Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wars was worried.

Hell, he was terrified.

He had been dropped right outside of his castle town in the middle of a rainstorm. One that he would later be informed was set to turn into a snowstorm. Wasn’t hard to recognize it as the remains of one of Cia’s stupid weather spells, he doesn’t even know how they started when she was already dead by the time they did.

He was alone and without his bag, and he was upset cause his scarf was still in it, but luckily right in front of a place to get shelter.

He headed through castle town quickly and navigated through the castle to the throne room where he found Artemis, Impa, and Lana, all discussing politics and the weather.

He very quickly informed them that he had been separated from the others and that they needed to send out some people to track them down before they got lost or did something stupid. (Spoiler Wind was already doing stupid crap)

He also stressed that they were looking for nine heroes, not eight anymore.

While he changed, Impa and Lana had taken no time at all to gather soldiers to search nearby. In less than an hour, watches were doing rounds of the castle hoping one of the other heroes would wander in while search parties were looking further out.

It was about the two-hour mark that one of the parties came back with Time. He had Four draped over his back. The smith having fallen badly on his ankle.

He called for healers and helped Time and Four get settled in one of the spare castle rooms before going back to coordinate the search for the rest of the missing Links.

Time joined him just as Impa arrived at hour seven with a soaked yet beaming Wind, who very excitedly shared that he had landed in a camp of monsters and had been having fun finding ways to blow them up in the rain. One look at Impa and he had confirmation that Wind had in fact been blowing things up in a rainstorm instead of trying to find everyone else.

Wind was put in charge of moral support that he didn’t provide. Instead, opting to mess with the guards and play pranks on the kitchen staff without a care in the world.

He reasoned that he knew the other Links would show up eventually and that Legend was too spiteful and would bring them back to life just because they died in a rainstorm. A stupid way to go and a great reason to bring someone back to life to mess with.

He’s sure Wind had a concussion and left the healers to deal with it. He loves Wind, he does. But the sailer simply becomes the greatest nuisance to Hylia’s kind when stuck with any kind of head injury.

When hour ten rolled around, so did Linkle with Sky in tow. He was cold and had the beginnings of a fever, but he was otherwise unharmed and safe. Time and Lana wrapped him up in some blankets and got him settled with Four and Wind who was excited to recount what he had been doing the last three hours before coming back.

Linkle explained that he had wandered into a camp she had set up with some soldiers during her hunting trip to wait out the rain. They had originally stayed there till one of the search groups had found them and informed them of the other missing heroes, at which point they decided they were better off heading to the castle to offer what assistance they could.

Linkle ended up heading out with Lana to assist in the search for the remaining heroes herself, determined to meet Midna’s wolf boy she said.

After that, things got quiet and there was nothing to report till hour fifteen, when a group of soldiers arrived pretty beat up with a disgruntled Legend and shaking Hyrule. They were both fine and didn’t seem to be getting a fever, what amazing things - fire rods, but they had gotten into a couple of fights.

Legend muttered something about stupid monsters and soldiers and Hyrule kept apologizing to the men, but no one was willing to elaborate on what happened.

Given Legend’s dislike for the Hyrulian army, he would wager a pretty bet and probably win. Lana looked willing to put her own rupees on the line, but they would discuss it later once the last of the hero’s were accounted for. Artemis would be able to get the story out of the soldiers no problem.

Hyrule was left to rest with Four while Legend started helping Impa with better coordinating the forces out searching. He went as far as to draw up a picture of Echo from memory as he last remembered seeing her so everyone could see what she looked like. It wasn’t colored but it was a good sketch.

He was a little jealous of the vet’s drawing abilities.

The twenty-hour mark showed its ugly face by turning the rain into snow. Search parties began rotating so that the men could warm up every half hour.

They couldn’t search as much ground, but they simply were not going to risk the men dying of hypothermia themselves.

Twenty-five hours after he had landed in front of castle town and Wild and Twilight were finally brought in.

Wild was fine in his snow-quill armor and Twilight was a little cold but otherwise fine with all his extra tunics on. He doubted that’s how the rancher got through the storm, but he was focusing to much on finding their last missing member.

With Wild there, everyone was shown a picture Wild had taken of Echo - who knows when - and they doubled their search to find her before they’d have to call everyone back in when the worst of the storm hit.

Luck was not on their side.

Thirty-two hours and the soldiers returned cold and wet to the castle while snow piled up on the streets of castle town and the tops of the trees.

It was far to cold to continue searching and even if it wasn’t, it was simply impossible to see further than six feet in front of you anymore.

It pissed him off. They’d just gotten a new hero, and they had already lost her.

They simply had to hope that Echo had found shelter, and that she would be ok.

Chapter Text

Thirty-two hours prior-

Echo had the fortunate or unfortunate luck to land directly into a puddle of mud, on her ass, in the middle of nowhere, in pouring rain.

At least it softened her fall.

She laid there for a while before she moved to sit up.

Suddenly her entire body convulsed, and she curled up into a ball while her magic lashed out around her. She heard some trees break and felt ice around her. She had no idea how long she sat there, just that it felt like an eternity for her magic to settle down and pull back and even longer for her to finally sit up.

This environment was gonna take a lot of getting used to.

She looked around for the others but couldn’t spot anyone nearby. She carefully stood, trying not to slip in the mud, and shakily checked her supplies. She had her bag, her sword, her rod-

And War’s bag. Damn, she had been carrying it when the portal showed up, hadn’t she? What happened before that?

They were walking through Suthorn Woods the day after she met everyone. Wild had excitedly shared with Time about his new friend and about the game she and Four had played with Ash. Legend hadn’t believed that she had tamed a monster.

They had started heading east so she could introduce the rest of them to Ash and Mysty when Wars got shoved into a bush by Wind after he made some stupid joke. She had picked up his bag while Time helped him out of the bush. Then she was falling. After that, she was here.

Believing she had given it enough time, she went to reach her magic out, but it started lashing back in at her and she dropped back down to curl up into herself again. It hurt like hell, like ice was running through her veins and she couldn’t focus on anything but breathing through it.

Stupid portals…

This time it felt like it took longer for it to stop.

Once she could open her eyes and look around again, she realized that someone was now in front of her. It wasn’t one of the Links and she couldn’t make the man out due to the rain, but he was trying to say something to her that she just could not get her brain to hear.

With her magic rampaging and her head all fuzzy, the only thing she had to count on was her gut and that wasn’t the most trustworthy at the moment given that it was still rolling from the portal. How long ago was she dropped here?

The man reached his hand out to her, and she decided to take it. If this was a horrible choice, she would deal with the consequences later. He moved to pull her up, but she stumbled and ended up leaning against him as he started to rush her somewhere.

Leaning against him, she realized how cold she was. Her legs were so stiff that she stumbled every ten steps, but he always caught her and got her back on her feet without slowing down.

At some point, he must have noticed her shivering cause he dropped a heavy cloth over her shoulders. It was warm and she did her best to pull it around herself with freezing hands.

She noticed blurry figures in the distance and what she assumed were weapons being aimed at them.

The man abruptly turned and led her in a different direction. He quickened his pace, and she did her best to keep up but at some point, he must have given up having her run with him, because he picked her up and started sprinting.

Eventually, he slowed down, and she noticed some kind of small building in front of them. The man entered without having to put her down. Holding her with one arm while he used the other to unlock the door.

It had to be a cabin of some kind cause the room was small and the only connecting room visible looked like a bathroom through her blurry vision.

He placed her on the couch in front of an empty fireplace and quickly turned to start the fire. He must have used some kind of magic cause it looked for a moment like the fire started on its own.

He turned back to her and started to help her get out of her soaked clothes. She ideally noted that if her brain were less fuzzy, she would probably be fighting the fact a grown man she had never met was undressing her, but her brain was out of commission, she was freezing, and she just wanted to get out of her soaking clothes.

Once she was left in her underwear and the compression wrap over her chest, he grabbed a towel from the bathroom and helped her dry off. He said something that she still couldn’t make out. She tried to focus on his face, but her vision was still blurry, and she couldn’t make him out.

He must have taken her attempt to stare at him as a sign and picked up her bag, which she doesn’t know when she let go of. He dumped it carefully on the floor and rummaged through her supplies to find something. He started holding up her clothes and seemed upset with whatever he found because he moved off somewhere behind her.

He returned with a thick bundle of clothes. He put the shirt over her head before looking away and helping her get the compression wrap off. He let her get out of her underwear on her own before helping her get the pants on.

She was thankful these clothes were soft and warm, warmer than her tunic even. Maybe that is what he was looking for. Something warm to put her in?

He headed back behind her and this time she turned her head to follow his movements. He rummaged through a cabinet before finding something and returning to her. He handed her a small warm cup and when she smelled it, she got strong hints of lavender and ginger.

How had he heated it up?

She drank the tea while he laid some blankets out in front of the fire before he grabbed her arm and helped her lay down on them, facing the fire. He took the empty cup before grabbing another blanket to pull over her.

It was warm, comfortable and it wasn’t long before her mind started to drift off. She turned so she was laying on her back looking at the man. He simply stared back at her. She reached a handout toward the dumped contents of her bag.

He moved towards it and pulled out a few different things from in that she shook her head at before he pulled out her Curious Charm. When she didn’t deny it, he handed it to her. She shakily threw it around her neck and drifted off without worry, content that she had a small piece of home with her that would keep her safe.

Chapter Text

When Echo woke up, she couldn’t hear the rain outside anymore. The fire had dimmed slightly but was still going strong. Her body felt like crap. She was hot and cold at the same time, and it felt like someone had taken a bat and used her as a piñata. Her whole body was sore.

She stared at the ceiling for a while trying to determine if her magic was going to play kick the bottle with her brain again if she tried to use it.

She felt around her neck and held the curious charm in her hand, simply feeling the magic of it against her palm. She carefully pushed tiny amounts of magic into it and pulling it back. When that did not turn her into a puddle on the ground, she reached out around her.

Her magic came in contact with someone. More specifically the burning inferno that was his magic. Guess that answered one question from before.

She heard movement before the man leaned over the couch to look at her.

She wouldn’t deny he is handsome. He dressed simply in a white tunic that had a high neck, she could see scars poking out behind it. His long bright red hair fades into orange at the end was pulled back into a high ponytail. His eyes were completely black, and there were streaks of black that ran down his face. Apart of her felt it looked like he had been crying.

“How shitty do you feel?”

She blinked while it registered before she chuckled, thinking about it.

“Scale of one to ten? I’m at about a twenty.”

He sighed and walked around the couch to crouch down next to her. He placed a hand on her forehead for a moment, contemplating. His hand was really warm.

He pulled away and went back behind the couch. She could hear him rummaging through a cabinet again.

“You have a fever, likely from sitting out in the rain for so long, how are you usually sick? I need to know what to expect.”

He returned with a cup of tea; this time she noticed that he had lit a small fire in his hand under the cup. She sat up to take it and when he handed it to her it was nice and warm like before. She took a sip before answering with a smile.

“You’ll get zero or a hundred and no in between. At the moment I think your lucky and pulled a zero out of the deck.”

He stared at her before sitting down on the couch.

“Lucky me…”

She looked around and saw a window, outside she could see snow blasting around. It reminded her of the storm that had once been plaguing Hebra back home. He noticed where her gaze was and spoke up again.

“It’s not looking to stop for at least another day or two, three if were unlucky. It is a magical storm; they started after Cia officially died and Lana took over her duties. They’re not the girls' fault but she has not figured out how to stop them. We get em every few months.”

She nodded, could it have been the storm that messed with her magic? Or some combination of the portal and the storm together? She looked back to the man.

“Where am I?”

“Hyrule?”

Ok fair, she asked a dumb question. She sighed.

“Let me rephrase- When am I exactly?”

He leaned back and gave her a strange look, which was understandable cause she just asked when she was. Certainly not a question she ever thought she would ask, much less want, or need an answer to.

“What time foolery is happening this time?”

She couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

“Time will find that offensive or maybe funny?” She shook the thought away, “I don’t know all the details because I just joined the merry band of idiots that are apparently heroes, but some evil is messing with time, and we were gathered together to kill it or something.”

“All heroes are dumb”

She stared at him, he stared back.

“I’m not taking it back.”

She pouted a little, “And I can’t even take offense because I was never given a hero title. But I am a hero and not dumb,” Should she have told this stranger that? Damn. She did not have a filter when she was sick, how could she forget that?

“Then you are not a hero, but honestly who would want to be one of those. They are at the beck and call of the goddess. No idea how you got roped in, but I feel sorry for you. You’re more of a child than the sailor”

“Excuse me?”

‘You can’t stop bouncing in place, you pouted two seconds ago, and you got sick by staying out in the rain too long… Like a child.”

She glared at him, but she had a feeling her still-there-pout was keeping it from being intimidating.

“I was only out in the rain because I couldn’t move while my magic was trying to turn my brain into Swiss cheese. Besides the sailor is like seventeen, I’m turning twenty soon and am already married.”

“Good for you, wait till you have a kid and come back.”

She glared at him some more. How old is he? She stretched her magic out briefly.

“Who are you even anyway Mr. Thirty-three-year-old.”

He raised an eyebrow at the age she had estimated him at. It had a ninety percent chance of being right.

“My name is Volga.”

“Volga?”

“Yes, why?”

“Do you turn into a dragon by chance?”

“I don’t like were this is going.”

“I think I killed your clone.”

“I hate heroes.”

“Me too honestly!”

Chapter Text

“So how would you describe the Link of this time? I don’t know about their adventures yet, so obviously don’t know which one you know, but I would kinda like to figure out whose time I’m in.”

“He’s the goody-two-shoes hero to the Queen.”

“I’m going to need more than that.”

They hadn’t talked much after she’d explained how she had killed a dragon named Volvagia (which he confirmed is a name he had gone by once upon a time) during her quest. Volga had not been thrilled about it, for obvious reasons, but after she’d explained the dark echoes of people and monsters, and then told him her nickname, he’d been ok, if still a little unhappy that he was being used as someone’s puppet again.

He didn’t explain the again part.

Now after the explanation of her using echoes, she had pulled out her Tri Rod and had a Fire-Keese on her shoulders and a Fire-Octo in her lap keeping her warm. The fire was still in its place behind her but with limited wood, her echoes were better, especially since she still technically had a cold.

“What does this Link look like, describe him. All of us have similar but different fashion choices.”

“Well, he is a knight, I’ve never seen him in anything other than his gear or the uniform the queen gave him. Green tunic, armor, the only thing about him that stood out from other heroes I know was that scarf.”

She took a second to think back on the Links. Only one had a scarf that she knew of. She looked over at her bag and the one next to it.

She stood, placing the Octo on the blanket, and walked over to it. She felt a little bad for snooping in someone else things, but she had a feeling. She found what she was looking for at the bottom of the bag.

“This the scarf?”

She remembered Wars had been wearing it the day they met, he’d wanted to wear it the next morning, but Sky had pointed out some kind of damage and he had packed it away to fix later.

She sat back down, and the Octo cuddled up to her side. She looked around the scarf but couldn’t see any tear in it. A small spot on the embroidery was fraying but that was it.

“That’s his all right. How the hell did you get it? He only ever takes it off to clean and fix it.”

“He said it had some kind of tear in it, but all I can find is some of the embroidery fraying.”

Volga chuckled, “That may as well be a gaping hole in his eyes, thing’s more important to him than his own life. Never understood why.”

She nudged the Keese on her shoulder and he moved to lay on her head. She carefully wrapped the scarf around her shoulders, taking time to memorize the different patterns along the edges.

From a distance, she had only noticed the royal crest on the end of it but up close there where symbols along the sides. She recognized some of them, felt like she should know some, and others were new to her.

“What do these symbols mean? I’ve seen some of them, but I don’t know what they mean.”

Volga looked over the scarf, squinting before giving up and moving off the couch to sit next to her. He carefully took one end of the scarf in his hands to better see the symbols.

He ran his hands over some of them, taking time to think about it before pulling away.

“Well, it looks like a couple different versions of the goddess symbols at the base, from there it looks like it moves into some different alphabets that were used during the war. Then some of the sages' symbols and back into alphabets I don’t know.”

She looked at the scarf and the symbols, tracing her fingers over them. She unraveled the scarf from around her shoulders slightly and found her alphabet among the others. A little weird.

“Which alphabets do you know?”

He looked at her before pointing at different points on the scarf.

“This one is our hyrulian alphabet. The one next to it should be for Toon’s hyrule. A couple away from that is Mask’s era if I’m remembering right. The other side of our era’s reminds me of Midna’s hyrulian, which would make sense because it is next to Midna’s Twili alphabet.”

“How well do you know them?”

He sighed and laid down. Throwing an arm over his face. Despite his size, he took up less than half the space on the blankets.

“I know this era’s - obviously. I memorized the Twili one on a whim cause Midna was willing to teach me. I only know bits and pieces of the others. I never actually fought with Link and his group because I was under a spell working for Cia at first and then just did not want to fight someone else’s battles again.”

She considered his words, weighing the pros and possible cons of her next question, few as there were that she could think of. There are worse things he can say than no, but she had a feeling his answer wouldn’t be worse than no.

“Can you teach me?”

He looked at her from under his arm.

“Teach you?”

She nodded.

“I’m a quick learner I promise, and there isn’t much else to do while we wait out the storm. Besides from what I’ve seen and what I have heard, the others have been together for at least a month before I joined them a few days ago. They probably already know the basics of each others written language. I need the boost.”

She picked up the Tri Rod and used it to snag her bag, so she didn’t have to get up again. She shuffled things around in it before pulling out a small journal her father had given her about a week ago. A little more rummaging and she had a couple pencils.

Once she had her weapons of choice, she stared at him. He stared back for a while.

She’s sure she won the staring contest because he eventually relented.

“Fine, I will teach you the different hylians I know. If you’re really a fast learner, then maybe we can get into sentences in this era’s hylian.”

“What about the other language you mentioned? Twili?”

He sat up and took the journal from her.

“The chances of you using it is slim to none. I don’t even use it; I just know it because I thought it was interesting.”

She leaned into his space.

“But I want to learn it. Learning pointless things that won’t help me is kinda a trait of mine.”

He pushed her out of his space.

“We won’t have time. Especially not if you want to learn all of this era’s written language. I’ll give you the basic words you might see if you want, but you won’t be able to learn everything in the three days.”

“I learned the entirety of the Gerudo written language in three hours. Learned their spoken language in a single day. Try me.”

She pulled out a second journal from her bag, this one had been a gift from Impa. She stared him down. She would learn everything he taught her, no matter how briefly he mentioned it.

He stared at her, gauging wether or not he believed her.

After a moment, he once again sighed and gestured for her to pass over a pencil.

“Fine, but you might want another journal. Or six.”

Chapter Text

They were unlucky. The storm lasted for five days total, one day of rain, followed by a day of snow. Then they had a day with half snow, half sleet. Then back to just snow, and it finally ended with a hailstorm that dispersed back into rain.

At this point, Time was really concerned for their missing member.

Wars had spent everyday communicating with villages and outposts trying to find any sign of Echo, but no one had seen her.

He had wanted to just go out and look for her themselves, storm be damned- they have faced worse, but he was in charge of looking after Four and Wind. The latter of which had finally started feeling the effects of his concussion halfway through day two.

Twilight, Wild, and Sky had spent the time working with the cooks and staff to ensure everyone who came to castle seeking shelter from the storm had a place to sleep and food to eat.

Legend and Hyrule were the only two able to go searching. They were reported coming and going from different towns looking threw the storm to try and find Echo.

Legend had thought it would be easy, and that Wars was an idiot for not thinking about it, they have the master sword, and Fi is always able to find them. They don’t know if it is the storm or Echo herself, but the sword had led them out yes, but Hyrule at some point had noticed that she was taking them in circles.

They had returned on day four empty handed and utterly defeated. Legend had said there was no point for them to keep trying to find her on their own when the sword was not actually doing anything but messing them up more.

It was now day six since they had landed in War’s Hyrule. The sun was finally showing its nonexistent face, and the temperature was starting to return to normal.

Four was still hopping around on one foot, but otherwise good for travel. Wind’s concussion was close to being gone, and the people were set to return to their own homes the next day.

Meaning they had to be ready to head out and begin the search back up.

Echo had been out on her own for days, while he wanted to believe she would have found shelter and that she was ok, there were doubts and worries.

It did not help they had only known her for a day before she was separated from them. They had no idea what she could do, what she was good at or what she needed help with. Plus, this was likely her first time outside of her time, definitely the first time in War’s era, she had no idea the dangers of his world.

Time wanted to believe every hero was capable and prepared for everything, but it has always been proved they are not. Sky and Wind still struggle with traveling for lengthy periods, Wild always forgets she is not alone and wanders off. Four struggles with any severe differences in weather (Though he has said it’s an ongoing issue for years), Wars always feels like he’s at war, and Time himself struggles with adjusting to fighting after having been living peacefully at home for more than a decade.

Until he knows their new member better, he will not believe it impossible she may struggle with things any of them already struggle with.

So, here he was raiding every healers, and some mages, spaces to find every potion they could possibly ever need, now or further in the future.

He only had a vague idea what some of them do. He is pretty sure he grabbed some for-food poisoning, nausea, truth potion, maybe a love potion (He’s not sure about that one), and then plenty of others with names he had never heard of.

If this was going to be an issue than he would blame Wars, he is the one that said to just grab every potion they had, he never specified what he should not grab.

Who knows? They may need to drop a potion that explodes into fire on their enemy one day.

He should keep Wild and Wind away from the potions from now on.

Time heard the door open behind him and he turned to look. Four hobbled in using a wooden stick that looked like it was scavenged from ones doomed to the fireplace as a crutch.

Wait a second-

“Didn’t Artemis give you an actual walking stick?”

Four’s head shot up, obviously not having realized Time was in there. He looked down at the stick that he was using and then back up at Time.

“Wind stole the walking stick. He’s using it to start a war with the soldiers. I think he is winning. What are you doing in here?”

Wind was off starting another prank war, good to know.

“I’m grabbing potions. What about you?”

“I want to find something to murder myself without dying, but the chances of that are slim so I was hoping to find a couple red potions. I’m tired of hopping around.”

Time pulled a few red potions out of the pile and double checked they were actually red potions and not some unknown concoction that did who knows what before passing them to Four. Who then struggled to the the cap of the first one.

“You think you’ll be able to walk on your own tomorrow or will me and Twi have to take turns carrying you.”

Four finally popped the cap of and downed the potion in five seconds. He took a moment to think before shrugging.

“Do we want to get a lecture from Hyrule?”

“Fair point, I’ll let Twi know.”

Four nodded and stared off at the wall for a moment. He let the smith get his thoughts in order.

“Do you think she’s ok? She was out in the storm by herself. Just because we are heroes doesn’t mean we’re invincible.”

“No, it does not. But we are both blessed and cursed by Hylia’s favor. I’m sure she sent a stroke of luck Echoes way.”

He turned and closed the bag of potions; he’d have to have Wild store most of them in his slate and then divvy the rest out between everyone.

When he turned back, Four was attempting hobble his way back to their rooms. He couldn’t help laughing slightly at the sight.

Four turned back and pouted, but he simply walked over and picked Four up by the back of his shirt and threw him over one shoulder.

On the way back to the rooms they passed Wars, who for the first time since they had arrived, burst out into laughter upon see him carrying Four like a sack of potatoes.

They made their way back together and all agreed to turn in early that night so they could sneak out early. Luckily, Artemis approved their sneaking.

They were going to find their missing member.

Chapter Text

Volga did not know what to make of this- Echoes.

She was definitely strange.

Also, definitely smart.

She had taken to the written languages just as fast as she promised she would and had even been working on a translation guide on the side while he was teaching her.

His pride had never been something to get in his way or trip him up because he knows there will always be something smarter and more powerful than him. But he knows Link’s pride has gotten in his way, at least last time he’d seen the boy.

Yet, he would bet his whole stash that even the Link he knew would begrudgingly have to praise just the kind of brain this girl possesses.

A little human dragon, trying to find and hoard all the knowledge she could.

The only question he has would be how she uses the skill practically, but that won’t be his place to judge. He will teach her now and let Link be shocked by it later.

Goddesses he can just imagine the face the boy will make.

“How do you say this?”

He shakes his head as he is brought back to the present, and the genius in front of him.

The storm had stopped outside, and he knew he should take her to the castle, but he could admit that he was enjoying teaching her and didn’t really want to stop.

He had even decided to take the calculated risk and introduce her to the basics of the dragon language. Even though he wasn’t the most proficient in the language himself, despite it being his first.

There simply weren’t any other dragons for him to use it with. Both now and when he was younger, and so he had forgotten it over time.

But it was nice recalling all the little things that made it so complex and unique from other languages. Plus, the bonus that she caught on just as quickly as with every other thing he had taught her.

“Vol?”

Right back to the present. He peaks over her shoulder briefly.

“Hal li ‘an ‘araa akanz – May I see the treasure. Probably one of the most spoken sentences of them all.”

“Cause dragons are hoarders; their treasure is their lifeblood.”

“Correct.”

Echo went back to her notes, and he sat back again to think about his options currently.

Sure, she was technically fine and should be perfectly ok to travel, but she was still sick and a good enough reason not to try taking her to the castle quite yet.

They might be worried about her, but Link could eat cobble honestly. He would have plenty of time with her while they traveled, while this might be the only chance he would have with this little hatchling. Gosh, did he want to keep her here forever- probably his dragon side acting up.

Can you hoard human children?

“Hal ‘ant bikhayrin?”

“Hmm? Oh, I’m fine. Just lost in thought.”

She turned so she was properly facing him.

“About what?”

“Running away and hoarding you.”

“Sorry, but I don’t think my husband will approve, otherwise I’d consider the offer.”

He contemplated for a moment.

“What if I moved to your timeline and hoarded you both? You think he would be ok with being hoarded?”

He can see as she actually thinks about it, which is a little worrying but is the kind of thing that connects her more and more to being a little hatchling.

“He hasn’t objected to being hoarded before. You would just have to accept he never leaves the castle and that I have a bad habit of wandering off every five seconds. If you can get there, I know my dad would be thrilled to have someone to help parent me finally, he’s been lonely since I was little. Impa and Lue are his friends but not really proper parent material.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“And what makes you think I am?”

It was her turn to raise an eyebrow.

She gestured to the piles of notes he had helped her write up and then to the small tray of food he had gone out in the storm to get her and then make into a fairly good soup for only having five ingredients to work with.

One of which was snow, another being salt.

“I’d call these past few days pretty good parenting.”

He couldn’t help but laugh slightly. The little hatchling is still human and the differences between their cultures was the only thing keeping her from proper dragon-hood.

“Dragons would call this one of two things. Coddling or sharing their legacy.”

“Well- Humans call it parent hood. Given where we are, I would say your outnumbered.”

“Fair enough. But are you sure your father would want you to have another man helping raise you? Surely, he would rather find you a mother figure, would he not?”

“Nah- He is very, very gay. The only mom he wanted for me was the woman who gave birth to me, he wanted me to know her, since she is not around every role is game. Yes, mom is up for grabs but second, third, and fourth fathers are currently open and will be welcomed with open arms. If it bothers you though you can always become my father-in-law. Lue likes to brag he’s more like my husband's crazy older brother anyway.”

“So, is this an actual invitation to move timelines?”

She paused for a moment to think about it. She turned and reached into her bag to grab something. When she sat back up, she had a scroll in her hand.

“Yes, hold on to this. The goddesses will eventually try to return it to me and as such should bring you with it.”

He looked down the the offered parchment. He took it carefully.

“And may I ask what weird spell is written on this?”

“It just a small power slash endurance spell. I hardly ever use it. But given that it’s mine they should try finding a way to return it. With any luck it takes you with.”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“And then what makes you think they won't send me back after.”

“I’m their favorite.”

“Hylia has many favorites, why would she give you special ‘favorite’ treatment?”

.

.

.

“Who’s Hylia?”

.

.

.

“God damn it.”

Chapter Text

They decided it was best to split up into three groups and use their instincts to try and find their missing member.

Wars had gone off west with Legend and Hyrule to try to see if she had taken cover around some of the old battle grounds from the war.

Wind had taken Wild and Twilight south to search around the waters. Though he’s quite sure Twi is doing more wrangling than searching.

Time himself had his hands full.

Literally.

“Oh acorn!”

He turned his head to stare at Four who was securely placed on his back with some rope and spare tunics they tied together.

Four reached up into a tree and pulled down a branch with some nuts on them. He is sure they are not acorns, but he’ll leave that conclusion to the cook.

Four pulled the nuts off the branch and the leaned over to pass them to Sky.

“Add those to the collection.”

They had just left the Eldin Caves and were heading up to the Great Deku Tree. He had some hope that the tree might have seen their missing hero.

Four and Sky had been collecting random trinkets and plants that they could pass off to the cook later. Sky was doing more of the grabbing and Four just kept pointing to things given his current injury.

They were honestly making good time.

“Hello Mask.”

Fudge.

He stopped and turned slowly.

There in all his flare, pizzazz, and fiery glory – Volga.

“We don’t want trouble.”

He went through his mental list of supplies, he was not prepared to fight the dragon right now, not with Sky, who only knew dragons as allies, and Four, who was still strapped to his back.

Could he use the exploding potion he had snagged the other day?

“Hey now, I know that look. I’m not looking for trouble either.”

The man held his hands up in front of him. Which put him more on edge, given the man could shoot fire out of said hands.

Volga seemed to realize this, or noticed how his eyes had flown to his hands and lowered them back down a little sheepish.

“Look I am not good at being a team player. Sorry I didn’t feel like fighting in your war after getting out from the bitch. But I really am not here for a fight.”

Time kept his stance ready despite the man’s words.

“So, what are you here for then?”

Volga went to say something when they heard a snap from above them. The man backed up three steps and he instinctually gripped his sword ready for some monster to come falling from the trees around them.

Instead fell a familiar blond, wearing a familiar scarf.

“AHK-”

Volga caught said falling figure like he had been doing it for his whole life.

After a moment of shuffling, he set them down on the ground carefully. The figure just laid there catching their breath.

Volga pointed down at their missing hero.

“I’m here to return this thing.”

“HEY!”

“I will warn you; it has no idea who Hylia is.”

“How am I supposed to know some random stranger?!”

“She’s THE Goddess. Not a STRANGER.”

“Given that I have never heard of this Hylia, I really don’t believe she is on par with my Goddesses.”

He watched as one of the most feared beings in Wars’ world bickered and bantered with Echo like it was another everyday occurrence.

Sky tapped him on the shoulder.

“So, what’s the deal with him?”

He turned his head slightly, enough that he could speak to Sky but not enough to let the dragon out of his sight.

“That’s Volga. He is a dragon warrior that fought with Cia. He left her part way through the war. Wars found some evidence that he might have been brain washed initially, and that’s why he had fought with her. We all still kept our guard up because he would sometimes appear and throw a wrench into plans we were trying to make.”

They watched on for a few more minutes before the smith spoke up.

“I wanna touch his horns.”

“Four, no.”

“Damn.”

Chapter Text

After assuring Time, Four, and Sky that she had tamed the mean looking dragon, and informed them that he was a secret softy, which she got smacked for, Time had called the others using some kind of pendant thing that was apparently Four’s.

She later got to know Wind had an identical one and that it worked with Wild’s box thing.

They all meet up outside of the Eldin Caves, which were not nearly as hot as some of the caves back home, near the castle.

They had wanted to meet up at the castle, but she was still tired from being sick almost all week and she was being petty by refusing to let Vol keep carrying her for the time being.

Wind, Wild, and Twilight had met up with them first outside the entrance of the caves when they were setting up a small temporary camp for her and Time to catch their breath.

Apparently, the smith is not heavy but carrying him for prolonged periods of time is draining. Who knew?

They all settled down and poor Vol became a heated pillow for her, Wind (Who snagged Wars’ scarf from her), and Four (Who did ask and then receive permission to touch Vol’s horns). Wild worked on a small lunch and Sky was helping with basic chopping and stirring.

Just as Wild was plating the food, the other three had shown up.

Wars had to be restrained when he first laid eyes on Vol, and she could feel her pillow holding back his chuckling. Legend and Hyrule had simply gone to get food, clearly not in the mood to deal with whatever beef Wars and Vol have.

Legend, Hyrule, and Sky all pushed themselves to one side of camp while Wild and Twilight stayed over by the fire, Wild working on more food while Twilight was fixing some clothes. Wind and Four were cuddled up together up against Vol’s back.

Vol had pulled her into his lap and was cuddling her, which was great cause it was helping push back the cold that kept trying to sneak back into her bones. Sadly, the position was horrible for not creating conflict.

Time was stuck using himself as a wall between Wars and Vol. Wind was obviously finding it far to amusing and no one else wanted to step in to save her from being in the middle of this petty crap.

“Is that my tunic?”

She looked down at the clothes she was wearing. She knew they weren’t hers; they were far to heavy to be something she had packed. She looked up at the dragon holding her.

“I don’t know. Vol, where did you get this?”

“From the cabin. So yes, its most likely the captain’s. I certainly know her majesty does not keep anything but travel dresses in there and little Linkle’s all have hoods.”

That seemed to tick Wars off for some reason.

“How do you know about the cabin?”

“I mean it’s not that hard, the thing certainly isn’t very hidden.”

“IT’S SPELL PROTECTED!”

“Clearly you need to fix it then.”

“I will-”

A pair of pants launch themselves into Wars face from by the fire. She is sure it was Wild who threw them.

Time just sighed, likely wishing to be anywhere but here.

“Is the cabin where you’ve been this whole time?”

Vol nodded at Time.

“When I found her, the rain was already getting close to turning to snow. Besides, I didn’t want some stranger in my den.”

She pouted up at Vol. He looked down and sighed at her antics. He rested his chin on the top of her head.

“Don’t worry, you are no longer considered a stranger or a threat.”

She smiled, nothing could resist her family-finding tendencies for long. Poor Vol had fallen just like Moa had.

Wars made animalistic sound, pretty similar to a growl, at the sight of Vol cuddling her so casually. Made her wonder what animal form Wars would take if he had one of the objects Twi or Legend had that turned them into animals.

What would she turn into?

She hopes she can fly.

“So, what happened after you landed?”

She turned to Wars, who Time had allowed to move right next to him instead of right behind.

She thought about it.

“It’s a little fuzzy. My magic was not very happy about the new environment and lashed out. It only started to slow right before Vol showed up. So, I was just crouched in one place for a while. Then Vol took me to the cabin. He kept me warm, fed, and entertained while we waited out the storm. Then when he felt it was safe, we left to try and find you guys. I climbed a tree and then fell from a tree, and here we are.”

“He didn’t hurt you.”

She shook her head.

“Nope, but I definitely gave him a headache-” “More like fifty.” “-or two. He was actually really good company.”

Time spoke up before Wars could ask another question.

“Well, we should probably get going to the castle. Will you be joining us Volga?”

She peered up at the dragon through her lashes and could see he was contemplating it.

“I will join you till we reach sight of castle town.”

She smiled at that while Time nodded.

“That is fine with me. We should get going, we still have to inform Artemis that we found Echo and introduce them.”

“Artemis?”

“The queen of this era.”

She nodded and while everyone agreed to get moving, she brushed Vol’s arms off her so she could stand up. Grabbing her bag on the way to head into some nearby trees.

“Where you going?”

She stopped and looked down at Four who had hi- wait he had purple on. What’s purple? Either way the Link’s head was tilled and honestly looked adorable.

“I’m going to go change into my own clothes, while War’s tunic is nice and warm it’s not something I’d be ok meeting royalty in.”

“Arti won’t mind! I met her in my pajamas after I was kidnapped from my bed.”

She looked at Wind who seemed completely unbothered by how horrible that sentence was out of context.

“I think I will change anyway. But if it’s not to important right now then, I’ll change into my usual travel gear.”

When she got a nod from Four, she continued her way into the cover of trees. Normally, she would not have an issue changing in front of people, but she had just remembered she still was not wearing any kind of chest covering under the tunic. Nor did she have on underwear.

She made quick work of getting back into her own clothes and decided that now was a good time to put all her charms and pins on.

She didn’t wear them in her world that often anymore because she knew all the dangers but with uncharted territory, she would rather be safe than sorry.

When she came back out, she noticed everyone was staring at her.

“What?”

“That’s a lot of charms.”

She looked down at her sash, did she put too many on?

Nope, honestly-

“Probably should have more.”

“Ha! Told you it wasn’t just me!”

She couldn’t help but laugh at Time’s look of utter defeat.

My version of Echo!

Please be nice… I don't draw people very often.

LU - Echo