Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Twilight was tired. They had been walking for days on end, fighting off black blooded monsters left and right. Rations and morale was getting low, and tensions were rising. 

After they set up camp, Wild and Hyrule immediately ran off to forage and restock, or so they claimed, but Twilight knew better. The boys were going exploring, and they wouldn’t be back for hours. Well, they were in Wild’s Hyrule, so at least they had a map. 

Four also left for some time alone, claiming he had a headache, while Time and Sky went to patrol and check if the area was safe. 

Wind stuck around at camp for a little while, but it didn’t take him long to get bored, so he grabbed his sword to go practice some moves they learned at the Knight Academy before the portal took them away from Skyloft. 

Which left Twilight, Warriors and Legend at the campsite. And Twilight was not  having a good time. 

“Can you two cut it out?” he snapped, glaring at Legend and Warriors. They had been arguing ever since they set up camp, and his head was starting to hurt. Maybe Four had the right idea leaving the camp.

“It's not my fault the damn hoarder has to be an asshole all the time! Would it kill you to be nice?” Warriors was fuming. The conversation had started out civil enough, but they were all exhausted, and the two of them had trouble getting along on good day, let alone on days like this. 

“It wouldn’t, but if your dumb ass is going to rip your stupid scarf during every fight, then you need to learn how to fix your own shit! That scarf is going to be the death of you if you don’t stop wearing it into battle!” Legend threw the blue piece of fabric on the ground. 

Warriors snarled at him, snatching his scarf back up. “It’s important to me! Sentimental value, something you wouldn’t know anything about, you cynical bastard!”

“I don’t give a shit who gave you the scarf, sentimental value won’t matter when you’re dead! But you’re a knight , used to fighting in groups so you don’t have to do jack shit!! I’d bet money everyone in your Hyrule caters to you cause you’re the hero, when you’re actually just a simple knight, who’s never had to deal with anything  on your own!” He threw his hands in the air. “I thought you people were supposed to be heroes, how are you so incompetent? Honestly, it’s no surprise I’ve been on more adventures than you, you’d be dead by this point!”

“ C’mon, it's too late for this,” Twilight sighed. 

“Maybe the rest of us haven’t had that many adventures because we all managed to finish the job the first time! ” Warriors yelled, stepping closer to Legend, gesturing with his arms. 

He looked like he was about to say more, but paused and took a step back instead. Twilight stood up as he saw that Legend had frozen. He was standing so still he could barely see him breathing. His eyes were wide, and it made him look so much younger . Like Colin, a part of him thought.

Then he realized he looked scared. Was Legend scared of Warriors?

It certainly seemed like it, especially considering how the vet’s fingers had locked around the hilt of his sword.

“Legend?” Twilight asked. “Are you okay?”

Legend didn’t react, he didn’t even flinch. His eyes were locked on the captain, and Twilight had no idea what to do. 

Before he could say anything else, Time and Sky came back from scouting. It seemed like they had picked up Four somewhere along the way, as he was right behind them. Upon noticing the situation, Sky cautiously approached Legend. 

“Legend? Link? Are you alright?” Sky flinched back when Legend drew his sword.

“Link,” Time said, “Link, you’re okay.” He put his sword down to try to appease Legend. “Put it down-”

Legend took a step back, eyes flitting between all of them. He seemed like he was mentally debating fighting them or just booking it.

Before he could, his ear twitched and his eyes seemed to clear. “Shit-” He spun around, and they could see what he had heard. A moblin ran out from the trees, and Legend dashed to meet it. More monsters were following it and came out from between the trees to attack them. 

He jumped into the fray with no hesitation, and the others followed suit. Twilight had to worry about Legend later, and focus on fighting. He could vaguely make out what was probably Wind, Wild and Hyrule coming back and blowing something up, before having to dodge a moblin club flying too close to his head. 

He stabbed and slashed at any monsters within reach, and it didn’t take long until there were only a few left, so he looked around to see if the others needed help. He could see Sky taking down a moblin while Four distracted it, Wild was running around with some strange kind of fire rod that seemed to throw what looked like burning rocks? He was definitely going to confiscate that after the fight if it didn’t break. 

He saw Warriors doing the same thing as him, and gave him a nod. Wind was sitting on one of the moblins’ shoulders stabbing its head, something Twilight was pretty sure Wild taught him, and Legend was fighting one of them using a hookshot. Time was performing a very impressive helmsplitter on one of the bigger monsters he didn’t recognize. Twilight got distracted for a second, in slight awe of his mentor, before shaking it off and looking around for more danger. It didn’t seem like anyone needed any help. There were only two moblins left, and they didn’t seem to be black-blooded. 

He paused. Why would they be attacked by monsters who weren’t even black-blooded? They usually stayed in camps, according to Wild. There had to be some reason why, maybe- 

“WARRIORS, LOOK OUT!” 

He whirled around, quickly spotting a weird looking wizzrobe shooting a blast of magic at the captain, and he felt pure terror flowing through his veins as he realized there was no way he could dodge in time. Warriors lifted his shield, holding it like he was going to attempt a parry, but he was tackled out of the way by Legend just in time, who had ran to him before Twilight could even finish his line of thought. The spell hit Legend square in the chest, throwing him backwards where he barely avoided his skull being cracked thanks to Time catching him. 

Twilight ran at the wizzrobe, dodging one last burst of magic before stabbing it in the chest. He turned back just in time to see the last blast hitting Time, causing him and Legend to topple over.

Chapter Text

Hyrule and Wind had reached the fallen duo faster than Warriors could even process what had happened. 

“Are they okay?” Wind asked, turning to Hyrule. 

“I- I don’t know!” Hyrule was frantically looking Legend and Time over, checking them for injuries, ”I can’t figure out what the wizzrobe did! There’s a strong magic signature but I can't read it correctly, and I know Legend would probably know what it is but-” he gestured anxiously to the two of them lying there.

Twilight had made his way over to them, and put a comforting hand on Hyrules shoulder, silently telling him to breathe. Hyrule gave Twilight a small smile, and continued with a shaky breath, “I think they’ll be alright. The magic doesn’t come off as malicious. I think the best we can do is make them comfortable. Can one of you get their bedrolls over here?” 

The call to action finally shook Warriors out of his daze, and he rushed over to where they’d left their bags. He was quickly joined by Twilight and Sky, the latter having joined them after him and Four had gotten rid of the remaining monsters. They grabbed the bedrolls and got to work on getting the boys onto them. Even working with Twilight, it was very difficult to get his fully grown, fully armed sprite onto his bedroll, while Sky got Legend onto his with ease. 

Warriors stood up straight and mentally did a head count. Four met his gaze and sent him a tired smile, giving him a thumbs up. Hyrule would probably still have been fretting over Time and Legend had he not noticed Wind holding tightly onto a cut on his arm, trying to stop the bleeding. He looked glad to be able to help with something, to do something. Wild had started stress cooking, probably feeling the same kind of helplessness as Hyrule, and frankly all of them. 

Warriors couldn’t help but feel guilty. The blast had been aimed at him , Legend should never have gotten hurt. Especially after what he’d said. He really wished he could take it all back.

As soon as Time and Legend seemed relatively comfortable, Twilight and Sky joined Wild by the cooking pot. Hyrule had gone from hovering over Wind to hovering over Four, who, despite claiming to be fine, had sprained his ankle. 

“What do we do now?” Wind asked, sounding even younger than he was. Warriors felt his heart clench. He gave their two unconscious brothers one more look, and seeing that nothing had changed yet, he walked over to Wind, pulling him into a side hug and holding him tight. He felt him shudder before relaxing into his hold, and Wars let some of the tension seep out of him.

“We’ll just have to wait it out.” Hyrule said, sitting down next to Four, satisfied with his work. “The spell is using its own stored magic, not theirs, so it will most likely run out soon. Magic can’t make magic while using it, it's why a lot of magic users use-” he was interrupted by Wind letting out a startled yelp. Warriors turned to ask what happened, but Wind just pointed over to where they’d left Legend and Time, his face pale as a ghost.

When he saw what Wind was looking at, he felt his heart drop. Their brothers were still laying exactly where they had left them, but their eyes were wide open, and pure white. And they were glowing. Hyrule shot up and started running over to them.

Before he could get over there, smoke had begun rapidly emerging from their eyes. As soon as Hyrule reached it, he was thrown backwards, almost landing on top of a startled Wild. The smoke kept spreading until neither Time nor Legend were visible. 

“What is that?” Sky asked, worried. He had also gotten up, and was reaching for his sword.

“I- I don’t know! I’ve never seen anything like this before!” Hyrule said, barely even looking at Wild, who was helping him back on his feet. He immediately started walking closer to the smoke again, with Wild following closely to make sure he didn’t get hurt again. They got as close to the cloud of smoke as they could without touching it, and Hyrule looked like he was feeling out the magic, trying to find a way through to them. Four had also made his way a bit closer to the fog, his violet eyes looking scarily intrigued. Warriors’ train of thought was halted for a moment. Violet? Weren’t his eyes gray? 

The smoke started dissipating, forcing Wild and Hyrule to take a step back. When all the smoke was gone, Warriors froze.

Shit.   

“What happened? Where- where did they go?” Sky stepped towards the pile of blankets Time and Legend had disappeared from, only to stumble backwards when he saw what was there instead. “Uh… Hyrule? You’d better come over here.”

Sky did not need to ask him twice; Warriors didn’t think he’d ever seen Hyrule move that fast. Twilight and Wild were right behind him. “What… they’re… where did these children come from?”

Warriors braced himself and leaned forwards to look. He could barely believe what he was seeing. “Hylia, that’s- that’s Mask. I mean- Time. I mean- it’s complicated.” He paused and when he met the confused gaze of the rest of the chain, he explained, “I met a younger Time during the War of Eras, and that’s him. We called him Mask. So that must be Legend, but younger, but I don’t know how that’s even…” He dragged a hand down his face, “Goddesses, I need a drink. Wind?” 

Wind was dragged out of his stupor and sent him an affronted look. “Why would I have a drink?”

Warriors snorted. “I know damn well that flask isn’t filled with water.” Wind grumbled, but handed over his flask. The captain took a swig. 

He looked over at the kids on the ground. They were still unconscious, and Mask looked very relaxed. It was odd seeing him like this, as the only times he got to see him let down his guard during the war was when Mask accidentally fell asleep on him after long battles or war meetings. It hurt his heart to think about how much the kid had gone through. 

Thinking back on how Mask was in the war, Warriors realised it was a small blessing that he was still unconscious, because the second Mask met Wild they would stir up more chaos than any of them were equipped to handle, even Legend, with seven quests under his belt. 

Legend… Wars looked over at where the vet was lying earlier, at the kid laying in his place. He had vibrant pink hair, and he was wearing a typical green hero’s tunic with the matching hat. He had some baby fat on his cheeks, and while Legend had always been pretty skinny and small (something he would never say to the vet out of fear of getting the ice rod to his face again), he was just so tiny. He couldn't be more than eight years old.

The traveler slowly sat down between the two kids and started checking them for injuries. He frowned at the scars on the kids’ arms and faces, but it didn’t look like he found anything wrong with them, aside from… well.

Meanwhile, Wind seemed to have caught back up to what Warriors had said, as he raised his hands in a ‘hold on’ type of gesture. “Wait, Time is Mask ? The kid who bit me so hard I still have a scar on my arm? The kid who set fire to the entirety of Hyrule field? The same kid who bullied Ghirahim so hard he ran away? That kid?” 

Sky blinked. “He what ?”

Warriors sighed. “Yes, he did. We used Mask babysitting duty as a punishment. He kept using some strange mask to disappear every five minutes, and I had to use my scarf to tie him up to keep him from running off,” he complained fondly. 

Wild grinned, and he immediately regretted saying anything. Twilight looked like he had aged twenty years in the last ten seconds, and Sky looked like he was having an existential crisis. Wind smiled so wide he was almost concerned: “This is gonna be so much fun .” 

Warriors was regretting all his life choices that led up to this point. Maybe I should have let Linkle be the hero. He shuddered. No, I take that back. I would not wish that upon anyone . 

He was pulled out of his head by a soft exhale. Sky knelt down next to the small Legend. “He’s so small… but look at the sword on his belt. He’s already a hero.” The mood turned sour as the rest of them looked at him. Like Sky said, he already had a sword, a shield, and a pack seemingly filled with items. They all knew he’d been on a lot of adventures, but none of them knew how early he’d started. 

None of them really even knew how old he was, either. When they first met him, he’d made them guess instead of telling them. Warriors had guessed nineteen, and Legend had just shrugged and said ‘sure, that works.’

He looked back at Mask. He didn't really know how old he was either. He looked about nine, maybe ten, but when they had asked him, he had asked if they meant physically, mentally, or technically. He had thought about the kids' age multiple times during the war, especially after learning Mask had already been on two adventures. They were both so small . Why would anyone make a child be a hero?

He looked over at Wind, Hyrule, and then Four, and realized he didn’t want to know the answer. 

Pulling himself back together, he sat down next to where his sprite was still asleep, and waited. 

He didn’t have to wait long, it only took a couple more seconds before Mask stirred. The second he woke up he sat up straight, eyes alert. Warriors paused when he saw him open both eyes; he’d gotten so used to Time that he’d almost forgotten what he was like before. Mask looked around, tense, seeing the rest of the chain, then the small child next to him, and then he looked at Warriors, immediately relaxing. 

“Is this more time travel again? Are these more heroes?” he asked. Everyone but Wind seemed surprised at his nonchalance. Warriors was used to it. He sent Mask a small smile. “It is, and they are."

He gestured to the rest of the chain, one by one. “This is Sky, Four, Twilight, Hyrule, and Wild. The one next to you was Legend, but he got hit by a weird wizzrobe and is now a kid.” He didn’t bother sugarcoating it. He was far too tired for that. Mask just nodded.

“Great. I’m gonna go blow something up.” He stood up, Wild promptly getting up to join him, grinning, but both Warriors and Twilight grabbed their respective gremlins by the necks of their tunics. 

“Oh no, you don’t!” Warriors pulled him back down. “We really do not need that right now.”  Mask grumbled a bit and crossed his arms, but didn’t try to run off again. Wild looked like a scolded puppy. Twilight just looked tired.

Mask turned his attention to Hyrule, and tilted his head. “Do you know what the magical residue in the air is? I can’t pinpoint it, but it doesn’t seem natural.” 

Hyrule looked taken aback at the question, and at Mask turning to him. “Oh, uh- I don’t.. know? You’re right, it's not really natural; we have been fighting monsters that have been made magically stronger. That wizzrobe was stronger too. The magic doesn’t seem harmful, but our magic expert is currently-” he eyed baby Legend, “-out of commission.” 

As if sensing someone talking about him, baby Legend woke up with a start. He noticed Hyrule first, looking confused. Then he saw Mask and Wind. His head tilted slightly to the side, and Warriors was startled by his eyes. Unlike the vet’s usual purple, the kid had bright red eyes.

“Where am I?" he asked, trying to stand up. 

“You’re in Hyrule, in a place called the Tabahl woods. Are you okay?” Twilight answered.

Little Legend whipped his head around at the sound of Twilights voice, like he suddenly realized there were more people around. His eyes flitted between the members of the chain, seemingly getting more and more tense, before his gaze finally landed on Four. He lingered on him for a second, eyes narrowing. Then he leapt to his feet and took off running. Warriors had apparently missed the fact the kid was wearing pegasus boots , and he very much worried they would never see him again. 

“Wait-” Warriors called out, moving to follow him, Sky on his heels, but was stopped by Mask grabbing at his tunic. 

“Stop! He’s obviously scared of you! If you chase him, you’re just gonna scare him more!” 

Warriors paused. Earlier, when he and Legend had been arguing, Legend had frozen in the same way the kid had before he ran off. He had seemed ready to fight him, even if he looked kind of scared. Was Legend actually scared of him? Why?

“Why would he be scared?” Sky asked, looking devastated. “I don’t think any of us have any visible weapons.” 

Four tilted his head, eyes seemingly flashing from gray to blue to violet before settling on red. What the hell? Have they always done that? “Even if he is scared of us, we should still send someone after him. He doesn’t know how to fight the monsters from Wild’s era; he could get into serious trouble.”

Hyrule shuddered. “Wild, you have nice Zora, right?”

The Champion nodded, looking confused. Hyrule continued. “Well, in Legends era, as far as I know, and in mine, Zora are fire-breathing monsters.” 

Wild looked horrified at that. “How do they breathe fire? And why?” he signed.

Hyrule waved him off. “That’s not really all that important right now, we just have to make sure he doesn’t try to fight any, if he finds them. Which one of us would scare him the least?”

Mask stood up, and brushed some dirt off of his tunic. “Well, he didn’t seem scared of you or the sailor, or me, for that matter. The three of us can look for him.”

Hyrule hesitated, then nodded, “Sounds good. Wind?”

“Coming!” Wind shot up immediately.

Hyrule smiled reassuringly at Sky, who looked very much like a kicked puppy. “I’ll bring a potion, just in case.” Sky hesitantly nodded, sad at the idea of a kid, especially Legend, being scared of him. Then Hyrule turned to Warriors, as if asking permission. He took a deep breath before he nodded as well.

At their approval, Hyrule, Wind and Mask all ran off. Warriors could practically feel his hair graying at the prospect of Mask joining the trio that Twilight and, ironically enough, Time, called the triple threat. Hyrule, Wild, and Legend already blew enough things up on their own, even without Wind, but if Mask joined them? It would be all over for everyone. 

While he was contemplating the impending end of the world, it seemed the others were contemplating something else. 

“Why was he scared of me? Do I look scary to kids? Is it something that I did? Was I too close? I don’t want him to be scared of me, what do I do?” Sky looked at his hands, apparently on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Warriors decided to leave him be with a gentle pat on the back, considering the people who were the best at comforting, and emotions in general, were all unavailable at this moment. He looked over at Twilight, who seemed to be spiraling in a similar manner as Sky. 

“Why would he..? Do I look scary? But… Ordon kids… wolf pelt? Or- oh. Oh. That’s- The hair- has he already-” Twilight muttered to himself, and Warriors decided not to even try decoding what the hell he was thinking. He turned to Four, and immediately regretted it. His eyes were rapidly flashing between different colors, and his mumbling made even less sense than Twilights. 

Something small hit him in the head, and he turned just in time for Wild to almost hit him in the eye with another acorn. Wild signed a quick “ sorry”, but he didn’t seem very sorry.

He glanced at the three heroes stuck in their own heads. “ You think they’re gonna be okay?” Warriors went over to him and ruffled his hair slightly, letting out a sigh. “Probably. Eventually. It’ll be better when the others come back.”

Wild looked up at him with wide eyes. “Do you think he's scared because we’re bigger?” he signed.

Four, who hadn’t seemed to be paying attention, responded quickly, eyes a sparkling violet. “No, he ran the second he saw me, so that can’t have been the reason. I know I'm not that imposing . He didn’t really seem scared of you guys, it looked more like he was preparing to fight you. Which begs the question, why did seeing me of all people make him run off?”

Wild tilted his head in a way that looked eerily similar to Wolfie, before responding, verbally this time. “Maybe there's something else we’re missing? Do we know anything about his first adventure?”

Nobody had an answer to that. Legend had told them all many stories, but now that he thought about it, none of them were really about his adventures. They were usually stories about people he’d met, and things they’d done, like when someone he knew almost killed their own ancestor in the past, without elaborating on why his friend was in the past. He rarely ever talked about himself or his family, and the closest Warriors had ever gotten to a story about Legend had been from Hyrule, and Legend had changed the subject before he got to finish the story.

“I don't think we know anything about any of his adventures, now that I think about it,” he said. Twilight looked over and tilted his head, much like Wild, seemingly deep in thought. 

Sky’s eyes met Fours. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him and you spar?” he questioned. Four paused, then nodded. “We haven’t sparred. He barely does that with the rest of you either, though.”

Twilight thought for a second. “I’ve seen you both using similar techniques. Maybe he’s met you, somehow?”

Warriors turns to Four, and notices his eyes flash blue, red, and then go back to purple. That is very much not normal. Was it a trick of the light? Has he not gotten enough sleep? If he had managed to become sleep deprived to the point of hallucinating, Athena would surely kill him.

“Maybe.” Four furrowed his eyebrows. “But if we have met before, and the kid is scared of me, then… what the hell happened?”

The silence felt loud. Nobody had an answer to that.

Chapter Text

When Wind had woken up that morning, he had not expected to end up running after a terrified mini-version of the veteran. And he also had not been expecting to be joined by Mask, the kid who scared the entirety of Warriors’ army shitless, and helped him sneak into a bunch of places he was most definitely not allowed to be, to do things he was probably even less allowed to do. (And who was apparently the old man as a kid? He was going to have to unpack all of that later). He was honestly very glad Hyrule was also with them to help him retain some semblance of normalcy. There was one problem, though. 

“Hey, how exactly are we supposed to find him? That kid is really fast." Wind pointed out.

Mask paused, turning to Hyrule. “Can’t you use your fairy magic for that?” 

Hyrule froze. “What?”

Mask frowned. “You are a fairy, right?” 

“I’m sorry, what?”   Wind stared at Hyrule in disbelief.

Hyrule ignored him, which, rude . “How did you know?”

“There’s fairy magic all over you.” Mask looked confused, then his eyes widened. “Wait, was that supposed to be a secret? I’m sorry, I don’t know why i keep doing that-” 

“You- that means the old man knows? ” Hyrule whispered to himself in disbelief, probably having a crisis. Wind would know all about that, considering he was also actively having a crisis. How did none of them notice Hyrule being a fairy?

“Anyways-” Mask cleared his throat. “I’m going to take that as a no on the using fairy magic to track the kid?”

“‘The kid’? You’re the same age?” Hyrule said, though it sounded like a question. Wind sighed, knowing exactly what was coming, having once asked Mask how old he was during the war. 

The kid blinked innocently. “No. I’m at least 80 years old.” 

Hyrule looked puzzled, and, understandably, gave up. “Okay, whatever. How do we find little Legend?”

“We need to find a better nickname for him.” Wind mumbled. 

Ignoring him seemed to be the trend of the day, because Mask continued without paying him any mind. “I might be able to use the Mask of Truth.” He pulled a mask out of his bag. It was white, with a red eye he had come to associate with the Sheikah tribe during their quest. Hyrule eyed it curiously. 

“That magic feels… weird. What does it do?” he asked. 

Mask put it on, without saying a word, and looked around. Then he knelt down next to a squirrel, looking at it intensely. He stood back up, and took off the mask, pointing in a seemingly random direction. “According to this squirrel, he went that way.” He then switched the mask out for some familiar bunny ears and grinned mischievously. “Keep up.”

Wind didn’t even get a single word out before he was gone. He grabbed the traveler by the arm and started running after Mask. It took some time to catch up, but when they did, the boy was waiting for them by a tree.

"He's over there. Don't scare him.” 

Hyrule and Wind started walking over to where Mask was pointing, when they saw a flash of pink behind a nearby tree.

As soon as he was close enough to see baby Legend (We need a better nickname, like if he's not the veteran yet he could be a rookie? Or something relating to stories? or maybe Pinky could work? ), he had a fire rod pointed at his chest. 

“Don’t come any closer!” Pinky glared, but he looked more scared than angry. He was still as a statue. Hyrule put his hands up, prompting Wind to follow his lead. 

“It’s okay! We won’t hurt you!” The traveler took two steps back, then he sat down on the grass. “See? I’m keeping my distance. My name is Hyrule. This is Wind.” Wind crouched down next to him. Mask(when did he get here?) also sat down, though he was farther back than them. “And this is Mask.” Pinky didn’t calm down completely, but he did lower his fire rod a little bit. Baby steps. 

“What do you want?”

Mask got straight to the point. “We want you to be safe. You don’t know your surroundings, so you’d be safer if you came with us.” 

Pinky looked at each of them before answering. “Why should I? I don’t know you.” 

Wind, remembering something Legend mentioned once, decided to take a gamble. 

“It isn’t us you’re scared of. It’s the knights, isn’t it?” 

Pinky flinched, which was practically a confession, so Wind continued. “They won’t hurt you. I don’t know why you’re scared of them, but they aren’t like the knights you’ve met.They’re like us! We’re all heroes.” He decides the time travel might be a bit much for the poor kid, so he left that part out.

Hyrule chimed in, “Besides, we wouldn’t let them harm you, even though they won’t try.” Pinky turned all his attention to Hyrule. He frowned, seemingly deep in thought. Then his eyes lit up. 

“Oh! You’re fae, aren’t you!” he put the fire rod back into his bag. Hyrule looked like he was going through all five stages of grief at the same time. Wind didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry. Two kids figured it out before the rest of them? Except apparently Legend and Time, who were said kids ?

“How did you- is it that easy?” The Traveler looked at Mask, then back at Pinky, before giving up and throwing his hands into the air, “Y’know what, I don't care, it's fine. It's fine.” He took a deep breath. “Yes, I am fae.” Pinky nodded, looking very adorable with his serious expression. 

“Then you can promise me I can trust them. I know fae can’t break their promises, so you can’t lie to me!” He looked very proud of his idea. Wind didn’t really understand how fae rules worked, but he assumed Legend did, so Pinky most likely knew as well. Hyrule tilted his head.

“I promise that nobody in our group will hurt you, and I promise we will do our best not to let anyone outside of it hurt you either. I promise that I, personally, will not let anyone hurt you if I can help it.” Hyrule and Pinky held eye contact. Then Pinky visibly relaxed. 

“Okay. I believe you. Now, Mask, was it?”

Mask blinked. “Yes?”

“What kind of magic items do you have in your bag?  I can sense them from here, they feel weird. Is it dark magic? Do you use them a lot? How do they work? Who made them? What do they look like? Can I try one?”

He exchanged a mildly concerned glance with Hyrule. He knew Time had some dangerous masks, and who knows what else could be in there that he’d kept hidden from the group. Hyrule appeared to be thinking the same thing. It was cool to see that Legend had always been interested in magic items, though he was nicer about asking as a kid, rather than just taking them to see for himself, which was honestly a welcome change. And the kids' curiosity was pretty adorable. Wind turned to look at Mask, who was looking through his bag. 

Mask seemed a bit put off by the sudden change in attitude, but complied. “I think… most of these are too dangerous for you to borrow, but this one isn’t dangerous.” Wind let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. Apparently Mask was at least a little bit responsible. He pulled out a mask that looked like some kind of bird? “This is the Bremen mask. It-” 

“Wait! I want to guess what it does!” Pinky interrupted. Mask just shrugged and handed it to him. “Don’t put it on, but you can look at it.” Pinky nodded so quickly Wind was worried he’d hurt his neck, then he started turning it around in his hands. 

“I’m trying to get better at understanding magical signatures, because I don’t want to be stuck in another trap. Zelda got a letter asking if I could visit a different country! I think they need my help, so I’m going. Even if Zelly says I shouldn’t ‘cause I’m not old enough. I think this thing uses music? Does it have to do with animals? It kinda sounds like it. And something else? I don't recognize the last thing, it's weird.” 

Wind was rapidly becoming very worried about whatever happened to Legend to make him go from the bubbly oversharing kid in front of him to a prickly cynical guy who hated everyone and everything. Mask just grinned. 

“You’re right! If you put it on, and play the ocarina, small animals will follow you around! I got it during my second adventure-” Hyrule made a worried noise, but was ignored. “-and I sometimes use it when I visit Malon. The thing you couldn’t find is probably that it sometimes makes baby animals grow up if they follow.” Pinky practically preened at that. He handed back the mask, and Mask put it back with the rest of his masks . (Hylia that was annoying. Try saying Mask’s masks ten times fast)

“We should get back to the others before they get worried and follow us.” Wind turned, seeing that Hyrule had already stood up, Pinky latched onto the travelers arm. Hyrule looked like he was trying very hard to stay calm and not pick him up in the tightest hug you could imagine. Mask didn’t give anyone a chance to get another word out before he put the bunny ears back on and took off, leaving Hyrule and Wind to follow him once again, only this time, they had a tiny boy with pink hair with them.