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The traveler had warned them that monsters would constantly crawl out of the woodworks in his time, the only places safe from them being towns and the castle. But the Links thought themselves prepared for that, and set camp in a forest nearby the town of Rauru. If they did get attacked and overwhelmed, that would be their destination on their escape route.
Warriors was not able to go onto that escape route.
It happened in the dead of night. They had all scattered like rats in the chaos. Most converging onto the escape route. Two huddled up in a dark, narrow cave. It started to rain when they were running for their lives, then it started to pour.
Warriors was trapped in a cave with Four. Definitely not his first choice, but it wasn’t the worst thing to happen. Wars couldn’t recall the last time-or anytime for that matter-the two were alone with each other. Sure they interacted quite a bit, and were friendly with each other, but they never had a full on conversation between just the two of them. Maybe a few words, a couple of sentences, but Warriors would definitely enjoy the chance to talk to the resident blacksmith a bit more. Especially since Four seemed to be very encouraging of him.
Wars chugged down a healing elixir Wild had given him a while back, healing most of his wounds. The two heroes had no major injuries, but plenty of annoying, minor ones. Wars even had cobwebs in his hair. Many, many cobwebs. He really wanted to get out of this time as soon as possible.
He looked over at the smaller Link, who was completely cobweb free. Wars was far too tired to hide his scowl upon seeing that. Then the two made eye contact and Wars wished he didn’t have a face.
“Sucks to be tall, huh?” Four sneered, voice a bit hoarse.
“Shut your face-” Wars’ mind churned and sputtered, trying to come up with a good insult despite his current lack of sleep and fading adrenaline, “-you…tiny, tiny man.”
“Okay. Will do.”
Wars tightly gripped his scarf, trying not to fume at the fact that this man had simply brushed off his clever comeback. Well, he was awake enough to be aware that what he said wasn’t very clever, but it still hurt.
Warriors just fumbled with his hair and clothes, trying to make himself more presentable. It was a good way to calm and center himself. He glanced over at Four from time to time, who had happily fallen asleep while sitting. Wars envied him.
So, being the petty person he was, combined with his fatigued mind, Wars bundled up all the spiderwebs that was previously in his hair, stood up, walked over to Four, and smushed the sticky bundle right into his hair. Wars quickly walked back over to his previous spot, sitting back down and he watch Four groggily wake up. He quickly realized what had been done as he grabbed the side of his head, feeling the webbing getting stuck onto his hand. Wars giggled at his initial confusion, and further more at the angry face the little one sported.
“Looks like someone’s jealous my hair is perfect,” Four had spat and he attempted to untangle the webs from his hair.
“Perfect? Please, your haircut is atrocious.”
“‘ yOuR hAiRcUt Is AtRoCiOuS! ’ It’s practical, especially compared to yours . I bet you aren’t even a real blond!”
Wars gasped loudly, hand placed over his heart dramatically, “How dare you? Are you asking for a fight , is that what you want, you want these hands ?”
“Hmm, better idea-“ Four whipped out a yellow, definitely magic cane, “-get flipped moron.”
“What do you- ACK !” Wars was hit with a ball of light from the cane, and was now suddenly upside down. Wars struggled to reorient himself, struggling more than he would like to admit, “You, you little- UGH !” Four struck him again, only once he had managed to sit back up. The smug face that tiny, tiny man had made Wars furious. Yeah, he probably deserved it, but he wasn’t going to yield to this coward any time soon.
“You think you’re so cool with your freaky weapon, don’t you huh? Don’t you ?”
“Not as cool as you, captain.”
“Oh, har har,” Wars honestly barely registered what Four just said, but that didn’t matter. He was in a battle right now and he was going to win it . “Get ready for my counterattack!” He swiftly put on his gauntlets and pulled out his 8-bit raft, that was suspiciously no longer 8-bit in this time, because it was actually just Hyrule’s raft that he permanently borrowed.
“Is-is that the traveler’s raft ?” Four asked, befuddled, “Did you steal his raft?”
“How about you steal yourself for this!” Wars swung the raft at Four, who scurried away just in time. It made a loud bang against the cave wall, leaving a dent in it.
“Why does his raft have so much force?!”
“It’s not actually a raft, good sir!” Wars cackled-and lied-as he swung again, the raft having a wonderful meeting with Four’s shield.
“Ack! Is-this can’t be metal, or wood, or whatever I don’t know!”
“Can’t be or can’t comprehend ?”
“That makes no sense!”
“ You don’t make sense!”
“No you!”
“No you!”
The two glared at each other for a while, unmoving. Then Four started to snicker, then dissolved into laughter.
“Why- hah -why are you-“ Wars burst into laughter as well. He had no idea why or at what was so funny, but he was laughing. He pulled back on the rope tied to the raft, releasing Four as Wars sat down next to him.
They sat and laid there, laughing for no apparent reason. Wars slowly moved to lay down with his friend, trying to stop giggling to himself. And the laughter eventually died down, only a free scattered giggles shared between them, before a period of blissful silence. Warriors listened to the roar of the rain outside of the cave, how it hit the leaves on the trees, how it flooded the grass below. He could hear the faint skittering of a rather large bug behind them. Hopefully they wouldn’t have to deal with that any time soon.
Four started to giggle again, Wars trying his best not to join in.
“What’s so funny, smithy?” Wars asked.
“Heh, steal yourself, good one,” Four answered with a wide smile, giggling. Wars gave into his urge to laugh, running his hand through his hair, then covering his face.
“D-dude, I said that ages ago!”
“I don’t think you know how time works.”
“No you!”
“ nO yOu !”
“Oh don’t you get all sarcastic with me!”
“I was sarcastic earlier!”
“I didn’t notice it earlier!”
“I didn’t notice your pun earlier, so take that!”
“I didn’t notice your face !” Wars attempted to smack Four’s face, but ended up hitting the cold, painful cave ground. He swore and clutched his hand, turning away from Four and onto his side. He didn’t know Four could cackle so loudly.
“You-you definitely didn’t notice that!”
“Oh, shut up!” Wars turned over to face Four and tackled him. They scuffled for a while, before collapsing in a huff. Wars tried to keep himself awake, one of them had to be on lookout after all, but his eyelids were growing heavier and heavier. He could feel the rhythmic breathing of Four, who was sprawled on top of him, already sleeping peacefully. Despite how hard Warriors fought, the spindly arms of sleep had him in its clutches, and he could not escape. Sleep came like a graceful monster.
The sounds of shouting launched Warriors upright and awake. It also launched Four right off of him.
“Wha happin?” Wars slurred out, looking around with unfocused eyes. It took him a second to notice Four glaring at him from his lap.
“Oh, hey smithy.”
“Hey captain,” Four said with a sigh, “Hey traveler, hey rancher.” Wars turned to where he was looking, and there they were, Hyrule and Twilight, Hyrule holding up his raft and Twilight holding up Wars’ gauntlets.
“I stole your raft by the way.”
“But why?” Hyrule asked.
“Bludg-“ Wars yawned, “-bludgeoning device.” Wars laid back down, closing his eyes, still tired and now at peace since there was no immediate danger. Then, a few moments later, he suddenly was flipped over.
“Get up cap, you can sleep in an actual bed later.” Four twirled around his magic cane, before flipping Wars over yet again.
“…give me the raft traveler.”
“Don’t give him the raft,” Twi told him.
“No no, give him the raft, it’ll wake him up,” Four sneered.
“Prepare yourself fool!” Unfortunately, Warriors was the fool here, because the raft was far too heavy for him without his gauntlets. He could not move. He could only accept the fact of the situation as Four laughed right in face. Wars arms were free enough to use another weapon, however.
Twilight couldn’t help but question when Wars had stolen his spinner.