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“On your mark,” Wind says, “get set…”
Blue glares at the grassy ground, his muscles taut and brimming with energy. It's been several long weeks since Four split, and he's pent-up. Beside him, Wild’s heel shifts against the ground.
“Go!” Wind slashes his hand through the air, and Blue and Wild take off.
The route isn’t long, just across the clearing and back, so Blue is optimistic. It feels so good to stretch out, even if his pain is at a mid-level today. His feet pound against the tall grass and the hard dirt beneath, and though he tries, Wild pulls ahead.
On the way back, Blue’s foot catches in a divot, and he goes sprawling. He scrapes his elbows but manages to stop himself before he flies too far. The world stops rolling. He stares up at the cloudy sky and sighs.
Wild skids to a stop. “Blue! You okay?”
“Fine,” Blue calls back, rolling up to sitting. And then, with a secret thrill of joy that he would never hold over any of the others’ heads, even if they know he feels it, he stands up. “I think I'm just out of practice. And your legs are longer anyway, freak, so you have an unfair advantage!”
“Hey,” Wild protests, but he laughs. He hasn't made it to the other end of the clearing yet, worried for Blue. Wind raises his eyebrows when he meets Blue’s eyes.
Blue walks calmly over, letting himself limp just a little. He laughs along with Wild. “It's just been a while since I ran, that's all.”
“Yeah, okay, I'll give you that,” Wild shrugs.
And then Blue takes off again. He runs the last five or six steps to their designated finish line. “HA! I WON!”
“Now that's unfair!” Wild says, jogging over.
Wind collapses into laughter.
---
At this point, after so many lessons and a lot of practice, Vio is only slightly better at signing than Hyrule. He's very happy for Hyrule, of course, but it does rankle his pride just a little, so he takes up Warriors on his invitation and joins the next little lesson.
As he observes Warriors and Hyrule have a half-silent conversation, it becomes obvious that their communication is less about learning actual sign words or grammar and more about figuring out how to adapt it for the two of them. Everything Warriors says has to be in contact with Hyrule’s skin, one way or another, so Vio doesn't catch most of that.
But Hyrule’s signs are pretty normal, since Warriors can see them, except for one thing.
“That—” Vio starts, then bites his tongue.
“What?” Hyrule says. “Was that wrong?”
“Um, only in that your spelling is… off.”
“It doesn't matter,” Warriors shrugs, hands flying. “I've figured out his phonetics.”
Vio makes a face. “Wars says it doesn't matter, he knows what you're saying anyway, but the perfectionist in me is frustrated.”
Hyrule laughs. “Sorry. I haven’t ever, you know, learned letters before. I figured I was getting some of it wrong.”
“You know,” Vio says thoughtfully, thinking back to his books at home, “I know there's a type of writing that was developed by people with low vision. I don't know much about it, but I know it exists in my time. I wonder if we could find some of it.”
“Oooooh,” Hyrule says, his eyes widening.
---
Red picks another dandelion at the base of its stem, close to the ground. “And then you use your fingernail to make a little slit by the flower, like this! You can't make it too big, though.” He demonstrates, smiling at the way both Time and Legend lean in to see better.
“And then…” He slides the stem of his next dandelion through the hole in the first. “Ta da!”
“So pretty similar to a normal wildflower chain,” Legend says, copying Red and starting a dandelion chain of his own. “Do you ever put knots in it?”
Red hums, considering. “No, I think these stems would break. They're tough but don't bend very well.”
“Sort of like Legend,” Time says, smiling.
Legend huffs, but he can't hide the little smile of his own. “Sure. Whatever.”
When Red finishes his dandelion chain, he loops it around into a crown and drops it right on Legend’s fluffy head. Legend returns the favor, putting his own dandelion chain on Red’s head, except it's a bit too wide, and it falls to his neck instead.
Legend’s snort-laugh starts off a round of laughter that Red and Time can't easily shake.
---
Twilight pulls out the shopping list again, adjusting his hold on the bag that sits over one shoulder as he does so. “So is that everything?”
“Hm?” Sky says, looking back over at Twilight. “Oh. Yes. I think so.”
Green catches up, weighed down a little by a supply pack of his own on his back and the fact that even using crutches, he’s a bit short. “Wait, no, Wind needs a belt, and I need some more brass rivets.”
Sky snaps his fingers. “Right, rivets! Hey, Wind didn't say anything about a belt… did he?” He glances at Twilight, who shakes his head.
“Wars keeps inventory,” Green explains. “And I noticed.”
Twilight puts away the shopping list. “Sounds like a trip to the leatherworks, then.”
Green eyes Twilight as he passes. “You could use a new sword belt, too. Let's see if they have anything with the D-rings. If not, I'll make one.”
“Thanks, Green. What would we do without you?”
“Suffer.”