiences there is. I’m glad other Hylians get to experience it.”

He started to fiddle with his wings, the tears in the connective skin looking larger as they weren't covered by as many feathers. “I knew a loftwing, once.”

“Really?” Sky asked. “I’ve never heard this part of the legend. Tell me about him?”

First smiled, and started to tell the tale. “During the siege of Fort Hylia, one of my brothers-in-arms saw a massive bird flying over the city, and…”

Meanwhile, Four and Spirit were still talking,

“And coal is so inefficient, what do you MEAN it’s the primary fuel source in your era?? My train runs on magic and I haven’t had to refuel it once! With coal you’d have to refuel every ten minutes!”

Hyrule and Wild were discussing potions vs elixirs,

“And you just need some chuchu jelly and a lizard?!’

“Yeah. The more lizards you put in, the better the healing effect.”

“That's so simple!”

“Yeah? That’s the point.”

Twilight had vanished somewhere, (If you listen closely, you can hear wolf howls in the distance)

 And Time, Warriors and Legend had stopped talking due to Wind having fallen asleep from where he was trying to pick up Time. 

As the chain started to go to bed, they quickly ran into a problem. 

“Only half of us brought bedrolls.”

Four had several spares, for some reason, and Wild didn’t want to sleep on a bedroll, so there was less of a problem than it was, but even so, “Some of us will have to double up.”

Wind and Warriors decided to share, and Hyrule and Legend shared another, with the final pair-up being First and Sky.

“Wars, is everything you own covered in glitter?”

“Probably.”

“What did you do to make Linkle prank you so hard?”

“...No comment.”

Time watched his brothers argue, and started to look at his kids. 

Wait. 

Shit. 

He had gotten attached. 

Chapter Text

In the morning, after the heroes had finished eating, Time spoke. “Wild, could you scout ahead?”

“Sure.” he jumped up, flapping his wings until he was above the trees, looking for any sign of civilization. Eyes narrowing, he noticed a sliver of light coming from the south, focusing on it to see a small town nearby. He dropped to the ground, landing with a slight stumble. 

Legend’s eyes narrowed, and Wild felt his face heat up. He was doing so much better than he was a few years ago! A few years ago he had to use the paraglider for most of this! He glared at Legend, who startled and started to sign something to Hyrule. Four’s wings were in the way, so he couldn’t see what it was. 

Pushing that aside for now, he spoke. “I saw a small town up ahead, a few hours flight.”

“Then we go there,” Time said. “Everyone packed?”

The others all nodded. They got ready to take off, before First yelled “Wait!”

They stopped, looking at him. He looked down. “I-” he stretched out his wings, misshapen and torn. “I can’t fly anymore.” he couldn’t meet their eyes, looking at the ground in shame. 

They all gasped in horror, cries of outrage sounding as they all realized what must have happened. Four looked like he was about to cry, eyes shining bright red. 

Hyrule lit up his hand, magic coursing through it as he came to where First was standing. “I could try to heal them, if you want?”

“Many healers have tried,” he said, dejection clear on his face, “But if you want to.”

He put his hands on one of First’s wings, pouring magic into them. Several feathers grew in some of the more bare places, but the rips and unnatural angles stayed.

He shouted in frustration, freezing when First whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at whoever did this! This is horrible! It looks so painful and I can’t do anything to help!”

First looked touched. “It’s okay, It doesn’t hurt anymore. I’ll just follow you all on foot.”

Wild was flipping through his slate, determination clear on his face. “Whatcha doin, cub?” Twilight asked. He didn’t get a response as Wild kept searching. He hadn’t had to use it in so long, but he should still have it- there! 

“Wait!” he shouted as he grabbed the item he was searching for. “I might have something to help!”

He pulled out a frame made of wood, with a large piece of fabric stretched between the topmost pieces. 

This piece of wood had carried him through some of the dumbest things he ever did, but also some of his bravest moments. It meant a lot to him, but he wasn’t using it,and if he could help his new friend, scratch that, if he could help his new brother? 

He held it out to First. 

“This is the Paraglider. It helped me relearn how to fly, a long time ago.”

First smiled at him, albeit sadly. “I don’t think something to help re learn how to fly is going to help me. I can’t fly at all. I can’t lift up with how misshapen my wings are, and I can’t glide with the holes in them. It’s- It’s really sweet that you want to help, but…”

“Nononono, you don’t understand!” he shouted. “This isn’t a wing training device, it’s a glider! You glide with it! Watch.”

He flew up a fair bit, then folded his wings away, taking out the paraglider. Several people rushed to catch him, but the paraglider sailed right over them. He kept circling the people, before finally touching down. 

First looked shocked. As Wild held the glider out to him, he reached for it, almost reverently. “Can I really have this?”

“Couldn’t think of anything better to use it for! I certainly don’t need it anymore, and you can fly with us now!”

He accepted the glider gingerly, as if he was just given the greatest gift in the world. (Maybe it was, for him) He looked at it with stars in his eyes. “ Thank you.”

Wild smiled at him. “Wanna try it out?” At First’s frantic nodding, he motioned to open it. Once he did, Wild called on Revali’s Gale, taking them both just above the trees. 

First looked ecstatic, gliding through the foliage with a blinding grin. On instinct, his wings beat to keep him upright, but predictably nothing happened. His grin dimmed a bit at the reminder, but he kept soaring through the air, more happy than he had been in years. 

He was out of practice though, seeing as how he crashed into a tree a few minutes later. He slid down it with a groan, but he was still smiling. The others came running up to him. His arms hurt like hell, but he had never felt happier. 

He could fly again.

He jumped up, tackling Wild in a hug as he landed. 

“ Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me”

“You're welcome, First. Now, cmon. You have to practice, and we have to get to that village before night.” 

The chain took off, heading for the village. Together.

When most of the Chain had all fallen asleep at the inn, Time turned to Warriors. 

“I- I’m so glad that Wild had the glider to help First, but-”

“But you wonder what happened to make him need it,” Warriors interrupted. “I do too. Those wounds, they look deliberate.”

“I know. That’s what worries me. He looks 22 at most, and he looks like one of the oldest ones. Goddesses, they're kids. Is this what you felt like watching me and Tune during the war?”

He sighed. “Mask, you have no idea. All of us were just kids during our journeys, myself included. But what do we do about it?”

He sighed. “We be there for them. We might not have been there then, but we can be now. I think that’s all we can do.”

“When’d you get to be so smart, huh? I still remember when you put caviar in Wind’s hat as an act of petty revenge.”

“I grew up.” he grabbed his brother’s hand, staring him straight in the eye. Abruptly, he dropped it, sighing into his hands.“I’m an old man now.”

Warriors started to laugh. “I’m still upset you’re older than me.”

“I know.”

Chapter Text

In the morning, they set off to find out why they were here. Hyrule and Legend had taught them how to hide their wings, (Much to the concern of the older members of their group) and they all set off to gather information.

“An these weird monsters, they're so much harder to kill than normal ones! An they bleed black! I aint never seen a natural bein that bled black. It’s an omen, I'm telling ya.”

Wind froze from where he was walking down the street. “Black-blooded monsters?”

The duo turned from where they were talking. “Aye, Black blooded monsters. Comin outta that forest oer there. Ye best avoid it on ya journey, traveler.” he pointed to a small forest on the outskirts of town. It did feel ominous. 

“Thanks for the advice, Sir! I should probably head back to my brothers.”

“Ave a nice trip, lad.”

Meanwhile, Legend had roped Sky into helping him teach Hyrule more about flying. He was currently looking for Wild, so he could invite him too. He thought Wild might have taken his stare the wrong way yesterday.

He cursed himself out as he kept searching for him. 

Finally, he came to a small hill near the forest. Wild and Twilight were sitting on it, not saying anything. Wild’s eyes were blank as Twilight held his hand. 

Legend started to approach, making it as noticeable as possible. Wild didn't seem to notice, but Twilight did as he waved softly, motioning for him to sit down.

“Is he alright?” He asked, pointing to Wild, who still hadn't moved.

“Yeah. He gets like this sometimes, he'll be back in a few minutes.”

True to word, Wild woke up a few minutes later. He turned to Twilight, freezing when he saw Legend before relaxing. “Oh, hi Legend. What is it?”

“I- I’ve been teaching Rulie how to land, and I noticed you were having trouble with it too, so I was wondering if you wanted to join us?” He had gotten redder as he spoke, until he was the same shade as his hair. 

“Ohhhhhhh,” Wild said, “That’s why you were looking at me funny yesterday. I thought you were criticizing my flight skills!”

“Yeah, well I’m not. Do you want to join us or not?”

He beamed. “Sure! You okay here Twi?”

“I’m fine. Have fun, Cub.”

“Alright!”

A few of the heroes had been missing for a long time, so Time went out to look for them. In a small clearing, he found them. And it looked like they were… giving flight lessons?

“What do you mean by ‘Spread out your wingspan?!’ What does that mean?”

“It means your wings are too hunched in, stretch them out!” 

“Ooooooooooooooohhhh, okay! How’s this?”

Sky gave a thumbs up as Legend yelled “Off balance still! Straighten your shoulders!”

Time made himself known, entering the clearing. Hyrule yelped and fell a few feet, catching himself and landing slowly. Wild was much less affected, but he still was if the bow he was putting away was any indication. 

“You’ve been here a while,” he called. “You want to come back now? Wind found a lead on why we’re here.”

Legend hopped down from the tree he was sitting in, Wild landing next to him. “Alright. Let’s go.”

The chain walked through the streets, happily chatting to each other. Four and Spirit had resumed their argument about coal, 

“NO! I DON’T CARE IF IT’S A COMMON RESOURCE, IT’S BAD FOR AIR QUALITY!”

Time had started carrying Wind on his back, talking to Warriors. 

Sky and First had started to explain Loftwings to an entranced Twilight,

“GIANT BIRDS?!”

“Giant birds.”

And Legend, Hyrule and Wild were continuing with their flight lessons. 

“Just lift your feet up! Yeah!”

“Oh, yeah that’s so much smoother! Rulie, look!” He darted up to a nearby branch landing with ease. Hyrule clapped, and Wild made a grand bow. “Thank-a you, thank-a you.”

“That’s a dumb accent,” Legend said.

“Piss off, you don’t know genius when you see i-AGH!”

An arrow flew straight into his wing, knocking him off the tree. Twilight rushed to catch him as he fell, narrowly grabbing him. 

“Ow ow ow ow ow ow owowowowowow” His wing started bleeding sluggishly, as a swarm of monsters emerged from the forest. 

“It’s an ambush!” Four yelled.

“You don’t say,” Legend retorted. “Same battle formations as last time?”

“Sounds good!”

They all got ready for battle, Hyrule rushing to Wild so he could heal him. 

There was no clear leader this time, so Time joined Twilight in taking out the heavier hitters, and Four took Hyrule’s spot in thinning out the lower-levels. 

A stalfos attempted to get a hit on the vulnerable heroes, only to get hit in the face with a fireball from Hyrule. Wild snapped his fingers, letting lightning rain down on the monsters. The ones that were left had all dropped their weapons, letting the chain finish them off with ease. 

Once they were done, the chain circled around Wild, who now had a bandage wrapped around his wing. 

“Wild, that was so cool! Where'd you learn lightning magic?” Wind asked.

He pulled his wing to him to look at, Hyrule smacking his hand away. “An old friend gave it to me.” 

“Could you teach me?!”

“Probably not.”

“Aw.”

“Hey guys?” Four called, staring at a spot on the edge of the clearing. “Look at that!”

They followed his finger to see a portal where he was pointing. 

“Shit.”

Time took a headcount, noting everyone to be there. “ Nobody left anything back in the town?”

There was a general round of affirmations, and they went through the portal. 

On the other side, the portal closed as they went through. Four promptly threw up in some nearby bushes as they all looked around to see where they were. 

“Good news and bad news,” Wild said, opening his slate. “Good news; I know where we are, Bad news; It’s gonna take a few days to get to civilization. Good news again; the nearest civilization is my home!”

Several of the heroes perked up at that. “Let’s get going, then!”

And they set off for Hateno Village.

Chapter Text

As the chain walked through the forest, Wind asked a question. “Hey First, how’d your wings get so torn up, anyway?”

First flinched, and Wind immediately backtracked. “OH no nevermind, you don’t have to say anything if you don’t wanna!”

“I- Later, okay? I do want to tell you, but-”

“If you don’t stop moving your wings I will cut them off!”

“Hold nice and still, or it'll hurt more.”

“What are you doing to my wings?! Get your hands away-Agh!”

“There there, little birdie, nice and steady.”

“Sto- stop it. Stop. Get that knife away from me! ”

He shuddered. “Not right now.”  

“You DON’T have to say anything, I was being stupid-”

“It’s alright, Wind.”

“It’s NOT, I made you feel uncomfortable and obviously you don’t like remembering and-”

“Tune!” Time shouted. “He said it was fine. Shut up.”

“Thank you, Time.” First looked relieved that Wind had stopped apologizing. “Truly, I do want to tell you all. It just probably shouldn’t be while we're walking.”

‘And while they still think of me as a hero,’ he didn’t say. 

Once they made camp for the night, First cleared his throat. 

“I- I promised you all an explanation. Just- Just promise to not think too harshly of me?”

“Of course!” they all shouted. 

“Again, If you don’t want to please don’t, we don’t need to know.”

He sighed. “You may not be saying such when I'm through with my story. Very well. It all started when I was a knight. I was posted in Fort Hylia, out near Mt. Satori. At first, I was honored for my wings. A blessing from the goddesses, they’d say.”

He laughed bitterly. “Their minds were fickle though, and soon I was being called a demon for the gift given to me.”

The heroes gasped in horror. 

“No,” Time whispered. “They didn’t.”

“What did they do?” Wind asked.

“They did.” First said with resignation. “The ruling baron, Lord Dagianis, hated me more than most. He had me imprisoned for ‘Sacrilege to the goddesses.’”

His face was bitter as he removed his gloves, revealing ugly manacle scars on his wrists. He wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes as he continued, setting the gloves aside.

“Once in the dungeons, He placed his favorite bullies to ‘guard’ me. They-”

He sucked in a deep breath, fighting tears before he continued. “To restrain my wings, they cut through them to attach chains.” He pulled back feathers on one of the wings, revealing a circular hole in the skin.

Several of the heroes had lost all color in their faces. The only hero who didn’t look shocked was Sky, who looked away sadly. He moved to hold First’s hand. 

“They liked to break my wings, leaving them to heal wrong before breaking them again. I lost track of how many times they broke them, marring them beyond recognition.”

He was crying now. “And to rip them too. Taking feathers for trophies before slicing the skin open with daggers or swords. I never knew how much blood my wings had until it was all coming out, and I couldn’t even move to staunch the bleeding.”

“And- And they threatened to just cut them off. Is it wrong to wish that they had just gotten it over with?”

He moved to wipe the tears off of his face as Warriors spoke. “Of course not. Of course it’s not wrong to want an end to your suffering.” His voice was soft as he spoke, a few of his own tears escaping as he attempted to comfort his brother. 

First wasn’t done with his tale though, as he continued speaking a moment later. “They mauled my wings almost every day for four years . And when they finally needed a hero, no one, save a few people, even acknowledged what had happened.”

“They just pretended nobody had ever considered me a demon, that no one had ever thrown rocks at me as I walked to visit my friends, that-” His voice broke as he started to sob. 

“I hate them.”

“And you have every right too,” Wild spole up. “I wouldn’t help them if they did that to me. You’re so kind, to fight for them after everything.”

First scoffed, tears still streaming down his face. “I didn’t fight for them . I fought for the people that I cared for, like Orville.”

“Still. I would have left to go live in a cave. The fact that you fought for everyone anyway is- it’s incredible. Who’s Orville?”

First smiled at that, albeit weakly. “Orville is my- he’s my Orville. And I’m his Link. I’m not really sure how to explain who he is to me.”

Wild smiled at that. “You love him?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s all I need to know.”

The chain had all moved to be near First now, and Sky held out his arms in an invitation. First leaned into his side, and the others followed suit, enveloping him in a giant hug. 

“They were all WRONG,” Spirit whispered hotly. “You’re way too kind to be a demon.”

“Yeah,” Wind agreed. “They're all stupid and mean.”

The others all chimed in with their agreements, and First felt himself truly relax into the arms of his family. 

His family?

He startled at the revelation, before smiling, leaning into the hug more. 

“Thank you.”

Chapter Text

Afterwards, nobody really wanted to leave each other alone, and everyone started to argue over who got to share bedrolls with First. In the end, Four proposed a solution. 

“My brothers and I always made a big bedroll mat on the ground and slept in a pile. Why don’t we do that?”

They all agreed with that, and all of the bedrolls (sans Warriors’s, which was still covered in glitter) were pushed into a giant pile. There were some worries about them sliding around at night, but Legend had a bunch of safety pins in his bag, and pinned all of the rolls together. 

They chose watches, with Time and Warriors on first watch, Four and Legend on second, and Twilight and Wild on last. 

The pile did look very comfortable, and those on watch rued that they wouldn’t get as much sleep there. 

Around 20 minutes in, everyone was hopelessly tangled, as Sky had latched onto First, who was on his side, Four lying on his legs. Hyrule and Legend were holding each other off to the side, Twilight up against them while lying against Sky’s side. Spirit and Wind were off to the bottom of the mats, Spirit lying on Twilight’s legs while Wind leaned up against Wild, who was starfished off to the side.

First started to toss in his sleep, and Warriors could just about make out his whispers of ‘stop. Stop it.’ It broke his heart, and he moved to gently wake him up, before Sky shifted, wrapping more securely around First. His breathing evened out as he sank into the hug.

Time smiled at his kids, before turning to Warriors. 

“I already knew the tears were deliberate, but Goddesses. Four years?”

He leaned against his older brother. “It’s a miracle he’s still alive, let alone sane.”

“I know.” Warriors leaned into Time, staring up at the sky. “Do the goddesses hate us all? I never would have imagined anyone could be that cruel.”

“He couldn’t have even been able to drink yet. Goddesses, he must've been 17.  He became an adult while being tortured.” 

He reached over to his bag, pulling a familiar mask out of a hidden pocket in the side. Looking it over, he sighed. “You think Fierce would adopt him?”

Warriors started to laugh. “Mask, there is no doubt in my mind.”

It was the second watch, and Legend was bored. He mourned the loss of his sleep, looking over to the cuddle pile with remorse. Why the second watch? It was the worst. 

He looked over to Four, expecting a similar expression. To his surprise, Four was flipping through a book he couldn’t quite see, writing down notes every so often.  He peered over to see scribbles about some kind of mirror, Spotless Starlings, and the Dark World. Their eyes were a deep violet as they flipped through the book some more. 

“Whatcha doin, Four?”

They startled, slamming their book down and trying to cover the notes up. Legend took a step back, raising his hands. “Not gonna steal your research, Rainbows. Just curious.”

They looked away with a glare. “Don’t- Don’t call me that.”

“Alright. Why were you researching the dark world, Four?”

They sighed, their eyes flashing different colors, before settling on green. “It’s- It’s really hard to get to the Dark World in my time. A friend of ou- a friend of mine is stuck there, and the only portal there was broken. I’m trying to find a way to get there.” 

Legend stared at him. “How’d your friend get stuck in the dark world?”

“He’s a brave, self-sacrificial idiot, that’s how.”

Legend laughed. “I can understand that. Alright, what have you tried, and what have you skipped over because ‘it probably won’t work’?”

“You’re- what?”

“Helping you, dumbass. Move over, lemme see that book.”

Four scooted over to make room, and Legend pulled out a pencil, starting to mark important parts of the book, very lightly so they could still be erased. 

They researched until their watch was over, several new ideas to open portals to the dark world marked down in Four’s notebook.

It was the third watch, and Wild was a force to be reckoned with. He was furiously glaring at the stick of butter in the pan, willing it to brown from sheer mental force. By Hylia, he was going to make the best breakfast that his brothers had ever eaten. 

While he was waiting, he mixed up the other ingredients. 

3 cups milk, 2 cups flour, 1 dozen eggs, 2 teaspoons of salt and ¼ cup of sugar. The butter was ready now, and he poured it into the bowl, finishing the batter. There was enough to grease the pan still left in it, and he poured just enough batter to coat the pan, letting it cook for a few minutes. Then he flipped it to the other side, letting it cook for a few more minutes. 

The others had started to wake up, Hyrule waking up to the smell of sugar. “What’s that?”

“Akkala-style pancakes! One of my favorites to cook! Want one?” 

At Hyrule’s frantic nodding, Wild grabbed it off the pan with a spatula, flipping it onto a plate with a flourish. 

Hyrule looked at it confusedly, and Wild was suddenly reminded of how confused he was when he first saw them. 

“You pour syrup on them, then roll them up and cut them up! Like this, see?”

He had grabbed a fork and rolled it up, before letting it fall. “You add syrup to this spot, and roll it in on itself.”

“Ohhhhh, like this?” He had rolled it up inside out. 

“No, the other way. It’s less sticky like that.”

“Oh, okay. Like this?” It was rolled up the right way this time. 

“Yeah, like that! You can add other things to it, but I just like syrup on mine. Hold on, I'll grab the other toppings.”

As he searched, the others started to wake up from the much more potent smell of maple syrup. Hyrule started to explain to the others how to roll it up as Wild continued to make the pancakes. At last, everyone was up and had pancakes, except,

“Where’s Twilight?” 

Wild thought back to the nighttime watch. “He left to go for a ‘walk’ like a few minutes before Hyrule woke up. Someone should probably go look for him.”

Time stood up, setting down his pancakes. “I’ll go.” he knocked Wind’s hand away from where he was trying to steal his pancakes, heading off in the direction Wild was pointing. 

Coming to a fallen log in the woods, Time found Twilight, or rather Wolfie sitting on it. 

“You alright, pup? We’re eating breakfast back at camp.”

Twilight startled, falling off the log and flailing around for a bit before standing up, glaring at Time before turning back into a Hylian. “Warn a guy next time!”

“Sorry,” he said, not sounding very sorry at all. More seriously, he asked “Really though, are you alright?”

“Yeah, just thinking. Wild made breakfast?”

Time nodded, unconvinced. Twilight didn't notice, and he started walking back to camp, motioning for Time to follow him. He rolled his eyes and followed. 

After they had eaten, they packed up camp,

 "Who's bedroll is this?”

 “Oh i think that one’s mine, sorry Ledge”

“I Fucking Told You.”

And headed towards Hateno again. 

Wild looked up from his slate. “Good news, we’ll be able to get there by nightfall if we fly! First, are you good to glide?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Great! Everyone ready?” At their nods, he activated Revali’s gale, sending everyone high into the air. Several of them yelped in surprise as they were scooped into the air, Wind nearly tripping on the air. 

“Wow, Wild! Give us a little warning next time?” 

“Sorry!” he shouted, not sounding very sorry at all. “Cmon, we gotta get to Hateno before nightfall!”

They all took off, occasionally picking up First and throwing him up into the air so he wouldn’t glide to the ground. 

Finally, they made it to the outskirts of the village. The guard at the front stared at them with suspicion, before spotting Wild and relaxing, letting them in while muttering about ‘Weird heroes and their weird friends.”

He took them past a cluster of strangely-shaped houses, across a little bridge to a house on a hill, more secluded than the rest of the village. There was a girl sitting on a bench at the front, reading a thick book. She noticed the heroes, jumping up with a shout. 

She ran into Wild’s arms, shouting “Link!” She grabbed his face, chin length blonde hair flowing around his face as she shouted about how worried she was. The other heroes just stood there awkwardly, until she noticed there were more people there. 

“Oh! Forgive me, I didn’t see you there. Who are you… all?” She trailed off as she had caught sight of their wings. 

Wild laughed, taking her hand and introducing them. “Zelda, these are the Heroes Of The Past. Everyone, this is Zelda!”

She stared Wild down. “Link, you have a lot to explain.”

Chapter Text

“And then we got dropped off a few days away from here, so we made our way to you!”

At the end of his story, Zelda sighed. “Never a dull day around you, huh Link?”

He beamed. “Yep! So, have you heard of any of these ‘black blooded monsters?’”

“Hm,” she thought about it for a moment. “I don’t think so, but the Hateno Beach monsters have come back, and Koyin’s been really upset since you haven’t been here to take them out again.”

“Oh. That’ll be a piece of cake! C'mon guys, I wanna show you the beach!”

“No you won’t,” Hyrule said, grabbing his shirt collar. “You are still injured. We are not taking you to another fight with a giant hole in your wing.”

He froze as he realized what he had said. “First, I am so sorr-”

First cut him off by laughing, his wings flaring out as he clutched his arms. “Hyrule, I cannot believe you.” The other members of the chain started to laugh too, elbowing both heroes. 

“I am SO SORRY.”

“It’s alright, it’s funny!” 

Hyrule’s face was very red, and Zelda looked confused, looking between the two heroes. “Sorry, what’s funny?”

First burst out laughing again, lifting his wings up, rips obvious in the light. Zelda’s face turned pale, then red, and then she started to laugh along with the others. 

“I-, I guess I’m staying behind.” he said in between chuckles. 

They protested, but First really was happy to stay back. Four and Hyrule decided to stay back with them, and the group moved out. 

At the beach, the monsters were easy enough to take down. The beach did look very pretty after they were done, black stains splashed on the sand. 

There were a few stray bits of guts on the sand, which Twilight found really gross. He started to search for the others, doing a headcount. 

Time and Legend were cleaning off their swords together

Sky was flying over the ocean, still within earshot but obviously having fun as he raced along the surf. 

Warriors was trying to wash the bloodstains out of his scarf. 

Spirit was laughing as Wind was— Drinking the ocean water?!

He rushed to grab him out of the ocean before he made himself sick. “Wind, what were you thinking?! Hylians can’t drink saltwater!”

Wind pouted at him, looking a little like a drowned cat. “I’m a seagull, I can drink salt water.”

“Oh.” he dropped him. “Sorry.”

Wind started to laugh, choking out “The Captain did the same thing when we met!”

Sky came swooping down, panic written on his face. “What’s wrong with Wind?!”

“Nothing! Twi’s being a worrywart!”

“He drank ocean water and I forgot that seagulls can do that and panicked.”

The others had circled around them, drawn to the commotion. When they heard Twilight explain, they started to laugh too. Warriors patted his shoulder, saying “I did that too. Idiot gave me a heart attack.”

While at the house, the newly-dubbed Flora had been ecstatic.

The heroes of old were in her living room! she thought she might explode from happiness.

“Sooooooooo,” she said, stretching out the word, “Tell me about your times!!!!” she had abandoned pretense of calmness, all but shouting the words. 

Hyrule flinched back lightly, hiding behind Four. They patted his hand, smiling kindly at him with red eyes. 

“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you, I’m a researcher. Most of our records are far more recent than any from the eras of myth, and I would truly love to get firsthand accounts.”

Wild grabbed First’s hand, dragging it to Flora. “Here you go!” THey all stared at him a moment, before First smacked him in the head, saying “I have heard a lot of bad puns in my time, but that might be the worst one.”

Flora stared at them a moment, before the pun registered and she smacked his shoulder. “I agree, terrible pun. Try harder next time.”

He gasped, putting his hand over his heart. “Betrayed by my very own princess! Zel, how could you!” he leaned against her as he spoke, ending while looking up at her and fluttering his eyes. 

She shoved him off, grinning. “Gettof me, silly!”

The others started to giggle as they bantered, Hyrule coming out from where he was hiding behind Four. 

Zelda continued to ask questions, less intensely this time. She was especially enamored with the idea of living above the clouds, and kept circling to First, who was starting to look uncomfortable with the attention. 

Why did anyone think putting both of the shiest heroes in the same group was a good idea?

 As the sun started to set, Wild started to cook dinner. He was boiling a broth base as they spotted the heroes coming across the bridge. 

The heroes came back to the little house, Wind’s face was wet and they were all laughing at Twilight, for some reason. 

Wild was very interested in what happened. 

“Rulie, could you watch the soup for a second?”

“Sure.”

He went to go ask what had happened, only for heat to flare up behind him. He wheeled around, seeing the pot on fire. 

“How did you do this?!”

Hyrule looked baffled, staring at the pot without understanding. “I have no Idea.”

Wild started to throw dirt on the pot, sighing. “Alright, Hyrule is banned from cooking. Can somebody help me with this?”

Everyone started to laugh as Hyrule blushed beet-red. Wild stopped in the middle of throwing dirt on the pot, feeling a memory tug on the corners of his mind. 

“Wild? You okay?”

He didn’t answer, looking blankly into the pot, scorched broth bubbling up. 

“I ruined it!”

“Don’t worry darling, we can make more.”

“We can?”

“Yeah. My first time making soup I used apples instead of potatoes. It tasted so bad, a little burned broth is nothing.”

“How’d you use apples instead of potatoes?”

“I was being very silly.”

“I like being silly!”

“I do too. Love you, Link.”

“Love you too, mama!”

He broke out of his memory with a jolt. Everyone had been staring at him, concern written over most people’s faces. 

First reached out hesitantly. “Wild, are you alright?”

He moved to wipe the tears out of his eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry.”

“What happened,” Spirit asked. “Why’d you just freeze up like that? Rulie had to pull you back from the fire before you fell in.”

He sat down, sighing. “It’s a long story.”

Warriors sat down beside him. “We got time.”

“What do you need me for?”

Several people turned to glare at Time, who was grinning because of his terrible pun.

Wild snickered, before continuing. “I- uh, I have amnesia. When I go blank like that, I'm recovering a memory. Sorry for scaring you all.” his hand absently twirled a group of his feathers around, burned skin clear under the sleek black and white feathers. 

The chain looked at him for a moment, before jumping into another giant hug, this time with Wild in the center. 

Flora came out of the house to see a pile of dirt, burned broth and ice in the cookpot and Wild surrounded by heroes, in a very large group hug. 

She sighed fondly, and went to dump out the cookpot. 

In the morning, a familiar black void faced the heroes from the bridge to Hateno. Wild was disappointed he couldn’t introduce Four and Spirit to Purah, but they went through it anyway. 

The void opened to a neat little town square. Sky saw it and lit up in excitement. 

“This is my world! Oh goddesses, I forgot how pretty the town square looks in the morning! Cmon, my house is this way!”

And he dragged the group of heroes through the streets of Newtown.

Chapter Text

Sky darted through the streets while holding First and Time’s hands, the other trailing behind with bemused expressions. They pulled to a stop in front of a small house, Sky beamed as he opened the door, calling out, “Zelda! Are you here?”

There was a small shout from inside the house, and a girl ran up to Sky, slinging her arms around him. 

“You’re back! Oh, hello, Four. Who are all of you?” she gestured at the others in the room. 

They all waved and introduced themselves. First hung back, shyly introducing himself but making no further comment. Hyrule looked at him in concern, but he just waved him off. 

The newly-dubbed Sun seemed to notice too, but she seemed to realize something that the others didn’t and said nothing. Her gaze kept settling on First’s scarf, though. 

Wind was excited. Sky had said something about a giant floating city! He thought it would be cool to fly up there, until Sky told him that it was too high for them to fly on their own. He was disappointed, but interested to see how they would get up there instead. Sky whistled loudly, everybody gasping and covering their ears. 

A bird swooped down, landing next to Sky with a chirp. It was giant, and Wind suppressed a shudder as he looked at it. The bird jumped at Legend, who squeaked as he was suddenly covered by a snuggling horse-sized bird. He grumbled and tried to push it away, but it was relentless in its  attack, and neither Sun nor Sky seemed much inclined to help. 

Sun giggled, “It’s almost like he thinks you’re Link’s fledgling.”

For some reason, Legend went pale at that, and ducked away from the bird, pushing it back while whispering “Stop!”

The bird seemed to react to his panic, letting him go with a confused chirp. He walked up to Sky, still chirping confusedly. 

Sun narrowed her eyes, but she again said nothing, offering to take a few more heroes up so Sky didn’t have to take as many trips. 

Once on Skyloft, the heroes split up, everyone wanting to do different things. Sky wasn’t paying too much attention, he had a plan. 

“Hey, First. You know how you told me about riding the Crimson Loftwing?”

The older hero frowned slightly, turning to Sky with curiosity. “Yeah?”

“Do you want to go for a ride on Apple with me?”

His eyes shone brightly as he answered. “Yes.”

A few moments later, the duo were soaring through the clouds, Sky flying besides First and Apple as they soared through the sky. 

First leaned his head back as the wind whipped around him, catching his hair in the way only flying could. It was nice to be truly flying again. He still remembered when Crimson had taken him for one last flight around The Land Of Hylia, before the battle with Demise. He hadn’t understood why the First Loftwing had changed his mind about him so abruptly, but now he did. The Loftwing God thought he was going to die in that fight. 

First ran his hands through Apple’s feathers as he let himself get pulled into the memory. 

“Then you intend to fight the Demon God tomorrow?”

“What other choice do I have?  Let him destroy all I hold dear?” 

Crimson sighed, ruffling his feathers as he turned to look at Link. “Fledgeling, your wings are still in bandages. We don’t even know if you’ll be able to fly again.”

“Well, that’s an easy question to answer,” Link muttered, bitterness coating his tongue. “They're not going to. Crimson, I know my wings are special, but I won’t be able to use them ever again.”

The giant bird sighed. “You Hylians are so pessimistic sometimes. If you are so insistent on this, then very well. I cannot stop you.”

Link sighed, leaning up against the bird. “Aw, Crimson I didn’t mean it like that. I know there’s a chance, but…”

“You don’t want to dare to hope. I understand. Fledgeling, did you know I made the wings you wear?”

Link’s eyes widened as he jumped up from where he was leaning against Crimson, wheeling around to face him. “What?!”

The Loftwing God chuckled. “Who would they ask to make a pair of wings other than the God of Flight? Link, use your common sense, I know you have it in there somewhere.”

Link felt his heart drop into his stomach. “I- I-m sorry I couldn’t protect such a precious gift, Crimson, I-”

He was cut off as the bird snapped at him, suddenly darting up. “Link Firley, Don't you dare apologize for being tortured, goddesses. Fledgling, you can’t take the blame for everything, alright?”

“I- I’ll try. Why do you say goddesses if you’re a god?”

“Sometimes, you need a swear word. If that swear word happens to be the name of your third cousin, so be it.”

Link started to giggle, his ribs protesting slightly. “Crimson, why?”

He smiled at him, if Loftwings could smile. “Hop on, Fledgeling.”

“Wait, now? Where are we going?”

“All over. If this all goes south, I won’t be here to take you on flights anymore.”

He sighed, climbing onto the bird gingerly. “If this goes wrong, None of us will be here at all. Alright. Lead the way, Crimson.”

They took off, leaving a few red and brown feathers floating to the ground behind them.

First shook himself out of the memory, stroking Apple’s feathers. The Loftwing preened in response, chirping happily as he sped up the slightest bit. 

“Hey, Apple.”

The bird snapped to attention as Sky looked on from where he was flying beside the duo. He chirped in question.

“Be ready to catch me.” He jumped off, letting himself feel weightless for a few seconds. Sky started to panic, diving down to catch him, but First opened the paraglider before he could. 

Apple swooped under him, catching him as Sky darted next to him, panting heavily. “FIRST!”

The older hero just laughed, half from humor and half from adrenaline. “What?”

“I— Was— Panicking— So— Hard—” He panted in between breaths. 

“Sorry,” he said, not sounding very sorry. 

Sky sighed, fluffing Apple’s feathers as the trio came back over Skyloft. “And here I thought you had self preservation skills.”

First laughed at him. “You did?! What kind of sanitized version of my story have you been reading? I was charging the God Of Hatred with broken wings, a magic sword and a prayer.”

Sky sighed. “Why- You know what? I don’t want to know.”

“You don’t.”

Chapter Text

Meanwhile on Skyloft, the others were having fun. Sun had pulled Legend aside to talk, and Hyrule had followed them. Spirit, Wild and Four had gone to explore the shops, and Twilight and Wind had become entranced by the remlits. Warriors and Time had found themselves trapped in a conversation with a very loud man. 

Sun led Legend over to a small house, Hyrule close behind. She closed the door, turning to them. “Legend, do you want Hy-”

“He knows.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You know what I’m talking about?”

He frowned, looking away. “...I have my suspicions.”

“Your suspicions that…?”

“You were going to ask me about why Apple was treating me like I was Sky’s kid.”

She puffed out a breath. “Yes, I was. Then, you know why?”

He sighed, sitting down. “Yeah. It’s cause I am, kind of. He’s more like my distant ancestor, but the blood relationship is still there.”

She smiled. “Nice to know I wouldn’t have to break it to you. Why did you panic when Apple recognized you?”

“Because I don’t want anyone to know. I like not having people treat me like-wait. The monarchy hasn’t formed yet, you don’t know!” His eyes widened to the size of saucers as he spoke.

“Know what?”

Hyrules eyes went wide as Legend’s did, and Legend started to snicker as Hyrule floundered. 

“Mi-Miss Sun, you're kind of important in the future.”

“How so?”

Legend paused in his snickering to choke out “Try starting the royal family kind of important.”

Her eyes went wide as well. “Royal family? Link and I started…?” Her face went bright red. “Oh goddesses.”

Legend started to laugh even more, and Hyrule broke out into embarrassed giggles. “Prince Link Arlen Hyrule, at your service.” He gave a mock bow as he finished. 

Sun’s face was bright red. Hyrule wouldn’t stop giggling. Abruptly, Sun got up and scooped Legend into a hug. 

“Uh…”

“Shut up and let me hug my grandson.”

Wild sighed loudly as Four and Spirit bickered. Again. This was getting old. 

“You are an IDIOT for thinking that MAGIC could ever REPLACE such a common resource-”

“WHAT PART OF ‘BAD FOR AIR QUALITY’ DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND, DIPSHIT?!”

Wild groaned and dug his fingers further into his ears. He loved his brothers, but this was really annoying. 

“Whosa good beastie? Isist you? Isit you? Oh, it’s you, Isn’t it? Isn't it!” Twilight and Wind were covered in remlits, giggling. Wind flipped one's ears back, giggling to himself as they flipped back. 

Several of them snuggled into the duo, burning themselves into the heroes. 

“I can’t adventure anymore. I live here now.” 

“Same.”

(First would find them later, asleep under a blanket of remlits)

“And So I shot Link onto the weird black blob with my Groosinator,” A very enthusiastic man was saying to a very amused Time and Warriors. 

“Groosinator?”

“It’s a machine I can shoot bombflowers out of! I made it myself!”

“I used one during the war, remember?”

“The catapult?”

“The Groosinator.”

“But it’s a catapult?”

“No. It’s a Groosinator.”

“Alright…”

Sky and First touched down on Skyloft, Sky leading Apple to the stable while First went to go find the others. He saw Wild with his head in his hands as Spirit and Four argued, and expertly decided to not get involved. 

He rounded up the others, taking them to the Academy, where Sky said to meet up. Sky met them there, and Sun shot him a ‘Need to tell you something’ look, which everyone expertly ignored. 

Wild offered to cook again, but was quickly shut down by the academy cook, Henya. Accepting bowls of pumpkin soup, the heroes sat down in the mess hall to talk, Sun and Groose joining them. 

“Did you like your Remlit nap, you two?”

The Skyloft residents snapped their attention to the duo First was asking, laughing as they turned bright red. 

“...They’re so soft…” Twilight muttered.

“They also attack at night, be grateful I woke you up.”

Twilight and Wind’s eyes widened at his words. “Now I am, thanks First.”

The others were laughing at them, Time ruffling Twilight’s hair while telling the others “I doubt he’d even be phased, Twilight once befriended a wolf.” Mischief sparkled in his eyes as Twilight started to glare at him. 

The room erupted into chaos, Time and Wild laughing at the others.

“You WHAT?!”

“What’s its name?”

“Did you train it?”

“Will we get to see it?”

“That’s so cool…”

Twilight turned to Time and Wild for help, who just laughed at him more. 

“Befriended a Wolf. His name is Wolfie. Technically, I did train him, but I don’t think it counts. Probably, he comes and goes.”

“What’s a wolf?”

Everyone turned to stare at Sky and Wind. 

“...You don’t know what wolves are?”

Wind shook his head as Sky said “We’ve only started repopulating the surface.”

“I live on the sea! I don’t have islands with wolves anywhere!”

Twilight and Wild started explaining the concept of wolves to the entranced duo. 

The next morning, Legend woke up to see another portal in his room. 

“Motherfucker.”

Sighing, he went to round up his brothers. 

As they exited the portal, Sky tripped through, landing on a pile of rocks, which unfortunately woke him up. He attempted to fall asleep on them regardless, only for Four to haul him off. 

“...This is my world.” Legend muttered. “Follow me, I know where to go.”

Chapter Text

Ravio was worried. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his Mister Hero, he was obviously capable of taking on any sort of threat, but he had a bad feeling. He absently ran a hand through his wings, wincing as he accidentally pulled out a feather. The kid that had appeared set off all kinds of alarms in his head, he reminded Ravio of how he was before coming to Hyrule. 

If that kid was anything like him, Ravio was worried for the state of the poor kids' world. Lorule was doing a lot better, so unless someone there had done something really stupid to the triforce again, it was doubtful that Hyrule was from Lorule. Especially considering his moniker was Hero Of Hyrule. Did that mean that Hyrule was a wasteland in the future? Ravio hoped that wasn’t the case, but it was becoming more and more likely as he thought about it. 

He couldn’t stop himself from worrying about the duo as he pulled apples off of the trees in the orchard. As he was pulling the last few off the branches, he saw a blur on the road, a few minutes away from the house. Squinting, he could just about see a group of travelers approaching the shop. He dropped the last few apples into the basket on the ground, heading up to see the new arrivals. 

It was Link and the kid! There were more people too, solidifying the knowledge that it was a quest. He ran up to the group, throwing his arms around his husband, shouting “Mr Hero! You’re back!”

Legend accepted the jumping merchant into his arms seamlessly, pivoting them both so they wouldn’t fall over. “...Hi, Ravio.”

“Ravio?”

He looked over to see… The Captain and Wind? 

“Mr Captain Hero, what are you doing here? This is a long time ago for you. And Mr. Wind hero, I think this is a whole other timeline for you. What are you two doing here?”

“Hiya Ravio, we’re time traveling… I think, We’re going through these weird portals and we’re collecting heroes for something big but we don’t know what it is yet but I think it has something to do with monsters with black blood which we’ve been MMPH-”

He was cut off by a tall Hylian in gleaming armor and… face tattoos that looked like the Fierce Deity? Ravio looked at the stranger's strange appearance, noticing he had the exact same kind of wings as Mask. Weird. 

“You get yourself into the weirdest situations, Mr Hero.”

He sighed, reluctantly sliding out of Legend’s arms. “Well, no use standing around in the front gate. I just finished with the apples for today, so I don’t have anything to do. Unless somebody wants to buy something?” He wiggled his eyebrows as he finished the sentence, Legend sighing as he did. 

“Ravio, please do not scam my bro-traveling companions. Please do not scam my traveling companions.”

He gasped melodramatically, placing one hand to his heart as he grabbed the basket of apples with the other, skillfully ignoring his husband's slipup. “How could you say something so cruel to me! Tragedy! Blasphemy! I want a divorce!”

Legend rolled his eyes, accepting the basket of apples from his overdramatic husband. “Yeah, yeah. I Humbly apologize for hurting your feelings, Ravio.”

“Well, I Humbly Accept, dearest Link.”

“Shut up.”

“No thanks, I like annoying you too much.”

They continued to bicker all the while going back to the house, the heroes looking on in amusement. Wind made a remark about how they acted like a married couple, to which Legend glared at him, saying "It's because we are, dipshit." 

As they were getting ready for bed, Wind had an idea. “Hey, we should make another cuddle pile!”

Ravio looked over from where he was convincing the other heroes he wasn't going to join them on the quest, despite also having wings. “Cuddle pile?”

“Yeah! We've been pinning together our bedrolls and making a giant mat to sleep on and it's super comfy!”

Ravio laughed as Legend turned bright red. “That's adorable, Bunny. Do you want to sleep in the cuddle pile or upstairs with me?”

Legend groaned. “Why do I have to choose?”

“You don't have to, Ravio can join the cuddles too,” Wind said. “If that's ok with everyone?”

There was a general round of agreement from the heroes. They got their bedrolls out again, 

“Mr. Captain hero, where’s yours?”

 “Covered in glitter.”

 “I have an item to help with that-”

“Ravio no,”

“RAVIO YES!”

And set up the giant pile of bedrolls. 

There was no watch tonight, it being Legend’s house, relatively safe from monsters. Ravio had found a few extra bedrolls and soft blankets in the basement, and they added them to the cuddle pile. Somehow, it looked even more cozy than last time, with the entire chain and Ravio all there. 

They were all tired enough that it was easy to fall asleep. Sky and First had once again become the center of the pile, Sky holding his predecessor in an octopus hug. Wind and Four were leaning up against them, feet on Twilight. He was up next to Time, who had Wild laying on top of him. Legend and Ravio were holding each other, with Hyrule in the middle. Connecting them to the main cluster was Warriors, whose arm had been stolen as a pillow for Legend. He was being used as a pillow for Twilight as well, and he rued the loss of his arms. 

It was worth it though. 

Chapter Text

Wild came back into consciousness slowly. Extracting himself from the tangle of limbs, he slipped into the kitchen, flipping through his slate. He had just started to pull out the materials for breakfast when he noticed he wasn't alone. 

“Hiya there, Mr. Wild hero, whatcha doing?” Wild startled as he noticed Ravio was already in the room. He jumped back, tripping over himself and landing on his back. 

“Oh dear, are you alright? Here, let me help,” Ravio said, helping Wild up. “I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s alright,” Wild muttered, waving his hand. “I should've been paying better attention. I was trying to make breakfast, and got a little distracted.”

“You don’t need to make breakfast,” Ravio protested, “You’re a guest!” 

Wild seemed confused by that. “But I like making everyone breakfast?”

Ravio sighed. “Do you want to help make apple fritters?”

He agreed, and they spent the rest of the early morning baking. When they were done, Wild somehow had flour all over his hair and hands. Ravio had never felt so exasperated. 

“Mmph, is sho good,” Wind mumbled, “tanks Wil n Raio”

“Chew with your mouth closed,” Warriors corrected, passing Wind a napkin.

“Fuh yu”

There was a small knock on the door, before the door opened, a girl entering the room. 

“Hello Ravio, I’m her- Link? You’re back already?”

Legend had started to glare at the stranger, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms. “Zelda, what are you doing here?”

“I don’t only come here every month for you, you know? Seriously, you could've at least let me know you were going on another quest! Speaking of, are you done or just taking a break here?”

“...Not done. Do you know about any weirdly strong monsters with black blood appearing recently?”

She hummed in thought, grabbing a pastry off the table and, inexplicably, sitting on the table near where Legend was sitting. Expertly ignoring the heroes staring at her, she answered; “There’ve been rumors about a horde of superstrong monsters near Kakariko, no idea about the color of their blood though. Link, will you please introduce me to your new friends?”

The hero in question sighed, turning to face the heroes. Reluctantly, he announced; “Everyone, this is Zelda. Zelda, these idiots are the heroes of the past and future.”

She seemed a little shocked at that, but recovered fairly quickly, introducing herself. “It’s nice to meet you, heroes. May I have your names?”

Legend started to snicker. “Well, there’s Link, Link, Link, Link, Can’t forget about Link, Link, Link. Link and last but not least, Link.”

Warriors rolled his eyes. “We’re all named Link, so we use nicknames. Mine is Warriors, milady.”

She turned to raise an eyebrow at Legend, who was gesturing something along the lines of ‘go along with it’

“...Alright then.” She took a bite of the pastry in her hand. “Oh! This is really good!”

The heroes had set off to investigate the monsters near Kakariko, Ravio and Fable wishing them good luck. There were a surprising amount of monsters along the roads, which made many of the older members of the Chain concerned. The trip was a lot shorter than the others expected it to be, but Wind and Spirit kept complaining. 

At the village, they set off to investigate the rumors, Legend glaring at one person near the edge of the village. Said person bolted into their house when they caught sight of the heroes. Legend flipped them off before turning to ask around. 

The rumors seemed to point to the monsters coming from the Lost Woods, so the heroes set out to try and catch them. As they were sneaking up on them, Legend held his hand up to block the others. “Wait. I have a plan.” He grabbed a bottle out of his pocket and opened it, a whitish-yellow blob flying out and attacking the monsters, doing a pretty good job for a bee. After the fifth time it stung a monster in the eye, Legend jumped out, the others following. 

They finished off the monsters fairly quickly. Only around half of them bled black, the others bleeding the standard red as they collapsed. Once they were done, the bee came flying up to Legend. Several of the heroes raced to stop it, but it started to float around his head, not doing any damage. Legend pulled out a net, and ever-so-carefully put the bee back into the bottle. 

“Uh, Legend?”

He turned and glared at the offending hero. “What is it, Wind?”

“Why did you have a bee in your pocket?”

He pulled the bottle out again and glared at Wind. “His name is the Good Bee and he is my best friend.”

“...Okay then.”

Hyrule looked crushed. “I’m not your best friend?”

“Of course not, idiot, if you were my best friend you couldn’t be my brother!”

Hyrule seemed to tear up at that, locking Legend in a death-grip of a hug. He flailed around for a bit, before accepting his fate.

“Yeah, love you too. Can you let go of me? We need to go tell Zelda we fixed it.”

“Warriors can do it.”

Said hero chuckled. “Sure I can, Enjoy your hug.”

“Fuck you, Captian Glitter.”

“Take that back, asshole! Just for that, I’m not helping you after I get back. Good luck.”

He left the clearing, ignoring Legend’s shout of “You don’t even know where you’re going, dumbass!”

Legend sighed, giving up hope of being released anytime soon. 

The other heroes were watching with various levels of amusement while treating small injuries. First had sat Sky down, who had twisted his ankle while fighting a moblin. Wind and Spirit had gotten off with only a few scrapes, along with Time. Twilight had somehow gotten bitten by an unidentifiable monster, baffling Four, who was trying to bandage the wound while ignoring the gash on his arm. Wild eventually took over for Four, telling them to bandage their wound or he would stop making food for them.

Warriors came back as they were finishing. Hyrule had not let go of Legend yet. 

Sky was trying to persuade Hyrule to let Legend go all the while walking back. The mattress from last night was still set up, so they all fell into a pile again to sleep. 

It looked incredibly comfortable.

Chapter Text

Legend had a mission. Searching through his bookshelves, he briefly wondered if he should get anyone else’s help in finding the books he needed. Hyrule would probably help him.

“Hey Rulie, help me out over here?” 

The Hylian in question came into the room, sticky notes all over him. “What is it, Legend?”

“Will you help me look for books on the Dark World?”

He blinked in surprise. “Sure, but wouldn’t you know where to find them better than me?”

“Ravio reorganizes everything so often I gave up.”

“Oh, alright.” He started to climb the other ladder in the mini-library, peeling a few sticky notes off of himself. “What do you need Dark World books for?”

“Four.”

“Uhuh, and what does Four need them for?”

“ Not sure it’s my place to say. Why are you covered in sticky notes?”

He groaned, leaning on the ladder. “Wild was bored.”

They combed through the books, pulling out anything on the Dark World. Even the slightest mention got tossed onto the table. First came in once to see what they were doing, and got hit in the face with a dictionary. The others left them alone after that. 

Eventually, Ravio was called in to handle the furiously searching duo. He cautiously poked his head into the room, bracing to get hit with a book. When none came, he entered the room. “Are you two alright?”

Legend swiveled around to see where the noise had come from. “Huh- Ravio? Yeah, we're fine, why?”

“You, uh,” He winced. “You’ve been in here for a few hours now, is something wrong?”

“No, just looking for—watch your head—Looking for books on the Dark World.”

Ravio ducked to avoid the flying book, grabbing it before it hit the ground and setting it calmly on the table. “Why?”

“Long story. You’re just here to check up on us?”

“Yeah?”

“Okay, consider us checked up on.” He jumped off of the ladder, pressed a kiss to his husband's

 cheek and climbed back up. 

“Alright then. Don’t burn the house down, Bunny. I’ll call you for dinner, love you!”

“Love you too!”

“You two are adorable.” Both jumped, having forgotten that Hyrule was there as well.

Four did not have a mission. In fact, they were perfectly content to wallow in solitude the entire day. Their brother had other plans, however. 

The door creaked open, letting in a bit of light from the rest of the house. “Hey, Four? You okay?”

 They turned away from the door with a half-mumbled “No.”

“Can I come in?”

“...Fine.”

The door opened all the way, before closing and leaving the room in darkness again. Four was vaguely aware of someone sitting next to them, but for the life of them they couldn’t tell who with how dark it was.

“What’s wrong?”

“I- It’s stupid.”

Someone was wrapping his arms around them. “Not stupid if you’re bothered by it.”

“I-” They sniffed, eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “Today’s the day I lost- somebody important to me.”

“Four, that’s not stupid at all. Why would you think that?”

“I just-” they rubbed their hand across their face furiously. “I lost him and it’s all my fault and he didn’t even think he could ever be a hero even though he was more of a hero than me in the end! And I miss him and I want to yell at him and I want to bury my head in his stupid feathers and yell at him till he stops being so self-sacrificial!”

They were sobbing, tears streaming down their face as they shouted. “I love him so much, but I'm probably never going to get to tell him that.”

They had started clutching the other hero like a lifeline, probably getting his shirt wet. He brushed his hand over their hair, softly shushing as they sobbed into their chest. “Hey, it’s alright, it’s alright. Cmon, it’s okay, it’s okay.”

Sky softly shifted them so they could lean up against him. 

“I-” They sniffed, wiping tears away. “Thanks, Sky.”

"You're welcome, Four."

“Hey, how did everyone get their wings anyway? I thought they were a gift from the heavens, a sign that the goddesses chose you as their warrior. But you all seem to know them as a different indicator, so what do they mean to you?”

Warriors turned to look at First. He inwardly facepalmed as he remembered.

 ‘First doesn’t have the context of the Cycle or the Hero's Spirit or anything like that. No wonder he’s confused!’

“Well,” He said, unsure of how to explain, “To us, wings are the claim of Hylia. They kind of- mark us as Her hero? They appear on someone with the Hero’s Spirit; which is like… Wow, I’ve never had to explain the Hero’s Spirit before, it’s like a divine guarantee that someone will always rise to stop any evildoers that want to take over Hyrule or something? I’m not sure, but wings appear when someone with the Hero’s Spirit accepts the responsibility of being a hero. For me, that was when I saw my first battle. I think that’s when it sunk in that I was responsible for everyone there, and I started to glow, and then I had wings. It was kind of a shock, if I'm being honest.”

Wind, who was listening in to this conversation, popped in when Warriors was finished. “Mine was when Aryll got kidnapped, I just felt the all-encompassing need to save her, and suddenly I was wrapped in golden light and was part-seagull. My era lost our records, too, so I had NO IDEA what was happening, I just gained wings for no reason whatsoever.”

First started to snicker. “That must have been a shock. I was confused enough as is when I received mine, I can’t imagine not knowing what was going on.”

“Yeah, I thought I was dying or something. It was crazy…” He turned over to where the others were talking. “Hey guys! When’dja get your wings?”

Twilight answered first, saying “When my siblings got kidnapped, I knew I had to do something, so I went to rescue them, and then suddenly I was glowing. Didn’t have time to process for very long, considering I got kidnapped myself a few hours later. It was an eventful day to be sure.”

“Kidnapped? Twilight, what the fuck?”

“I didn’t exactly plan on it, yaknow,”

“WELL,” Spirit interrupted, “Mine was when Zelda- my Zelda gave me the Spirit Flute and asked me to take her to the Tower Of Spirits to figure out why the Spirit Tracks disappeared. It was when I realized I actually had a responsibility to fix things. What about you, Wild?”

The hero in question froze up. “I, uh, technically, I got them twice.”

Everyone started to stare at him. “...What do you mean, you’ve gotten your wings twice?”

“Uh, so you remember I have amnesia, right? And I guess that losing memories makes it so the realization of being a hero doesn’t affect me, so I couldn’t fly for a while. It’s part of why I had the paraglider.”

He leaned up against Twilight as he continued. “I remember both times now, but I’ve always felt kinda detached from the first one, well I guess not always but you know what I mean. Anyways, I regained them while rescuing Zora’s Domain. I was in the middle of fighting Vah Ruta, I got flung into the air, and suddenly I was glowing. Scared my friend half to death, too.”

“Oh goddesses, that happened to me too. Orville thought I was just going to pray, and I came back with new limbs. It was not fun to explain.”

Twilight laughed. “Oh, tell me about it! Imagine explaining to your siblings that ‘yes, you have wings now, no, you’re still the same person, it was kind of funny.”

“I had to do exactly that,” Time interjected. “My journey technically never happened either, so it was really not fun to explain.”

Upon hearing that, everyone started to question Time, badgering him relentlessly about what he meant. Time refused to answer any questions, much to everyone’s fury. 

Chapter Text

They stayed at Legend’s house for a few more days. Eventually, though, they received a message from Fable asking them to meet her at the castle. They made it there with little issue, Legend stopping to introduce them to a bird that had shown him how to fly. Nobody knew how the bird was self-aware enough to teach him to fly, but everyone was familiar enough with Legend’s weird relationship with animals by now to just ignore it. 

Time went pale when Legend summoned the bird, though, Wind and Warriors shooting him sympathetic looks. 

They approached the castle, entering through a backdoor for some reason. Hyrule and Sky gave each other a look when Legend took them to the entrance, but neither said anything. 

Approaching the throne room, they were stopped by the guards. 

“Halt! State your-oh, nevermind. Go right ahead, your-”

“YES thank you we’ll be going now,”

Legend pulled his brothers through the doors as fast as he could. Coming up to the middle of the room, Fable spotted them approaching and hopped off of her throne, running up to Legend with a grin. “You’re finally here! about time, come on.”

She grabbed his wrist, dragging him through the halls until they came up to a small room. It was unremarkable, aside from the several guards posted near the door. 

At least, until they opened the door to find another portal in the middle of the room. It looked larger than normal, the pitch black swirls seeming to suck the life out of the air around them. 

“...That’s weird, they’ve mostly appeared near us.”

“You've told me so. That’s why I’m worried.”

Four looked up from where they were flipping through a book. “Could this portal have a different target than the ones we’ve seen?”

Legend hummed in thought.“Could be. I can’t think of another explanation for why this one behaves differently than the others. Zel, has anything come out of it?”

“Not that we know of.”

“Whelp,” Wind said abruptly, “One way to find out!” And he jumped through the portal, several people attempting to stop him. Except, while trying to stop him, Warriors ended up tripping Twilight, who crashed into Four and sent Hyrule tumbling into the portal. Time loudly facepalmed as Sky ran after him, First close behind. Four sighed and closed their book, placing it into their bag as they followed. The others looked at each other, shrugged and went through the portal as well. Only Legend and Time were left in the room, Fable and Legend snickering loudly, Time just sighing to himself. 

“I guess that means we’re going through the portal?”

“Sh- su re” Legend could barely get the word out in between his laughs. “Goddesses, I cannot believe that happened. They just fell like a bunch of Hylian dominoes!” 

Time sighed louder. “Is this my punishment for being a gremlin when I was younger?”

The portal opened up into a wasteland. Death was everywhere, dead trees and murky rivers. There wasn’t a living creature besides the heroes that had come through the portal. 

“Oh no,” Hyrule said, looking around in dawning horror. “This is my world.”

The others started to look at Hyrule, sympathy growing as they took in the ruined world. 

“Your world, your rules, Rulie. What’s the plan?” Legend was glaring at the other heroes as he said it, willing them to back off.

That seemed to snap him out of his dase looking around quickly. “Right, yes. So, we should focus on getting to somewhere safer, being out,uh out in the open is just painting a target on our backs. Uh, the closest safe point is the Secret Cave up ahead. We,uh, we should probably go there.”

Time nodded along to his stuttering. “Alright. Lead the way.”

They trudged along beaten-down roads, stopping to fight off monsters every few paces. It worried the older members, but they kept it to themselves. 

They approached an inconspicuous patch of wall, only for Hyrule to walk straight into it, passing through effortlessly. After a moment's hesitation, the others followed. 

They came into a small cave, nothing much inside of it, besides a pair of torches. There was a note on the side of one that said ‘I’m out for now, be back soon. It’s a secret to everyone.’

Hyrule giggled at the note, motioning for the others to sit down. They did, and set to bandaging small scrapes from their trek through the woods. Hyrule set to healing the worse ones, flitting around not unlike a fairy. As soon as Legend made the connection, he realized how much sense it made. 

Sweet tooth, healing, tiny, weird about names, it all lined up.

Hyrule was part fairy. 

Now how the fuck was Legend supposed to bring it up?

Chapter Text

Hyrule was anxious. His world wasn’t much to look at, especially compared to the other’s beautiful lush green kingdoms. His home was dirt and fear and blood. He felt unworthy to even be in the presence of heroes, real heroes, but they had taken one look at him and accepted him into their weird, wonderful, confusing family. 

He had never had a family before. It felt nice. 

But something was up with Legend. He was acting oddly around Hyrule. Did he do something wrong? Maybe he had just gotten tired of him. No, Legend wouldn’t do something like that. 

He stewed in his thoughts for the majority of the night, until Legend approached him. “Rulie? You busy?”

Legend was anxious. 

Frankly, he had no idea whatsoever how to broach the topic of Hyrule’s fae blood. He considered keeping it to himself, but that wouldn’t be fair to Hyrule. 

He drummed his hands on his side, thinking about how to approach the topic. Eventually, he decided that it was better to just rip the bandage off. Standing up, he approached Hyrule. 

“Rulie? You busy?” He looked up from where he was staring at the wall. “Huh? Oh, no, I'm not. Why?”

“I, uh…” He fumbled with his words for a moment, eventually deciding to get it over with. “Rulie, are you part fae?”

Hyrule froze. “Wha- what?” His face had gone very pale, and his heart started to beat furiously in his chest. “Wha- why, uh why would you think that?” He asked, voice ending in a squeak. 

Well, if Legend had any doubt about Hyrule’s fae heritage, it was gone now. He took his brother’s hands in his own. “I figured it out earlier tonight, figured you deserved to know that I knew.”

Hyrule felt his heart stop. “You- you did?”

“T’s not right to keep you in the dark about this, it’s your secret. I won’t say anything if you don’t want me to.”

“You- what?” He was shocked out of his panic. “You won’t?”

“Duh. It’s your secret, Rulie. Not mine.”

“I- Thanks. Legend.”

He reached out, ruffling his hair. Hyrule squawked, jumping away. “Hey! Rude!”

Legend snickered at his brother’s misfortune, jumping after him. “Sorry, Rulie, your hair is just so ruffleable!”

He squawked, dodging Legend's outstretched hands. Wrapping the familiar blanket of magic around him,  he shrank down to the size of a fairy. He ducked under Legend’s hand, landing on the nearby table. 

Legend stared at him for a moment, not quite comprehending what had just happened. Snapping himself out of it, he crouched down, marveling at Hyrule’s new appearance. Hyrule shifted in place, a little uncomfortable with the attention. “Holy shit, Rulie, that’s so cool.”

Red rose to his face, wings instinctually coming up to hide him, but he ended up throwing himself backwards. He sat up, giggling to himself. “Whoops. Always forget how much lighter these wings are compared to my other ones.”

His wings were different from his normal ones, gossamer replacing his feathers. They still looked rather birdlike, shaped like his normal wings and colored the same,  but there was a definitive difference, as they seemed translucent, shimmering in the light. 

He accepted Legend’s hand up, leaning on it slightly. “Thanks, Ledge. I- Please don’t tell the others about this. Not yet.”

The hero nodded solemnly. “Of course, Rulie. Wouldn’t have told them regardless.”

“...Thanks.”

Chapter Text

Their stay in Hyrule’s world was brief, a portal opening a day after they arrived. Hyrule was a little disappointed he couldn’t introduce the others to his Zelda’s (Because he had 2, for some reason,) But they continued onward through the portal anyway. 

It opened up into an empty looking platform, seeming to float above the clouds. There wasn’t much on it besides a few scattered trees and a makeshift-looking rope and wood bridge connecting it to a few larger chunks of earth nearby. First looked around, lighting up. 

“This is my world! Actually, this is really close to my house, follow me.”

Four gave a shaky thumbs up from where they were lying down on the ground, clutching their head. Hyrule walked over, wrapping a blanket of glowing pink energy over them. 

First started to climb over the bridge, gesturing for the others to follow him. They climbed across the bridge slowly, half because First was leading them and half because they didn’t want to tip it over. 

After one particularly shaky wobble, Wind nearly tripped off of the bridge. 

“Wait,” he realized, “Why are we all climbing across the bridge?” He ran across the bridge’s back end, lifting up into the air and flying back towards the group. Several facepalms could be heard as about half of the group joined him in the air. 

First wouldn’t stop snickering as they crossed the bridges.

They came up to a small cottage, a few floating islands away from the portal. It was a quaint little place, buried in trees. There were quite a few bridges connecting it to various islands, some wooden, some rope and some a combination. It smelled slightly of woodsmoke, and there was a small sign at the front of the house. On it was a half-rushed scrawl of ‘Orville and Link’s house.’

First burst through the door, slamming the door open. The person sitting on the sofa inside jumped up, wheeling around to face the door. His face quickly turned from defensiveness to shock, then to excitement as he caught sight of First. 

He leaped at him, jumping into outstretched arms with a happy shout. “You’re back!” He squished his hands against First’s cheeks. “Where have you been?! No seriously, how the fuck did you vanish like that.”

First chuckled, gently pulling the hands off of his face. “Portals. Something or someone’s been sending me careening through time, along with a few others.” He gestured to the heroes outside of the door. “Everyone, this is Orville. Orville, these are the Heroes of the future.”

A few people shyly waved as Orville stared at them. “Link, darling, what the fuck?”

Wind was bored. There was nothing to do on the little sky island. He ran his fingers through the tall grass, lying in the dirt. The sky was clear, really clear. There wasn’t anything around the air, not even clouds.

He gasped, a realization coming to him. 

He jumped up, running over to where Time and Twilight were talking, waving his hands frantically. “GUYS! Guys guys guys guys guys guys!” They turned to face him, smiling bemusedly. 

“What’s up, squirt?” Twilight ruffled his hair, laughing as he squawked. 

“Ugh, you’re annoying. I just had the greatest idea ever! The skies are super clear here, so let’s race!” 

Time hummed in thought, looking up at the cloudless sky. “It’s not a bad idea. Dyou think the other’s will be interested?”

Wind grinned. “Only one way to find out!”

First stood on the edge of a small chunk of island, so small it hadn’t been connected by the bridges. Twilight had been nice enough to carry him up, as it was too high to reach with the paraglider. If he squinted, he could just about see the chunk of rock his house was on. He pulled out the fire rod Wild had let him borrow, casting a wave of fire into the air. “Start!”

On the larger island, the other heroes had caught sight of the wave of fire. They dashed off, tripping each other in the air. 

Legend dashed in front of the others, flippin Warriors off as he darted ahead. Warriors squawked, shoving Legend out of the way as he passed him again. 

Four darted ahead, his eyes reflecting the sky as he raced onward, gaining momentum quickly but losing it just as fast. Time passed him effortlessly, waving at him snarkily before carrying on. 

Twilight and Spirit weren’t taking the race too seriously, shoving each other around as they flew. 

Sky and Wind were in the same boat, with the low stamina they both had. They ended up in the back despite their best efforts. They locked eyes, making an unspoken agreement that whoever ended up dead-last lost. 

Hyrule sped up, passing Time, then Warriors, then he was neck-and neck with Legend. It seemed like either of them could win, when Wild came dashing through, landing on the small island before either had realized what had happened. 

Wild started to snicker as the others started yelling at him. 

In the background, First watched as Wind touched down just before Sky, to the older hero's disappointment.

Chapter Text

They made their way back to First’s house, joking and laughing and shoving each other around. Legend and Warriors were the most put-out by losing, and kept shooting Wild dirty looks. Unconcerned, he continued to talk with Four, telling a dumb story about throwing his sword at a Moblin. 

Four was looking at him, betrayal coating their features along with growing horror as Wild continued his tale. 

Deigning to ignore that, he looked over at Time, who was insincerely comforting Warriors, and Hyrule, who was sincerely comforting Legend. 

He smiled to himself as Legend allowed himself to be hugged by an overenthusiastic Hyrule, patting his head with a reluctant smile. Legend may pretend to be a prickly hardass, but Twilight had too much experience with little brothers to buy into it. 

Wind and Spirit were playing hacky-sack with an apple, stakes higher with the fact that they were still flying. Spirit kicked the apple at Time by accident, the older hero neatly catching it and throwing it back to the duo, not stopping talking to (teasing) Warriors. 

Sky and First were laughing at Four’s face, which had turned a paleish white as Wild continued in his weapon-wrecking tale. 

“And the Moblin had a sick bat, so I threw my sword at it and grabbed the bat, swinging it at it’s head,”

“Wild, I am begging you to stop. Please. My heart can’t take much more of this.”

“And i tried to pick up my sword, but the Moblin had already grabbed it…”

Twilight snickered to himself as Four let out the most defeated sigh he had ever heard. 

They landed along the lawn of clover that First’s house rested on. Orville was outside, reading the same book he was reading earlier. He looked up, noting the heroes were coming back. 

“Who won?”

“Wild, just barely.” First snickered. “The runners-up are pretty bitter about it.”

Legend glared at him. “For good reason! Moron came out of nowhere, who does he think he is…” He trailed off, grumbling to himself. 

Orville snickered, patting First’s hair with a grin. “Sounds like you all had fun.”

First answered with a grin of his own. “We did. Hey, help me set up the fire?” 

“Sure.” He stood up, putting a bookmark in his book and heading over to the woodpile, while First started stacking stones for a firepit. 

The moon was high in the sky, stars twinkling along with the campfire’s crackling. The cozy glow reflected off of their faces, and the air smelled of woodsmoke. Orville was leaning against First, nearly asleep while First was using his wings as a blanket for both of them. Nobody commented on the way that both Wind and Wild were furiously taking pictures. 

To fill the silence, the heroes had taken to telling stories. Legend was detailing his first adventure while running his hand through Hyrule’s hair, when in the middle he made a passing reference to a previous hero. 

“...And there was some mention of it being for the Fallen Hero, too, so obviously I had to figure out what was going on,”

“Wait, Fallen Hero?” Wild looked very concerned. “What Fallen Hero?” 

Legend blanched. “The… The Fallen Hero? The hero that tried to face Ganon and died? Huh, has that not happened yet in your world?”

Wild’s face had gone very pale, along with the rest of the chain. Orville was jerked awake from First suddenly going very, very tense. 

Hyrule sat up from where he was draped across Legend’s lap,  looking at the others in concern. “Have none of you heard of the Fallen Hero? Huh, me and Legend must be pretty far along in the timeline for you to not have heard…”

“Legend,” Wild said carefully. The tension was easily heard in his slightly trembling voice. “Describe the Fallen Hero's journey for me?”

He hummed in thought. “Well, not a lot is known about him, just that he was sent way too young to fight Ganon and the sages couldn’t stop Ganon from killing him. Why?”

Wild’s sigh of relief was loud enough to be heard from the island next to theirs. “Oh good, it’s not me.”

Several heads whipped around to face him. “Wild,” Wind said carefully, “Why would you think you were a ‘Fallen Hero?’”

“Uhhhhhh, No Comment.” 

“WILD?????”

“No. Comment.”

Twilight sighed, gently putting his hand on Wind’s shoulder to push him away from jumping at Wild. “Kiddo, if Wild doesn’t want to talk about something, don’t make him, okay?”

He grumbled from his seat on the ground. “...Alright.” he harrumphed. 

Wild shot him a grateful grin as Legend resumed his tale, and Twilight was free to shoot a glance at Time, who had gone just as pale as Wild. 

He tapped his shoulder. “Old man? You alright?” 

“Huh?” He shook himself out of his thoughts. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just… Trying to figure out where everyone sits in the timeline.”

Yeah, Twilight didn’t believe that in the slightest. Nonetheless, he played along. “Oh yeah? Cool, whatcha got so far?”

Time relaxed, obviously relieved to move on to a different topic. “Well, First and Sky are the first 2, then Four and I are next, but I have no idea if you or Wind comes next, Spirit is after Wind, Legend and Hyrule are after whoever’s third, Warriors is the latest I think, and Wild is after you somewhere. I’m still working it out.”

Twilight hummed in consideration. “Hm, makes sense. But wouldn’t Wind be last because of his Hyrule being under the sea? That’s not the kind of thing you can erase in a singular lifetime.”

Time seemed to take that into consideration, pulling out a notebook and writing that into it. Twilight decided to be an ass and lied down against Time, not-so-subtly knocking the notebook out of his hand. Time sighed, running his hand through Twilight’s hair. “Gremlin.”

“Old-”He yawned. “Old man.”

“Yeah yeah. Go to sleep, kiddo. I’m right here.”

Wild ended up falling asleep on Time as well, much to the older hero's amusement.

Chapter Text

Twilight blinked, coming into consciousness slowly. Evidently, someone had moved him in the night, seeing as he was no longer on the dirt in First’s backyard, but instead on the mega-mattress the Chain had constructed to sleep on. 

To his embarrassment, he was still lying on Time, leaned up against the still sleeping man. Wild was pressed against them both, almost lying on top of them. Spirit had latched onto him, holding his arm like a teddy bear. He tried to wiggle it out, to no avail. 

Legend watched him attempt to escape from the dogpile, snickering at his misfortune. Hyrule stirred slightly from where he was asleep on Legend’s lap, and Legend stopped snickering to lull him back to sleep, running his hand through his hair. 

It seemed like Warriors was also awake, but he wasn’t in a position to help either, Wind and Four leaning up against him. He mouthed ‘help me’ to which Twilight had to gesture to himself, indicating his inability to escape either. 

He looked around, hoping to catch the eye of someone who could help them both. Sky, First and Orville were in a lump together, Sky and Orville both holding onto First. 

He smiled at the picture-perfect scene, but frowned again as he realized. He was stuck, and everyone was accounted for. 

Fuck. 

He squirmed, trying to free himself of his brothers, to no avail. He sighed, deigning to wait. 

They didn’t stay for very long, only a few days. But eventually, the next portal came, and they left for the next world. 

Twilight walked through the portal, and immediately fell into a pile of sand. Seemed like they were on an island. To his left, he could hear Wind gasp in delight. 

“This is my world!”

He was beaming, trying to drag Warriors up from where he was lying on the sand. 

“Gettup, I wanna show you stuff!”

“Nah, I think I'll stay here.”

“WARS! GET UP!”

He chuckled at the scene, helping Legend to his feet. Luckily he did, because Legend didn’t look too good. He stood stiffly along the surf, face pale. He stared at the sand with something akin to horror. 

Twilight placed a hand on his shoulder. “You alright?”

Legend shuddered. “I don’t like islands. Or sailing. Or- anything to do with the ocean, actually.”

“Quest thing?”

“Mhm,” he brushed Twilight’s arm off of his shoulder. “Just- it’s whatever.”

“It’s not- okay. Alright. Do you want to hear about dumb things Wild’s done?”

He grinned, although it was watery. “I’m always down to gain more blackmail.”

Wild watched as Twilight told Legend about dumb stuff he’d done. Unacceptable. He marched up to them, obnoxiously shouting “Whatcha doin, Twi?” He froze, stopping in the middle of his sentence. 

“Oh, hi, Wild, nothing really, what’s-” He was cut off by Legend. 

“Blackmail exchange.” he smirked at Twilight’s betrayed look. Wild grinned, plopping down on the sand next to them. 

“Sounds great, i’ve got tons of blackmail! Oh hold on, you’ll love this!” He opened the slate, flipping past the clothes he actually wore to find the historical artifacts he found in various places. He activated the one he wanted, showing it off to the others. Legend’s face had blanched, while Twilight was grinning like solstace had come early. At least, that’s what Wild assumed had happened. It was a little hard to see out of the paper mache. 

“What the fuck is that monstrosity?!”

“This,” Wild grinned, “Is the suit of Awakening! I found it in a cave.”

“You found a paper mache mask of my head in a cave??? What… Just- what?”

“Yeah, I find a lot of weird stuff just lying around.” 

“I- Wait a second, I'm a huge hypocrite.” He dug around in one of the pouches on his hip, pulling out a strangely glowing ring. “I have a ring that turns me into Rulie. Why am I so confused that you have a paper mache version of my head?”

Everyone in earshot was laughing at him now, save Hyrule, who had turned bright red.

“I’m after you in the timeline. How do you have a ring that turns you into me?” his voice ended in a squeak. 

“I’m not sure. I thought it just turned me into a random person before I met you. I was really confused when I found you up on Death Mountain.”

“Was that why you came to talk to me?”

“Well, that and I wanted to make sure there wasn’t a dead body on the mountain.”

Twilight chuckled, ruffling both of their hair. “Always a good idea.” and to his astonishment, Legend was loosening up, regaining a bit of color in his face as the others tried to persuade him to put the ring on. Wind grabbed it out of his hand, sliding it onto his finger and turning into a carbon-copy of their healer, who was fastly approaching the color purple. 

Time approached him, smiling softly. “Good job, Cub.”

He smiled as Wind attempted to get Hyrule to try on the ring, to see what would happen. “Thanks, Time.”

Chapter Text

Wind had signaled his crew with a strange crystal he owned, but it would be a few days before they could get there, so they were stuck on the island for a while. 

Legend wasn’t doing great. 

Everyone had picked up on it by now, and although Wind was a little disappointed Legend didn’t like the ocean like he did, everyone was trying to make him feel better. 

Wild had an idea. It wasn’t a good idea, but it might work.

He walked up to Legend, who had decided to just bury himself in the mega-mattress for the duration of their stay. 

“Hey Ledge.”

He rolled over, turning to glare at Wild from underneath his mountain of blankets. 

“What.”

“Wanna compare collections?”

He peeked out a little more. “What?”

Wild grinned. “Bet i have more clothes than you .”

Legend shoved the blankets away with a feral grin, although Wild noticed his wings were still clamped tightly to his back. 

Wild called out to the others. “Hey! Guys! Wanna compare collections?”

Warriors was sitting in between Wild and Legend, who were challenging each other wordlessly.

“So! It’ll be a mess if we just dump everything out and no offense, but I don’t want to pick three hundred apples off the ground today. So, we’re going to do this in categories. First up! Magical items.”

Spirit could just about hear Wild mutter ‘I have way more than three hundred apples’ as he flipped through his slate. At the same time, Legend was muttering ‘who keeps three hundred apples in their bag?’

Him and Wind gave each other looks as they watched the duo search through their inventories. 

Wild flipped through his slate, searching for magical items. Meteor Rod, Blizzard Rod, Thunderstorm Rod, did the Champion’s gifts count? Probably not. He didn’t have many magic items, he realized. 

Legend definitely had him beat for this round, as Wild couldn’t see his brother from behind the massive pile of artifacts. 

“Ledge? You behind that?”

There was a hand flipping him off from behind the pile, so Legend was still probably behind the pile. 

Warriors cleared his throat. “Well, Legend definitely won this round. Next up, Non-magical weapons.”

Wind tried to steal something from the pile as Legend put it away, shocking himself on the electricity emitting from it. 

Wild dug out all of his other weapons. Since he had fully upgraded his storage with Hetsu, there was a fair amount of them there, between all the claymores, swords, bows, and spears. 

Now it was his turn to have a pile he wasn’t able to see beyond. Wind looked at one of his Lizal boomerangs with envy. Wild handed it over. “Cause some chaos.”

Wind's eyes lit up, taking the blade with glee. He ran off, running into Warrior’s outstretched arm, who snatched the boomerang out of his hand, placed it onto the pile again. 

“Don’t give the fourteen-year old weapons, Wild. I’m a little scared to do this next one, but we’ve got clothes next.”

Both competitors lit up at that, digging through their items with vigor. Outfit after outfit was pulled out, increasingly ludicrous as time went on. 

Legend and Wild linked eyes as they pulled the exact same outfit out at the same time, bursting into uncontrollable laughter. 

“Is that- Is that Tingle’s suit?”

“You to o ?”

Everyone stared as both heroes held out copies of the most annoying man alive’s outfit. Time approached them slowly. “ Why do you two have that?”

He tried to snatch the one in Wild’s hands, missing as he pulled it away. “It’s a historical artifact, Time, get your hands off of it!”

He looked crestfallen. “Wild, that man does not deserve to be remembered.” He turned to Legend. 

“Hands off, old man, get your own.”

Nobody could quite contain their laughter at that, intensified by the look on his face. “...Legend.”

“Time.”

“I- you know what, i’ll try later. Nevermind. Continue.” 

Neither could quite contain their glee at the obvious defeat the man showed. Most of the chain had started looking through the piles, pulling out funny ones and showing them to the others. 

Warriors caught sight of a gerudo-style veil, pulling it out with a flourish along with the rest of the set. “What’s this, Wild?”

His face turned beet-red as he saw what he was holding. “Put it down, Wars.”

He turned it over in his hands, marveling at the soft fabric. “So how tall is she?”

“Give it back!”

“Nah. Hey Legend! Catch!” 

He caught it, turning it over in his hands. “Hm. It’s a nice color. For a special someone?”

Wild ran at him, narrowly missing it as it was thrown back to Warriors. “None of your business!”

He caught it smoothly, inspecting the fabric. “Aw, nothing to be ashamed of, we’ve all had something we wanted to give to…” He trailed off as he caught sight of a pair of oddly placed seams on the back of the outfit. 

Ah. 

He handed the outfit back with a muttered “sorry.”

The others caught sight of the abrupt change of heart, wondering what had happened. Wild put the outfit back in his Slate, sitting down and trying to ignore the blush running up the tips of his ears as he grabbed the last few articles of clothing. Wind found a cactus jumpsuit and matching hat in Legend’s pile of clothing, and everything went mostly back to normal. 

Then, Wild started to pull out the Hero’s Armor. 

Sky noticed first.

“Uh, Wild? What are you doing with my clothes?”

He stopped where he was in the middle of pulling the tunic out of his slate. “I find a lot of historical artifacts around my Hyrule. Including everyone’s outfits. Except Warriors and Spirit, for some reason.”

They all turned to stare at Warriors, who raised his hands in surrender. “I don’t know! Why are you asking me?”

Wind jumped up in front of Wild. “Do you have any of mine?”

“Yeah, hold on.” He grabbed the Hero Of Wind armor set, as well as the Lobster Shirt. 

Wind took them with reverence. “Woah. That’s so trippy.”

Twilight tapped the slate, to which Wild yanked it away. “Do me next.”

The Hero Of Twilight set was taken out, along with Midna’s Helm and Zant’s Helm. Twilight proceeded to ignore the set he had asked for in favor of staring at the helms. 

Spirit picked it up instead. “Why is it covered in dog hair?”

“I found it like that.”

“Twilight has a wolf, remember?” Time had apparently recovered from the punch-in-the-face that was Tingle’s outfit. “Probably Wolfie’s hair.”

“We should do the old man next,” somebody called out. 

Time’s eyes widened as he shook his head.. “No no no no no. I have seen far too much of my adventuring outfit for one lifetime.”

“Well, now I have to bring it out,” Wild said.

They spent the rest of the day trying on each other’s outfits and joking around. Wind had, to Legend’s embarrassment, found the Cheer outfit, and he refused to take it off. Time had to physically stop Wild from stealing Legend’s Bomb Jumpsuit. 

Spirit had been staring at a menacing set of armor for a while now. 

Twilight still hadn’t put Midna’s Helm down.

Time hadn’t stopped glaring at a strange mask from Wild’s pile.

Sky had stolen Legend’s Legendary Dress, marveling at the deep pockets. It was a little too small for him, but it was still comfortable enough that he was wearing it. 

Four was wearing the Sheikah Suit, having fun scaring everyone out of their wits end. 

First, at Wild’s insistence, had exchanged his outfit for the Royal Guard Uniform, much to Warriors’s fury. 

Hyrule had tried his best to stay out of the dress-up party, but when Legend invited him to try on Light Armor, he couldn’t exactly say no. It was a really pretty armor set, and he marveled at the light emitting from it. 

Warriors, since he couldn’t wear the Royal Guard armor, had taken the Soldier armor, and was admiring his reflection in the armguard. 

And in the center of it all was Legend, making constant commentary on everyone’s choices. Wild grinned to himself as Legend relaxed into the moment, laughing at a particularly bad joke somebody had made. 

Yeah. 

This was a good idea. 

Chapter Text

“And then, he told me he wasn’t a fairy yet so he couldn’t help me! He just flew away with MY force gem! Asshole.”

The heroes snickered as Four continued their tale. “And he flew away, and I had to figure out how to deal with the avalanche by myself. It was so annoying, I swear if I ever meet that fucking fairy impersonator again i’m going to punt him.”

Several people made noises of agreement. “Tingle’s disappeared here, I found a wanted poster of him during my second adventure.” Wind mentioned.

Legend perked up in interest. “We get to throw Tingle in jail AND get paid? That sounds like a side-quest I would wanna do. Where is this wanted poster?”

“Hey,” Wild said, “What’s that?” he pointed to something just resting on the horizon. Wind pulled out his spyglass, looking through it. 

“Hey! It’s my ship! Over here!” He waved his arms up and down, trying to signal to the people on board.  Wild rolled his eyes, pointing to the Gossip Stone around Wind’s neck. Wind blushed and activated it. 

“Hey Tetra, we see you!”

“Yeah, we can smell you from over here. We’ll be there in a couple hours, try not to die before we get there.”

Four laughed as Wind sputtered. “We’ll do our best.”

“Your friend’s are cooler than you, Link.’

“Hey, I’m plenty cool!”

“Suuuuuure you are. See ya soon, I gotta go stop Niko from falling overboard again, talk to you later.”

The stone flickered off as she disappeared from view. Wind glared at the deactivated stone, sliding it over his neck again with a grumble. 

While the admittedly entertaining banter was going on, Twilight looked over to see Legend, who looked as if he wanted the ground to swallow him up. In fact, he looked worse off than he had been the entire time he was on the island. 

He was staring at the boat like it had destroyed something important to him. 

Hyrule seemed to notice it too, as Twilight saw him tap Legend’s shoulder, and start to distract him. 

Legend likes boats even less than islands. Noted. 

As the ship approached, Wild and Hyrule had successfully distracted Legend by convincing him to teach them more about flying. First was watching with something akin to nostalgia as they started a game of tag in the air. 

The others started to pack up camp, cleaning dirt off of their items and packing them away. Warriors sighed as he cleaned glitter off of his scarf again. 

It stopped a few hundred feet away from the shoreline, and a small boat came up to the island. It rowed the rest of the way, pulling up on shore. The person in it waved at them to come over, and Wind sprinted up to meet them, the others following. 

First whistled loudly, catching the attention of the heroes playing tag in the air. He motioned for them to come over, pointing to the boat. They landed, bringing up the rear of the group as they moved toward the boat. 

The boat came up to the ship, someone on deck throwing a ladder out for them. Wind ignored it, flying up over the side of the ship and crashing into one of the sailors on board. The others followed them, leaving First and the sailor who had come to meet them climbing the ladder alone.  Well, that wasn’t quite true, Legend hadn’t followed the others. In fact, he was staring at the boat with badly concealed fear, not wanting to climb up. 

First looked over at him, noticing his expression. “You alright?” 

Legend looked back at him. “...Got shipwrecked once. It- it kind of messed me up.”

Oh. That was why he’d been so off this whole time. 

First thought about how to best comfort his brother, coming up empty handed. He settled for pulling him into a hug for a few moments, running his hands through his hair. 

“It’s not for very long, promise. We’ll be out of here before you know it.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s-it’s okay.”

“You sure?”

He shuddered slightly. “Yeah. yeah, i’m okay.”

He climbed up the rope ladder, not quite trusting his wings at the moment. First followed, deciding to keep an eye on him. 

Wind launched himself over the deck, barreling towards Tetra as fast as he could. He crashed into her with an ‘oof’ as he sent them careening backwards. 

“Tetra!”

She rolled her eyes at him, but didn’t protest the hug, wrapping her own arms around him. “Welcome back, Link. Now, do you want to explain why you disappeared and reappeared on an uncharted island with a bunch of total strangers?”

His face blanched. “Uh, funny story.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Tell it to me.”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,”

Time cut him off, much to his relief. “Do you remember the War Of Eras?” Her eyes widened in recognition. “It’s a bit like that, but for heroes, and we’re moving around across Hyrules instead of Hyrules coming to us”

She gave him a look, but he didn’t react. “Link, what sort of bullshit did you get yourself into now?” she asked, turning towards Wind. 

“A lot,” He laughed. “I have some crazy stories to tell you.”

Chapter Text

The boat ride was mostly uneventful, aside from the large number of pranks Wind, Tetra and Wild pulled on the group. Everyone was at least a little fed up with all of them. 

But at last, they made it to their destination. “Outset! C'mon everyone, I wanna show you all everything!” 

Wind took off, heading to the island before the ship had even docked. Tetra sighed fondly. “He really needs to stop doing that.”

“I could go get him if you wanted,” Warriors offered. Tetra shook her head. “Yall go on ahead, we can dock her by ourselves.”

They followed Wind to the island, First jumping off the crows nest with the paraglider to keep up with the others. They skidded to a stop on the soft white sand of Outset Island with little difficulty, Wind rushing up to a girl sitting along the beach. She jumped up when she noticed, wrapping her arms around Wind as he wrapped his arms around her. 

“Big brother! You’re back!”

“Yeah,” He smiled from where he had buried his face in her hair, “I’m back. And, I brought some really special people for you to meet. These are my big brothers.”

He turned to the others still on the beach. “Hey guys, come meet my little sister!”

Several of them started at that, hesitantly turning to turn towards the little girl, whose smile was outshining the sun. Time waved at her slowly, giving her a soft smile. 

Her eyes lit up, and she started shaking his arm frantically. “Really? Really? Link are you serious? You told me I would never get to meet them, you big fat liar!”

“I didn’t think you would, Aryll. They live super far away.”

“But you bring people from super far away here all the time! It’s your job!”

“Yeah, I know, but they're so far away I can’t visit them very often. Wanna take them to meet grandma?”

“Yeah!” She grabbed Wind’s hand, rushing toward a small house along the surf and dragging Wind with her. The others followed with varying levels of amusement. 

Aryll rushed onto the porch, shouting excitedly. “Grandma! Gramma gramma gramma gramma! Link’s back and he brought MORE BROTHERS!!!!!”

She looked up to see the large group of people along the beach. Wind started waving furiously, shaking Warriors’s arm as he jumped around. “Wars wars wars wars that’s my Grandma! You all get to meet my grandma!” He ran up to her, hugging her tightly. 

“Hi Grandma. I’m back.”

“I see that, dear.” Looking over, she continued, “I seem to remember two brothers. Where did all of the others come from?”

He smiled, and grabbed Time’s hand, pulling him over. Waving his arms, he started to tell his tale.  “Well, it started when I woke up on a pile of sand, but I couldn’t find the ocean anywhere! So, I went…”

Wind darted around his house, grabbing unused pillows and blankets from places. 

“Whatcha doin?” He nearly dropped everything as Aryll appeared from behind him. 

“Wuagh! Oh, hi Aryll. I’m grabbing stuff for our cuddle puddle.”

“Your what?” 

He smiled. “Wanna see?” 

“Legend, I need more safety pins”

“It’s in the blue bag over there”

“Oh, I see it, thanks.”

Wind burst through the door, arms full of pillows and blankets. “I come bearing gifts!” Aryll peeked out from behind Wind, eyes wide with excitement. Wild waved her over, smiling. 

“Heya, Aryll. Whatcha doin?”

“I wanna see what a cuddle puddle is.”

“Well,” he said, sitting forward with the air of a storyteller, “While we were traveling, a lot of us got sad and didn’t want to leave each other alone, so we put our beds all together so we could be close to each other.”

“Like when me or Link has a nightmare and we go to make sure we’re there and end up snuggling with each other all night?”

Wild looked a little sad at that. “Yeah, exactly. Except there’s so many of us we need to make a giant bed, we won’t fit in a normal one.”

“That’s so cool! Can I join?” She turned to Wind, jumping up and down. “Link, can I can I can i can i?”

He hummed, pretending to think it over. “I dunno, caaaaan you?  He picked her up by her shoulders, bringing her to eye level.

“Liiiiiink!”

He chuckled, bringing her back down. “That depends on if the others want you there, Sea Monkey.” She turned her sad-puppy eyes on the others, who laughed and pretended to be defeated. 

Time patted her hair, saying “Sure, you can join us. Be careful though, he snores.” he gestured over to Warriors, who gasped in offense. 

“You liar! You’re the snorer, not me! Travesty, being blamed by my very own little brother. Oh, the tragedy, oh the heartbreak. Mask, how could you?” Throughout his speech, he had draped himself more and more over Time, until he was almost completely lying over him and grinning. 

Aryll giggled as Time glared at him, shoving him off. Warriors winked at her, and she smiled and winked back. 

The moon was full that night, shining just enough light to see by. Not that anyone needed it, though. Everyone was fast asleep on the giant mattress they had made in the guest room. Wind’s grandma opened the door, smiling at the sweet scene. 

“I don’t know how he does it” She whispered, “Finding all of these wonderful people. But by Cyclos, I’m glad he does.” she placed a kiss on top of Aryll’s head, smiling as she closed the door.

Chapter Text

The portal was almost a welcome surprise for Legend. Don’t get him wrong, he loved spending time with everyone, but he was very ready to be somewhere that wasn’t an island. It had been a rough week.

His brothers definitely noticed, and while he was grateful for their understanding, he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.

Nobody else needed hand-holding like that.

Wind came out of the bushes behind him, holding a frog. “Hey, Legend, Wild said that potions are made out of frogs and I really want to see if he’s telling the truth, so will you help me- Holy Hylia!” he jumped back in surprise at the portal, face falling. “Oh no, we have to leave?”

Legend frowned, feeling guilty over his excitement about leaving.. “Uh, sorry, Wind.”

“We should probably go- go and get the others.”

“...Yeah.”

They left hesitantly, promising Aryll that if they couldn’t be back then they'll write.

Malon was worried. Link and the boys that had appeared had been missing for a while now, and although she was sure they could take care of themselves, she had a bad feeling about these portals. It was leaving her a bit on-edge.

Regardless, she hummed to herself as she started to feed the cuckoos, picking up eggs and replacing them with birdseed. She darted upright when she heard the gate open, looking around to see a group of people entering through the gate. Setting the eggs in a basket, she walked up to meet the travelers, only to stop, smiling as she recognized them.

“Welcome home, Fairy boy. Who’re all of these people?”

“Boys, this is Malon, my wife. Malon, these boys are other heroes.” he said, before embracing her in a tight hug. “Missed you,” He whispered to her.

She smiled. “Missed you too.” louder, she said to the rest of the heroes, “Well, don’t just stand around, come inside! Don’t get a lot of visitors that aren't customers, nice change of pace.”

They entered the house, immediately relaxing upon coming into the main hall. Time, noticing their reactions, chuckled. “Yeah, the ranch tends to have that effect on people.”

Time smiled fondly at everyone’s obvious pleasure. Good. He liked seeing them happy. Hylia, he really was a dad.

Malon was going to get a kick out of this.

Malon smiled fondly as she watched the heroes set up- whatever they were setting up. Curious, she sat down in the nearby chair to watch.

Time looked up, seeing her and smiling, before going back to work on whatever they were working on. It seemed like it was made out of their bedrolls, sparking her curiosity further. In fact, it almost seemed like a giant mattress.

Oh.

That’s adorable.

“Legend, where are the pins?”

“Blue bag with the gold cord.”

“Oh, I see it, thanks.”

Time walked around the spare room, looking for the pillows. It was getting kind of late, they were just finishing up the mega-mattress.

Entering the spare room, he smiled at the scene before him, before becoming mildly offended.

They had started the cuddle-puddle without him.

Chapter Text

Twilight was getting antsy, Wild could tell. He hadn’t had the chance to run around as a wolf in a while, and it was clearly grating on his nerves. 

He tapped the rancher’s shoulder, causing him to jump, not having noticed Wild entering the room behind him. 

Shaking his head, Twilight turned to his brother. “What’s up, Wild?”

“You are going to take a Wolfie day, and I am going to cover for you. No excuses, you’ve clearly needed one for a while.”

He winced. “Am I that obvious?”

“Yes. Now go, I’ll cover for you.”

Twilight sighed, activating his shadow-pendant and turning into Wolfie. It was a familiar magic, wrapping around his form and changing it into something else, swirling in a pattern of shadows. 

Something Wild and Time (and Midna, he thought) had always found funny were the black marks along his back, shaped like wings. And, to be fair, he found it funny too. 

Wild waved him off. “Go on, we’ll be fine. Go do dog stuff.”

He huffed. He was a wolf, not a dog. 

He turned around to tell him so, but Wild was already gone. Grumbling to himself, he left out the backdoor and entered the forest, taking off in a dead sprint once he was out of view. 

He sprinted around the forest, scaring squirrels as he ran around the trees. It was really pretty, flowers along the grass, sheltered by the green canopy of trees. 

There was a fairy about to collide with him. 

He skidded to a stop, trying to avoid the glowing pink light. He ended up narrowly avoiding bumping into it, knocking into it with his nose. The fairy seemed shocked, jumping away when they collided. 

They stared at each other for a moment, before the fairy hesitantly went closer, staring at him. Their glow dimmed as they went closer, probably so they wouldn’t blind him. Aw, that was considerate. As their glow dimmed, they slowly reached out. 

Twilight bumped him again, accidentally sending him flying. Whoops. 

Whining apologetically, he padded over to the fairy again, who was giggling.

 “You're a friendly wolf, huh?”

Twilight nodded vigorously, nearly sending the fairy flying again. Luckily, they ducked this time, weaving around his nose. The fairy’s wings seemed odd, seeming to be a different shape than a normal fairy. In fact, they seemed a lot like Hyrule’s wings, if they were translucent. 

He took a closer look at the fairy, before starting as he realized. It was Hyrule. Hyrule was a fairy. Huh. 

He came up to Twilight, landing on his head with a giggle. “Aw, you’re just a big dog, aren't you?” Rude. Regardless, he wagged his tail in agreement, if only to put Rulie at ease. “Huh, your magic feels kinda like Twi’s. Wait.”

Twilight froze as he flew up again, locking eyes with him. “Are you Wolfie?”

Oh, that’s right. Wild and Time had told the other heroes about his ‘pet wolf.’ Fantastic.

Hyrule lit up at his reluctant nodding, glowing blindingly for a second before reining it in. “Twi’s time-traveling wolf. Oh wow, Ledge’s not gonna believe this. You must be a really good boy to be following him like this, huh? Oh wow, your fur’s so soft!” He lay down on top of his head, burying himself in his fur. “Wooow, feels like Twi’s hair. But less greasy.”

Twilight balked at that. Was it that bad? You know what, it probably was.

Someone came marching around through the forest, waking Hyrule up from where he was falling asleep. Someone came out from behind a tree, calling “Rulie!” 

The fairy in question darted up, approaching him with a grin. “Ledge, I found Twi’s dog!”

Legend looked back at him. “You sure did. Isn’t this Time’s era though? How did he get here?” 

“Magic. He’s got a strong magical signature.”

He raised his eyebrows, scrutinizing the wolf. “Magic, huh?” His eyes locked onto the patterns across Twilight’s back, before smirking. “Cool. Magic wolf.”

“I know! I’ve never seen a magic wolf before! Or a non-evil wolf for that matter. Huh, I wonder why wolves are evil in our time…” He trailed off as he went back to wandering. Twilight started to follow him, only to get stopped by Legend. Shit. 

“So, Wolfie, huh? Interesting patterns you got there, Wolfie.”   He held up a necklace that looked like it had a pearl on its chain. “Curse or voluntary?” 

Twilight sighed, turning back into a Hylian. “Curse, at least at first.”

Legend hummed. “Same. You're lucky, A wolf is much better for fighting than a bunny.”

“A bunny? Somehow, I couldn’t see the all-powerful Vet as a bunny rabbit.” 

“Yeah, well the world doesent exactly follow its own rules around me.”

“I think that’s just part of being a hero.”

“Yeah, probably,” He sighed. “What do you think the other’s dark forms are?”

“Well, Time definitely’s a golden wolf, other than that I don’t know.”

“A golden wolf?”

“Long story.”

Hyrule came back into the small clearing, looking for Legend and maybe the dog. He found Legend and Twilight deep in discussion about… Something, he wasn’t quite sure. He ducked back behind a tree, turning back into a Hylian before coming back into the clearing.

“Heya Twi, we found your wolf earlier! Did you know he could time travel?”

“Uh, No but it wouldn’t suprise me. Wolfie does a lot of weird stuff.” He got up fron the nearby log. “I’m gonna go look for him. See ya later?” 

Legend looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Sure, see ya later.”

Chapter Text

Wild left the room, cackling to himself. He could just imagine the annoyed look on Twi’s face when he called him a dog. Ha. 

He went looking for something to do, passing Four and Spirit, who were arguing. Again. He sighed, picking up his speed as he heard Four draw their sword. Nope. Not gonna be a part of that. 

He ended up in the living room, where Time, Warriors and Wind were talking to Malon, who was looking more and more amused by the second, as Time buried his face into his hands and Wars and Wind were talking excitedly, both looking rather smug. 

Sky waved him over from the other sofa, and First waved hello from where he was getting his hair braided by Sky.

“Hiya Sky, what are you doing?”

He tied the end of First’s braid off with a hair tie, motioning for him to stand up. He moved into the other chair, laughing at the excited look on Sky’s face. 

“Your hair needs to be brushed. Let me do it.” Sky brandished his hairbrush like a weapon. Wild wisely sat down. 

Sky happily ran his brush through Wild’s hair, sighing as he pulled out no less than three sticks and five bugs.  He hummed happily as he combed through Wild’s long hair, taking quite a bit of time to work out the snarls that come from having absolutely no idea how to wash your hair. 

He grinned as he finished the last bit of hair, holding up Wild’s hairtie. “What kind of braid do you want?”

“There are different kinds of braids?”

Sky’s joy could be felt from Hytopia. “This is going to be amazing.”

First discreetly backed away. 

Meanwhile, Time was having a considerably less fun time than Sky, seeing as his brothers had decided it was their sacred mission to embarrass him in front of his wife. 

“And so he grabbed the bottle of glue-”

“Stop.”

“-And dumped it over the staircase, drenching the visiting nobles!”

“Warriors!”

“Art was so mad, but this little imp just laughed and said that they deserved it, which was probably true, but still!”

Time buried his face in his hands at the sound of Malon’s laughter. Why. 

Spirit and Four’s argument could be heard from the hall. It now sounded like there were four people, instead of two. They could faintly hear someone shouting “What kind of absolute MORON are you?!!”

Everyone decided it was better to not get involved. 

Red had decided not to get involved in the coal argument. Too much yelling, thank-you-very-much. He already hears too much yelling as is. So, since he couldn’t go back into the house while his brothers argued, he decided to explore the forest as a minish. Because what else would he do? 

He skipped along the grass, stopping every so often to pet small bugs. He was trying to climb up a nearby orchid when a voice startled him from behind. “Hello there!”  he let go of the flower, tumbling to the ground with a small ‘oof’

“Oh, sorry! Sky? What are you doing here?” Red turned around to see- a tiny Hyrule? He looked up, to see see-through wings and tiny antennae on the hero, who was faintly glowing pink. 

Hyrule was a fairy. 

Cool!

He shot up, grinning. “Hiya, Hyrule, I didn’t know you could turn tiny too!!!! That’s super cool! Do you have fairy blood? Your wings look even prettier than normal, how is that possible???”

“...Four? What’s wrong with your wings?” Hyrule looked really concerned. “Are you alright?”

“Huh?” His hands went up to check his wings. They looked normal-oh. They’re just red and Hyrule was used to Four’s multicolored ones. 

“Well, I’m kind of Four. I’m uh- dammit, why couldn’t it have been Green?-  I’m like… Part of him? One of the people that make him up? I’m not really sure but I’m a fourth of Four.”

Hyrule was staring at him blankly. “...What?”

“It doesn’t make sense to us either. I’m red, and there are my brothers, who’re all named after colors, and we all make up Four with magic!” Yeah, that was a good explanation. Vio would be proud of him. 

Hyrule still looked confused, but he shook his head, smiling. “So, you’re… Red?”

“Yeah! And there’s Blue, Green and Vio, and we’re all good at different things that Four is good at! So, i’m the empathy…”



A bit later, Hyrule remembered. “Oh, I found Twi’s dog, want to come see?”

Red smiled. “Sure! Might take a while though, It’s a little hard to travel like this, and the minish portal is a while that direction.”

“Oh!” Hyrule hopped off of the flower they were sitting on, enlarging himself again. “You can ride on my shoulder!” Red grinned, hopping onto Hyrule’s shoulder. 

“Alright! Let’s go find a dog!”

“It’s a wolf, actually.”

“Even better!”

Chapter Text

The portal was a wholly unwelcome surprise. Nobody wanted to leave this cozy little ranch that felt like home. 

But they did, coming through the portal into a clearing, the trees and grass a bright green and a stump sitting very conspicuously in the center.

Four looked incredibly green as they came through the portal, before lighting up as they looked around. “This is my world,” They announced proudly. “My house is just over here!”

They were just thinking about how much they missed their home! It was amazing how fortune worked sometimes. They smiled as the Minish all around the village caught sight of them, sparking a chain reaction that had the entire village out of their homes and ready to see their hero. 

Mercifully, none of the heroes had stepped on any Minish houses, although Wild had come close. This wasn’t going to be fun to maneuver everyone around, was it? 

Hyrule laughed as Four attempted to instruct a baffled Warriors in stepping around a curious set of houses. There were small mouse-people around, that looked a lot like how Red did when they met in the forest. Oh, these were the Minish! Neat!

He waved at a few that were clustered near Legend’s feet, much to the Vet’s confusion. They waved back brightly, and one gestured at him to put his hand near the ground. He obliged, and a small trinket was dropped into his hand. It looked like a rock, brightly colored, that had been broken in half. 

“A kinstone! For the Faeblooded hero! Welcome to Minish Village!”

He smiled, putting the small rock in his pocket. “Thank you!”

The Minish chittered happily. “You are welcome!”

Wild laughed as Twilight nearly faceplanted into the dirt, even with both Four’s and Hyrule’s instructions. 

“Well, If it’s so easy, why don’t you do it?” The rancher called through a mouthful of grass. 

“Alright, I will!” He effortlessly weaved around the strange small buildings, coming up next to Four with a grin. 

Twilight glared at him, as Four looked at him curiously. “You can see the Minish?”

“The tiny mouse-people? Yeah, I see them. They look absolutely adorable by the way, could you tell them?”

“Why thank you!” Wild jumped as one of the minish came up to them, holding a large, colorful rock. “Hero Of Wild Things, would you accept this kinstone?” Wild solemnly held out his hand, holding the small rock up in the light. 

“Thank you.”

“Of course!” 

Time smiled as Wild talked to the strange mouse-man. It was odd how only some of the members of their group could see this Minish Village. They seemed faelike, though not quite like the fairies that lived at his home village, seeming more grounded. 

One of the Minish tugged on a feather lightly, just to get his attention. Gently, he turned toward the strange creature, who wordlessly handed him a stone. He cupped it in his hands, smiling. 

“Thank you.” The Minish turned beet-red, and squeaked out a small “You’re welcome,”  before running off, embarrassed. 

Finally, they got everyone out of stomping range of the village, setting off towards Four’s house, every hero the proud possessors of a colorful stone. Even the ones who couldn't see the Minish had found the strange rocks in their pockets, to many of their surprises. 

THey came up on a cheery-looking house, with a smithy along the side. There was a man in said smithy, who caught the eyes of the group and started waving, Four sprinting up to him. 

“Grandpa!” The large man had set down his project in order to accommodate for the hero flying at him, arms coming up to meet him. “Hello there, Link. How’s the adventure going?”

“Best one yet.”

“Oh? And why’s that?”

 Four gestured at the others, beaming. “I found more brothers.”

The Chain marveled at the cozy-looking house, which was almost overwhelmingly colorful, but still subtle enough to not be. Legend noted with amusement that the most prominent colors were the ones Four wore on their tunic, green, blue, red and violet. Four seemed to be in their element too, talking excitedly about their home, eyes swirling green and red as they gestured. Their grandpa was watching with badly-concealed amusement as they made a gesture too large and nearly knocked over a shelf. 

The kid seemed to have some good reflexes though, and caught the book from flying off the shelf lightning-fast. 

They looked at the cover, before blanching and putting it back. Legend could just about make out the title,  ‘The Dark World and Its Inhabitants”

Oh, so it was about their missing ‘friend’ then. Well, Legend had a plan for that. He just needed some time to enact it. He ran his hand over a few stray books and a notebook out of his bag, along with his Dark Mirror and Moonpearl. It was almost time. He just needed to get Four, and possibly a not insignificant amount of blood. It’ll be fine.

Chapter Text

The red and purple swirled, fighting for dominance as they sparked. Fusing together, the purple won out, solidifying into a shimmering reflective surface. 

A Dark Mirror. 

The way to make them was unknown by Hylians, at least in Four’s time. They winced as they brushed their bandaged hand against the table as they reached for the mirror. It was a lot smaller than the one that Vaati had owned, seeming more like a hand mirror than the full length one that the mage had drawn his power from. It didn’t have a frame either, it was just a lump of dark violet glass. 

Legend smiled at the result, grabbing his fire rod and a pair of gloves. “That’s the hardest part over. Now we just have to get the glass into a usable shape. You have the frame?” 

Four nodded, grabbing the frame from a nearby table. This was it. This was the deciding factor. 

Legend picked the lump of glass up in one hand, holding it over the frame. Pulling one of Four’s spare welding masks over his face, he lit the fire rod up over the glass, letting it heat up. The glass went from purple, to red, to orange, to glowing white-hot. It poured into the frame, drip by drip. The mixture sizzled as it dripped onto the silver backing. As soon as it was all melted, Legend grabbed the metal spatula and ran it over the superheated glass to smooth it over. 

It cooled just as quickly as it heated up, turning purple again in a matter of minutes. 

Legend flipped the visor up and grabbed it, observing the frame. It seemed familiar, and after a moment, he realized how. It was the same mirror he used during his first adventure! 

Well, that was certainly an odd coincidence, but it was good to have confirmation that the mirror was going to work. 

He handed it to Four with a grin. “Ready to get your friend back?”

They smiled, accepting the mirror. 

The void was exceptionally quiet today. Not that it was ever loud, but there was always some level of static noise in the air. But not today, for some reason. 

There was just silence. 

Mind numbing, blank silence. 

Shadow sighed, shifting from where he was wrapped in darkness. There wasn’t much to do in this in-between space, except float and wait. 

And wait. 

And wait. 

It was driving him a little bit crazy, if he was being honest. 

He didn’t regret breaking the mirror, not one bit, he just wished that he wasn’t stuck here with nothing to do. At this point, he would have done crossword puzzles with Vio just to have something to do! 

Crossword puzzles! 

The purple-tinted black of the void swirled around, despite being monotone in nature. It seemed to be laughing at him. Rude. 

Shadow blew a raspberry at the sapient nothingness, crossing his arms. It seemed to laugh at him again, before pausing as something tore through the veil. 

There was a new portal to the Dark World. 

His curiosity piquing, he floated over to the new portal, peering into the hole it made into realities. It was much smaller than Vaati’s mirror, barely big enough for one person to go through. It was just about the right size for a kid to go through, or maybe-

Maybe someone whose growth had been stunted by Minish magic. 

His eyes widened as he caught sight of the person using the mirror. It was Link! It was his Link!

Caution thrown to the wind, he dashed through the in-between, piercing through the layer intended to separate the in-between from the Dark and Light worlds. The Dark world tried to suck him down, but single-minded determination had him reaching through the mirror, tumbling out in front of Link with a small “oof.”

“Shadow?”

He smiled at the familiar voice. “Heya, Rainbows.”

Chapter Text

Four activated the mirror with a tap of magic, pushing a little through the glass. The portal opened up without trouble, a happy swoosh letting him know that the portal had connected to the other side without trouble. 

The small opening stretched out for what seemed to be miles, ending in a small pinprick, showcasing a harshly yellow-brown environment, the grass seeming dead with strange creatures floating around. 

They hesitated, taking a deep breath. Before they could move to step through the portal, something tore through the tunnel, floating up towards them. 

Something landed on the floor. 

No, not something. 

Someone. 

“Shadow?”

He lifted his head, before flopping onto the floor again. “Heya, Rainbows.”

Behind them, they could feel Legend's soft smile as they rushed to scoop Shadow off the floor. 

“Sorry, I guess I'm falling for you all over again, huh?”

Four snickered as they shifted Shadow into a bridal carry. “That was terrible.”

“Yeah, not my best work, I tripped over myself a little. Hey, why are you carrying me?”

“If you think that I am letting go of you in the next twenty-four hours at least then you have another thing coming.”

Shadow’s face went red-hot. “Alright.”

Legend cleared his throat in the background. “Hey, loverbird, are you going to introduce me or what?”

“Oh, oh yeah right. Shadow, this is Legend, we got pulled into a quest together. Legend, this is Shadow, he is mine and I love him.”

And they had to snicker at the shade of red Shadow’s face had turned. 

“I- Uh I- Nice to meet you? I’m not great at the whole good guy thing.”

‘Says the one who saved all of our asses despite knowing he would get hurt cause of it’

‘Be quiet Vio.’

Legend reached his hand towards Shadow, who hesitantly shook it. “Nice to meet you too. Don’t worry, I’m not either.”

Four raised their eyebrows at Legend’s statement, to whom just shrugged. Deciding to let it go, they turned towards the house. “Want to meet the others?”

“No! Give me back my pendant!”

“Whyyyyyy, it’s just a necklace , riiiiight?”

“Wild!”

Time sighed as his boys chased each other around the living room. Four’s grandpa was watching them as well, shaking his head fondly. 

“Some kids you got there. Must be a handful, huh?”

“You have no idea.”

Warriors, who had been listening in, started to laugh. “Hypocrite! You were just as bad when you were younger!”

“I was also nine, Captain. They are grown adults.”

“You sure about that?”

He watched as Twilight tackled Wild into the floor, narrowly missing a shelf on the way down. “Not entirely.”

Sky hummed to himself as he carved his latest project, a small loftwing figurine he started at the beginning of this journey. His plan was to give it to First, when it was ready. 

If he could get this stupid beak right. 

Emphasis on if. 

He screamed in frustration, throwing the fist-sized figurine across the forest. 

“Hey, what did the ground ever do to you?”

He looked up as Wind grabbed it, looking it over in awe. “Woah, this is really good! You made this?”

“It’s not good. The beak is all wrong. One side’s always bigger than the other.”

“Why not use a pen to make little marks on the wood, and then carve up to those?”

“That’s- That’s a really good idea, actually. You know how to carve?”

“Not really, but you spend enough time at sea with a bunch of pirates who are super enthusiastic about things and you’re bound to pick up some good ideas.”

Sky snorted at that. “I understand what you mean. I know way more than I ever want to know about hair gel, thanks to Groose.”

“Red spikey hair guy?”

“Red spikey hair guy.”

(Spirit would find them later, deep in conversation about braiding techniques, before promptly joining in.)

Hyrule was bored. 

Now that was a concerning statement on its own, but there was nobody that had anything for him to do. 

So, he did what he did best. 

He started to wander. 

So this may have been a mistake. 

He turned past a tree, one that looked exactly like the one he saw five minutes- oh wait, that’s his tally mark, it’s the same tree. 

Dammit. 

He sighed, turning around to go the opposite direction. 

Finally, he made it back to the forge, where he could feel everyone’s magical signatures in one place. Must be dinnertime, he guessed. 

He pushed opened the door, smiling a little. “Hey, sorry I'm late, I got a little lost.”

Wild waved him over with a grin. “Sall good, Rulie. Cmere, Four has someone for us to meet!”

Chapter Text

The Chain marched along the path, teasing each other and exchanging stories as they made their way towards their destination. The new kid, Shadow, was chatting with Twilight as they walked, excitedly talking about his dragon. 

Twilight was listening in rapt attention as Shadow described its flame breath (Conveniently leaving out what the aforementioned flame breath was used for). As the heroes continued, Shadow seemed to get more and more tired, until eventually-

“And she stomped on the nearby-” He paused to yawn, “-Nearby bale of hay, and she blew a gust of fire at the-” he paused to yawn again. “Can I finish this story later? I’m really tired.”

Twilight paused, shaking his head as if to shake his thoughts around. “Yeah, of course!”

“Thanks.” Shadow turned away, walking towards Four, before collapsing just behind him, melting into their shadow as he made contact, Four never breaking stride. 

Twilight stared for a few moments. “Is that… Is that just something he does?”

Four turned around, smiling fondly. “Yep. Scared the fuck out of me the first time.” They turned back around, grabbing their book out of their bag again. “He doesn’t normally tire this easily, the whole resurrection thing probably sapped his energy.”

Twilight nodded along to the Smith’s words, before pausing as he realized what Four had just said. “Wait, what?” 

Four was already walking away. 

Twilight started sleepwalking to catch up. “Four, what do you mean?! Four???”

Four’s shadow seemed to smirk.

Shadow grinned to himself as he ducked under an incoming arrow, letting it hit an incoming Moblin. Dodging  a Claymore that was coming toward him, he knocked the archer down with a burst of magic, where it fell onto the sword of another. 

“Nice shot!” 

He grinned at the newcomer. “Thanks, Pinky!” Looking over his shoulder, he continued, “Watch your left!” 

Legend turned to intercept the blow, leaving Shadow to continue on his own. 

Time rolled his eyes as the new hero did a barrel roll, blowing a raspberry at Wind, who gasped in false outrage and dashed forward to tackle Shadow, who was laughing. 

He watched as Wind tackled him in midair, sending both tumbling towards the ground below. Time’s eyes widened in horror, and he darted to catch the two before they got hit in the face with a tree or something equally stupid. 

Yeah, Shadow was gonna fit in just fine. 

Unfortunately.

Wind smiled as the new hero approached him, grinning a bit maniacally. “Hello there!”

“Do you want to play a prank on Rain- on Four with me?” 

Oh, this would be fun. He held out his hand. “Shadow, this sounds like the start of a beautiful friendship.”

Shadow accepted his hand, grinning wolfishly. “It does.”

Four looked up from where they were reading their book. It was quiet. Too quiet. 

Suspicions raised, they bookmarked their book, setting it off to the side as they grabbed their bag. 

(If they had paid better attention, they would have noticed a hand grabbing the book from where they put it down.)

Satisfied that no one had messed with their stuff, they grabbed their book again, taking their bookmark out, and continuing to read about- wait, what? Ew, this wasn’t their book!

Ah. 

Their eyes shone blue as they took the bookmark out. 

“Shadow Link Smith, you are so dead!”

Spirit watched as Four chased Shadow and Wind around the campsite, murder in their eyes as the duo laughed maniacally. 

Four’s face was incredibly pink, and their eyes were a deep, vibrant blue. What did those two do?

Ah well, not his business. Good to see Wind and Shadow were getting along.

Hyrule shyly observed Shadow as he dangled from a tree overlooking the campsite, counting something on his fingers. 

Scuffing his foot around the dirt, something shiny caught his eye. Bending down to pick it up, it seemed to be a gold-like chunk of metal, the thing that made it known to not be real gold was the geometricity of the metal, tiny squares sticking out from every direction. Mind made up, he turned to the new hero. 

“Hey, Shadow, I found this. It’s for you.”

Warriors was avoiding the new hero. It wasn’t anything personal, he seemed like a nice kid, seemed a lot like Wind in the mischief and the tendency to prank. 

But seeing the inky black wings out of the corner of his eyes brang way too many bad memories back to the surface, memories he was happy to let fester in the back of his mind for the rest of his life. 

Unfortunately, Shadow had seemed to notice this. And he was attempting to fix it. 

“Hey there Warriors, look at this cool rock Hyrule found!”

He accepted the rock, smiling at the blocky exterior. “That’s iron pyrite. Miners used to see it and think it was gold, leading to its nickname, Fool’s Gold.”

He took it back, smiling. “Fool's gold? Cool! What makes it different from real gold?”

As Warriors slipped into the familiar mindset of a teacher, he thought that maybe this wouldn’t be too bad after all.

Wild smiled, stirring his pot with a grin. The deep purple liquid simmered, the exact same shade as the strange mirror Four had taken to carrying around. Small white chunks bobbed around in the broth, the shape making them look vaguely like teeth. To this day, he still had no idea where they came from. They tasted vaguely like water chestnuts, despite the recipe not calling for any. 

Dinner was almost ready.

As soon as the Monster Extract was added, Shadow had come racing up to the pot like an excited toddler, grinning as widely as possible with his small mouth. 

“OOO, that smells good! Whatcha making?”

Wild grinned back, handing a spoon to the excited hero. “Monster Soup. Wanna try some?”

He dipped his spoon into the pot, laughing at the purple steam coming off of it. He shoved the spoon into his mouth, lighting up even more than before. “This is the best thing I have eaten since I was made! Which isn’t a lot, honestly, but it’s still Fucking Good!! Can I have more?”

Wild grinned ruefully, gently grabbing the spoon out of his hand. “When dinner’s ready, yes.”

“What?” Shadow pouted, crossing his arms. “No fair!”

Four looked over at the two figures over by the pot, which was billowing off steam in a concerningly vibrant purple shade. 

At least they were getting along? 

First started humming as he worked, pinning the mattresses together in a now-familiar routine. Motioning for Twilight to pass him the pins, he shifted over to add the next mat onto the already large mattress. It stretched so long that Time and Warriors could stand head to toe on each other, and still be shorter than it. 

It was a little ridiculous. 

“What are you doing?”  First looked up from the pins he was using, to meet eyes with Four’s… something. Nobody was sure what their deal was. Shadow pointed at the mattresses again. “What’s this?”

“Oh,” First said, holding up the bag of pins. “This is the mega mattress. We all just- use it to sleep on together, it was Four’s idea to begin with, and then it kind of- stuck.”

His eyes lit up. “Cool. Can I help?” 

“Sure.” 

Sky hummed to himself as he carved the small Loftwing figurine he was working on, flicking a few wood shavings off his lap with a smile. Watch duty wasn’t as boring as it could be when he had something else to do. 

It was unfortunate that Four didn’t have the same kind of project anymore, he mused, turning his gaze up to check on the smaller hero. 

Ah. Nevermind. 

They were running their hands through Shadow’s hair, a soft smile painting their features as their eyes, which shone violet even in the near pitch black, drifted over their small companion’s. Their bright, multicolored wings wrapped around both of them like a blanket, with Shadow’s face buried under the violet section.

It was absolutely adorable, and Sky mourned his lack of a pictobox. 

Chapter Text

Despite what you might think, Twilight wasn’t actually looking for trouble this time. 

He huffed as he wove around an incoming arrow, fur bristling as the Bokoblin growled.  “Wolfie!” came a shout from behind him. The Traveler ran up to him, waving frantically and deflecting arrows off his shield. “What’re you doing here?” 

Twilight gave him a blank stare. 

“Oh right, you can’t talk. Well-”  He paused to turn around and decapitate a charging Moblin, before turning back to Twilight. “Well you should probably come to camp, it’s not safe out in the wilderness.”

Twi tried to indicate that he had to go, but it was obvious Hyrule wasn’t going to take no for an answer. A few moments later, a very annoyed wolf trailed after the energetic traveler, heading into camp. 

“Hyrule?” Warriors hesitantly approached the Traveler. 

“Yes?”

“Wha- Whatcha got there?” 

He didn’t look up from where he was brushing Wolfie’s fur. “A hairbrush.”

Shadow looked suspiciously at the wolf that Hyrule was currently brushing. It reeked of dark magic, darker than his own. It didn’t seem malicious though, tail wagging furiously as Wind and Spirit fawned over it. Its fur had strange markings over it, with a pair of splotches along its back that almost looked like…

Ah, that explained it. 

Legend watched the realization happen, immediately coming up to the smaller hero. “Figured it out already?” 

“Is it an open secret, or does nobody else realize that’s the Rancher over there getting his fur braided?”

“You’re the second person to figure it out.” Shadow looked very smug at that. 

“Ha.”

“You aren’t going to tell Four.”

Shadow pouted. “Aw man.”

Wind was having the time of his life. Twi’s dog was letting him braid its fur, sitting quietly as Wind and Spirit added lots of little bows and ribbons to his fur. It looked so cute, but from the way the others were laughing to the side, they didn’t think so. Wind saw Spirit stick his tongue out at the offending heroes before going back to braiding. 

“Yeah, show em,” Wind whispered to Spirit, ruffling his hair before going back to his own braiding. 

Twilight looked up from where Wind, Spirit and now Shadow were braiding his fur. From Shadow’s snickering, he had figured out Twilight’s secret and was having no small amount of fun with it. He made eye contact with Legend, who just smirked, waving at him. 

He turned his pleading gaze onto Time, who visibly stifled a laugh. Next to him, Wild looked up from his slate, made eye contact with Twilight, and looked back down. 

Traitors, the lot of them. 

At last, Four seemed to take pity on him, shooing the twins off. “Alright, I think Wolfie has had enough, go bother someone else.” They pouted but left. 

Four ruffled his fur, eyes glowing bright red as Twilight gently headbutted their leg in thanks. He trained his eyes on Time and Wild, who weren't paying attention. He crouched down, getting ready to jump. 

Revenge time.

First laughed as the wolf play-chased around the younger heroes, Pink bows flapping as its tail wagged. It fell into a play bow and immediately got bowled over by a flying Wild, skidding a good five feet before resuming their game. 

“Don’t wanna play?” Sky sat down next to him with a cheeky grin, clutching something tightly in his palm. 

“I don’t feel like rolling around in the mud with a wild animal, no. Do you?”

He laughed. “Fair enough.” He rolled the mystery object across his palm in an uncharacteristic show of nervousness. “Hey, First?”

He looked over at the younger hero. “Yeah?”

“I- Uh, I made you this!” He shoved the mysterious object into his hand unceremoniously, squeezing his eyes tightly. 

It was a palm sized, wooden figurine of Crimson, incredibly intricate despite the size. The wings were outstretched in an imitation of flight, painted a brilliant red. First ran his hand over the wood, marveling at the miniscule details. 

“Sky, it’s beautiful!” he grabbed the younger hero’s hand, pulling him close. “Thank you.”

Sky grinned up at his brother, before pulling him into a hug. “You’re welcome.”

Chapter Text

Warriors deflected another arrow with his shield, grinning as he watched Wild shoot the offending archer with a fire arrow. He gave The Champion a quick thumbs up before whirling around in a spin attack to finish off the attacking Lizalfos, turning his attention to the larger battle.

Wind and Spirit wove around each other; slashing in perfect tandem as they attacked the approaching monsters. It was quite eerie to watch from an outside perspective, with how similar the two looked. They almost looked like clones, though Warriors wouldn’t have dared to guess which was the clone and which was the original.

He looked up to see Time and Twilight taking on the Keese in the air, occasionally dive bombing the stray monster before it could run away for backup. It seemed like they were making a game out of who could take on the most Keese at once. The high score was somewhere in the 20’s, and for some reason, the Keese kept dropping wings and- on the very rare occasion- entire eyeballs. Wild kept grabbing the aforementioned eyes and wings off the ground and stuffing them in his pockets, and Warriors decided it was best if he ignored it for now.

Back on the ground, Sky struck a wave of Bokoblins with a Skyward Strike, shoving back any monster that wasn’t immediately vaporized upon impact. First advanced on any of the survivors gracefully, slicing through them with ease. A grateful smile was shot in the direction of the Chosen, and they continued to make large dents in the approaching swarm.

Warriors noticed a large Moblin approaching Four and Hyrule, who seemed to be having quite a bit of fun watching Shadow shapeshift into various monsters, infiltrating their ranks and killing them, before hiding himself in the crowd again as they ran around like headless chickens trying to find him. He rushed to intercept, only for Legend to do it for him, shoving the attacking monster away with such ferocity it reminded him of Volga.

He sighed at his brother’s antics and jumped back into the fray as they neared the end of the swarm.

Once they finished clearing out the monsters, they all took a few minutes to relax. Time looked over at First, who was methodically wrapping a gash in Hyrule’s wing. Hyrule rolled his eyes, before First lightly hit him over the head with the roll of bandages.

“You alright, Captain?” Warriors looked over to see Time sitting next to him, frowning softly. “You’ve got your thinking face on.”

Wind looked over from his self assigned challenge of braiding Wild’s hair as he cooked. “You can think?!” Wind yelled, which caused Wild to snort and accidentally knock the few rows of braid out of his hair. Wind frowned, before reluctantly starting the braid all over again.

Warriors smiled at the scene, before turning to Time. “Just… homesick, I guess.”

Time smiled sadly. “Ah. Well, I think we only have Spirit’s and your world left to go visit, so you've got a good chance of seeing it again soon.”

Warriors smiled at them. “Hope you’re right.”

“I’m always right,” Time grinned.

“Well, if you’re sure.”

“Oh, fuck off!”

Hyrule laughed as Wind tried and failed again to braid Wild’s hair as the Champion attempted to cook dinner (Keyword being attempted, as Wind kept getting in the way). He ran his whetstone over his sword, sharpening it in a repetitive motion as he thought. They had been in Four’s era for a while now, they were due to go somewhere else soon…

As if reading his thoughts, the air shifted, and just as Wild looked up from dinner, (ruining all of Wind’s hard work again) The next portal appeared, murky black and unsettlingly alluring. There were loud sighs as the people setting up the mattress stopped their task, undoing all their hard work to pack everything up again.

They ate dinner quickly, before putting all of their dishes into Wild’s slate, to clean later. One after the other, they entered the portal. Four gave one last longing look as they left, waving to some nearby Minish before entering after the others.

Linkle laughed to herself as the bucket of glue fell over a visiting noble’s head. she shouted, first in surprise, then in frustration as she realized she was now covered in the sticky substance. It would have been a lot more fun if Link was here, but she’d have to manage for now. As the guards chased her out of the throne room again, she wondered to herself where he could have possibly gone.

She slid into an empty room, covering her mouth to muffle her laughter as the guards ran right past her. As she looked around the room she had found themselves in, Linkle noticed it appeared to be something almost akin to a storage room, boxes stacked to the ceiling.

Her eyes lit up as she started to sift through a box, finding more and more objects from the War Of Eras. There was a red pendant that looked like it belonged to Marin, an inventory schedule of Ravio’s, one of Mask’s spare ocarinas, Oh, that’s where her quiver went!

She sorted through the trinkets with glee, pausing every now and then to remark upon fond memories. The box was probably Link’s, but surely he wouldn’t mind his darling little sister looking through it, right?

There was a flash of purple from behind her, and in a panic she shoved everything in the box unceremoniously, slamming it shut and pointedly looking away from it. Looking for where the light came from, she saw a person step out of a portal, before tripping on the pendant she had accidentally left out.

“Fuck!” came the shout as a familiar face toppled to the ground.

Linkle froze, her expression filled with recognition as she rushed over to see the face of someone she never thought she’d see again. “Tune?”