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Legend woke to the sound of Wild humming over his cooking pot. He sat up, knowing he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep. A quick glance around revealed Rulie absent. “Where’s ‘Rule?” Legend asked.
“Probably patrolling and being an idiot, taking Wars’ shift,” Wild answered, “I’m sure he’ll be back soon, he’s been gone for maybe fifteen minutes as I prepped?”
Much to Legend’s dismay, Hyrule was not back soon, and Legend was waking up heroes in a tizzy.
“Legend, let me sleep,” Warriors moaned, rolling over.
“Hyrule’s been missing for at least forty-five minutes!” Legend yelled, waking three of the four remaining sleeping heroes. Sky, as usual, continued snoring.
Legend moved over to Sky and yanked the sailcloth off the older hero’s body. Sky mumbled and slept on. Legend reared up to kick the chosen hero, but Time grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back.
Time knelt by Sky, armor already on, and began shaking their resident sleepyhead. “Sky. We need to wake up, now.”
“MMmmmm,” Sky moaned.
“Sky, it is an emergency. I need you up this second,” Time said. Sky opened one eye.
“M, yeah?” Sky asked.
“Get ready, Rulie’s missing. He never woke Warriors for third watch, and Wild noticed his absence merely forty-five minutes ago.”
“Oh, no,” Sky whispered.
“Is that all you have to say? This is Rulie we’re talking about!” Legend yelled, anger visible in his features. Time shot him a glare and Legend went quiet.
Fifteen minutes, later, camp was packed up. Wild handed out snacks towards the heroes as Wind murmured, “I hope he’s okay,”
“Wild,” Time said, “This is your era, who’s most likely to kidnap him? And where are they most likely to take him?”
“Umm, the Yiga might take him in order to get to me?” Wild answered uncertainly, “And they would take him to one of their hideouts. There’s actually one about two miles from here.”
“Lead the way,” Time told him. Wild began to move at a quick pace into the forest. Legend didn’t pay attention to anything said during the walk, he was too concerned about Rulie, who could have been missing for eight hours already. Eight hours and the hands of these Yuga assassins – no, wait, Yiga assassins and whatever their methods of torture happened to be. What if they were too late?
“We’re here,” Wild whispered back to the group. A high-pitched, loud scream reached their ears. Poor Rulie, what were those monsters doing to him?
The scream stopped abruptly. Dear Din, let that not be a death scream! Legend prayed.
Wild showed them to the hidden entrance the Yiga had forgotten about during his journey, but it was guarded. “The question is, ‘what is the best way to get in?’” the scarred hero mused aloud, “Maybe brute force? The entrance was forgotten the past couple of times.”
“Can we please just get to Rulie?” Legend begged, “He’s injured at best, and needs help now.”
One of the Yiga pointed to where they were hiding, and a flurry of them teleported just nearby, and the heroes began to fight. They were quickly outmatched, and Time found himself calling, “Retreat!”
Legend jumped back to avoid getting cut in half, as did half of his teammates. “No, we can’t leave him, he’s our brother!”
“We’re no good to him dead, Vet!” Warriors yelled over the fray. The heroes made a hasty retreat to an area a half-mile away.
Legend didn’t pay attention to any of the planning, and they had to go over the final version three times because Legend kept interrupting with a panic attack about Hyrule’s current fate.
The plan they had decided on was everyone except Legend and Warriors leading the Yiga away, allowing the duo to get to Rulie. They made their way back to the hideout, and Time motioned for the large group to step into view. The Yiga gave chase and abandoned the door. Legend and Warriors quietly slipped into the hideout and made their way to the dungeons off the map Wild had given them. The hallway split, and Legend took the left and Warriors took the right. Halfway down, Legend came across Hyrule. He didn’t look good. He was limp, his skin was grey and pale, and there was blood by his mouth and on his sleeve. A knife rested in his lower side, and his tunic was stained red around the knife. Hyrule’s breath was weak when Legend placed his palm in front of his mouth.
Legend and Warriors had devised a signal before coming in to let the other know if he’d found Hyrule. Legend made his signal, hoping Warriors heard him.