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“How is he?” Legend asked, running up to Hyrule’s prone form the moment they arrived.
“He was bleeding through his bandages, but I changed them. He woke up for a bit, mentioned that it hurt, and passed out again,” Warriors answered.
Legend made a face, and Warriors turned back to Hyrule to check on his status. The bandages were white, thankfully. Warriors lifted Hyrule’s wrist, feeling for a pulse, but grimaced. He checked his neck as well.
“Oh, goddesses, no,” Warriors mumbled to himself, repositioning his body to begin chest compressions, “One, two, three, four…”
“What’s going on?” Wild asked.
“Hyrule isn’t breathing,” Four answered, confirming Legend’s fear, “Warriors is doing a medical procedure known as CPR to get him breathing again.”
“It’s usually used on someone who has been unconscious underwater,” Wind added, “Someone who’s drowned.”
Warriors was now breathing into Hyrule’s mouth and then returned to the compressions. “Two, three, four, five…”
Warriors finished the compressions and pressed his mouth to Hyrule’s. After two breaths, the teen’s body jerked under the captain. Hyrule began breathing.
Warriors sat back, his hair ragged and breathing heavily.
“Is he good?” Wild asked.
“He should be,” Warriors answered.
Wild made dinner - time had really passed quickly in their panicked state - and it was eaten in silence, everyone shaken and worried about Hyrule. Watch was established, two at a time (they didn’t want a repeat of last night) and Warriors was assigned Hyrule watch. Somewhere around midnight, Hyrule stopped breathing yet again, and Warriors was glad Legend was asleep on the other side of camp as he began CPR.
After a few rounds, Warriors got Hyrule breathing again, and the night passed with no more ‘excitement’. Hyrule woke up just before breakfast that morning. He wasn’t hungry, but he listened as Warriors told him about what had happened in the night, how he’d had to perform CPR twice.
A solemn look passed over Hyrule’s face, and he whispered, “You have to let me go. You have to stop trying. It’s tearing me apart from the inside.”
“Hyrule, we’re going to get you through this, I promise,” Warriors told him.
“You can’t save me, you’re just prolonging my death by a few hours every time. I just want to say goodbye to everyone.”
Warriors called the heroes over. He knew Hyrule wasn’t going to last long. He’d noticed fresh blood in the teen’s formerly pristine white bandages as he’d spoken to him this morning. Sky was sobbing, disheartened at the thought of losing one of their own. Tears slipped down several cheeks, glinting in the morning sun. Everyone but Legend turned away after a while, unable to stay nearby without becoming an emotional mess. Legend clutched Hyrule’s hand to his chest, sobbing and shaking violently as he did so.
A little while later, Legend cried, “No!!!!! Rulie!!!! Please don’t go!!!”
The veteran dropped Hyrule’s now-limp arm and began CPR. Round after round passed, and the minutes dragged on and blurred. Warriors watched helplessly as Legend performed futile compressions. Hyrule’s chest remained still, the teen’s skin pale and grey.
“Please come back,” Legend begged, “Please!”
Hyrule did not breathe. Warriors knew he never would. He moved back to the duo.
“Legend,” he started, “There’s nothing we can do now.”
“No!” Legend yelled, putting more force into the current compression. Warriors winced at the cracking noise that met his ears.
“Legend, he’s gone. You’ve been doing compressions for twenty minutes!”
Legend’s hands paused. “Goddesses, has it really been that long?”
“Yes,” Time said.
“No,” Legend sobbed, “He can’t…”
“We’ll bury him after breakfast,” Warriors said, pointing at the dishes Wild was filling. Eight dishes, not nine like it should have been. Hyrule was gone, never coming back, and Legend had failed him, never protected him. He’d never even shared stories of his adventures with his successor, and now he’d never get the chance. Hyrule lay dead in Warriors’ bedroll.