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This new Link—this creature just had to be called Link, they were wielding the Master Sword, after all!—had fallen asleep for two cycles straight, right after being shown their new room.
Honestly, Warriors was still a bit unsure of this decision. But it’s not like they could all just leave this alien life form on Lorule, especially since the little creature had no idea where they were, and no one else knew what they were.
They were wild, manners wise, in comparison to…literally every other known sapient species. Perhaps their world was simply more dangerous than the others—actually, no, that’s a terrifying thought to think about.
This Link, Wild, as everyone onboard had taken to calling them, had been awake for only half of a cycle. And they had given Warriors a meltdown over trying to make them new clothes. It wasn’t that the creature didn’t want new clothes, didn’t like the textures of the clothes, no, no.
Wild was extremely indecisive about picking whatever they thought was the “correct” color for the outfit. And they were torn between two different shades of blue. They weren’t even that different! Maybe their specie’s eyes were just sensitive to blue. But they still took so long to make a choice.
Wars was just glad that they finally settled on having both of them. Which meant that he, the Captain of the Linked Universe, had to figure out how to sew those two together in a way that looked…good enough for the beast.
This beast should be greatful they were even given so many options already, but whatever. Once Warriors had finished the tunic and the leggings, Wild seemed happy enough to wear it, so the captain could happily send them off to Four, so he could make them some shoes.
So all Wars had to worry about was finding a nice, stable planet to land on, so that the group could go sort through their inventory. They were going to do that on Lorule, but unfortunately, Wild is a creature that exists.
Warriors doesn’t hate this Link, this—probable—hero. He is just very reasonably annoyed with their existence, in his extremely correct and factual opinion.
Link was having fun, exploring this ship. He loved exploring, he loved to move. Especially after being asleep for who knows how long. The Sheikah Slate was still synced to Earth’s time, and apparently he was asleep for almost three days, after these nice aliens gave him a room. And exploring let him not have to think too hard about his whole situation, which was great!
And these aliens have also given him new clothes too! Scarfie—the Soulsolu—had made him new clothes, and this split coloration they had looked so cool. Maybe if his pants didn’t also have the same colors, then it would look even cooler, but hey. Link was pretty sure he was already getting on Scarfie’s nerves, which him being so indecisive for hours on end. Link had to find a way to apologize for that, eventually.
And this Four guy gave him shoes as well! Boots that definitely were made for running and climbing, his favorite activities. Four, this mousy-looking alien called a Picish, was also the only alien that Link actually knew the name of. It was very easy to communicate that with only the simplest of charades.
Link had no idea how to communicate his own name, so he simply did not bother. The aliens could call him whatever they wanted, for as long as he couldn’t figure out how to communicate with him. At least he could understand when they were calling out for him.
Bunnie—the Lopper—chittered out ahead of him, waving him over. They could speak English, by mimicking Link, but that honestly still felt so weird to him, that he didn’t want them to even try. He made that point clear a few hours earlier, when Bunnie tried to say “hello” again, and Link attempted to bite them.
Link gave Bunnie a smile as he walked closer to them. He quickly learned that smiling freaked the aliens out, probably because of his teeth, or something. And it almost definitely helped Bunnie remember to not mimic Link, lest they get bitten. Which was mostly an empty threat, but they didn’t know that, given how they slightly skittered away from Link.
Their ears were pinned back as their upper body leaned away from Link, and they slowly brought out a piece of paper from a bag that was slung over their arms. Link gracefully took it, and saw a colorful, crayon-like drawing displayed. It was two-part art piece of the ship flying through space, and then of the ship on top of a beige planet.
“Oh, so we’re landing soon?” Link asked, “Sweet! Planet looks kinda boring, though.”
Bunnie pretended like they understood what Link was saying, giving a brief nod before continuing to walk past him. Link gave them a wave, then took out his slate to take a photo of the drawing. He really needs to figure out what the Camera Rune upgrade did, but maybe he’ll find out on this new planet? Maybe??
Not likely.
Link shrugged to himself as he put the drawing into his slate’s inventory. And then he groaned, because he keeps on forgetting that his inventory is bugged out, and now he won’t be able to get the drawing back. At least looking at photo he took, he could also now spot a little doodle of the Hyswi, Fishie, waving their tentacles in the lower left corner.
What an adorable little thing.
“Land!” Link shouted with a whoop, as he bounced down the ship’s ramp and onto the solid ground. The planet was the definition of barren, with only a few rocks scattered about here and there. And there was a particular big rock relatively nearby, practically begging to be smashed! Link still had his stick he picked up the other day on hand, but that would break almost immediately…
He did have his slate! That probably wouldn’t break! And Link didn’t need to think too hard about why he was feeling so destructive, this was completely normal for him!! Totally!!! Nothing was wrong with his mental state!
Link whistled as he skipped over to the big ol’ rock, Sheikah Slate in hand. He could hear the footsteps of someone following him, and glancing behind himself, he saw Fishie happily bouncing behind him. Link briefly reconsidered about calling the Hyswi something other than “Fishie,” giving that they were definitely more of an octopus, but he couldn’t come up with anything better. “Octie” simply wasn’t as cute, to him. It didn’t roll off the tongue as well.
Fishie had also been following him around a lot. They were the first sight Link saw when he woke up. Also the first thing he punched. Oops.
But Fishie was fine, and seemed content with hanging out with him, anyways.
“Okay, Fishie,” Link said as he stood before the rock that was around as tall as he was, “I’m going to see if I can use my slate to mine this rock.” Fishie gave him a blubbered response, and then Link set out to smashing.
Whacking the rock chipped a small chunk out of it, and looking at it he slate, it seemed to remain in perfect condition. Link grinned at that, since that meant he could keep going without having to worry about breaking his thing! Man, he should’ve done this earlier, so many of those Iron Sledgehammers didn’t have to shatter underneath his cursed grip. Seriously, why was that so common?
Link continued his mining as Fishie watched, saying words that he didn’t understand, and Link spoke back, saying words they didn’t understand. It was nice, just talking to somebody. It likely helped with keeping him sane.
Then the slate sputtered and Link recoiled the device away from the half-mined rock in horror. Fishie also looked terrified, wide eyed and stunned. They both were very stunned.
Then, a familiar series of chimes graced Link’s ears, and he—and Fishie—frantically took a look at the screen.
That was the rune for the Master Cycle Zero. Which was not there before because so many of the runes were absolutely broken.
“Oh my goddess,” Link whispered in awe, “that’s the rune for the Master Cycle Zero.” Fishie looked at him and Link could swear they looked concerned, which like, was very probable.
“Okay, so…” Link’s brain buffered, “I-I-I got…my motorcycle back—wanna see it? Of course you wanna see it, I wanna see it, and I am projecting this will onto you. Because I am definitely a mentally stable person,” Link chuckled to himself, as he continued to not let the full weight of the situation fall on him, lest he go crazy. Because now he had his motorcycle, and he wanted to focus on his motorcycle, and not about being so far from home.
So Link summoned his motorcycle, pointing the slate in front of him, as tendrils of blue light flowed into the shape of the Master Cycle Zero. And Fishie freaked out upon seeing the vehicle suddenly appear, but quickly moved to examine it. And was moving very quickly while examining it.
Oh yeah, this little guy loved the cycle.
Link scooped up a few of the bigger rock fragments that had chipped off, and whistled to get octoplet’s attention. Fishie was standing on top of the cycle’s seat, tentacles wrapped around the vehicle’s handles, as they leaned over to look at the cycle’s horse-like head. At Link’s whistle, they turned their head to face him, blubbering curiously.
The human jerked his head to the side, gesturing for Fishie to get off. Fortunately, Fishie seemed to understand that, unwrapping themselves from Link’s steed and hopping off of it, joining Link at his side.
“Good job, Fishie!” Link shuffled the three semi-large rocks in his arms around, so that he could ruffle Fishie’s…scalp? The top of their head, affectionately. And Link didn’t think that they hated that, so it was a win!
Link whistled a tune as he moved to fuel his machine. He could see in the corner of his eye that it was completely empty on energy. The seat opened up accept the materials, which Fishie let an excited noise out at. Dropping the three rocks in, Link saw that it filled…around thirty percent of the fuel. So, it was functionally exactly like rock salt. Exactly. Totally. He wanted to eat those, again.
“Fishie,” Link turned to face his little alien friend, “I need more materials for fuel. Can you—“ Link furiously gestured at the ship, and then gestured at the Master Cycle’s seat with the same amount of energy, “—get something to fuel this?”
Fishie blubbered and waved his arms tentacles in the air, before dashing towards the ship.
What were the other guys even doing in the ship, anyways? Even though they’ve landed on this barren planet, most of the guys just stayed inside the ship doing…ship things??? Fishie had came outside with him, and Birdie was also standing outside, sitting on the top of ramp and was previously watching the two. After Fishie had set out towards the ship, they talked briefly to the other alien before continuing their trek.
Birdie the Lofttail walked towards Link, stopping a few feet away, examining both him and his motorcycle, from the distance.
Link leaned against the Master Cycle, “Isn’t it a beauty, Birdie?” He asked without expecting an answer, “A marvel of Ancient Sheikah Technology, if I do say so myself. It’s even faster than the fastest horse on Earth! I think!” He leaned towards Birdie, “Have you ever ridden a horse?”
Birdie just tilted their head at him, because honestly, to them, some weird guy just babbled some absolute nonsense.
“Yeah, you probably don’t have horses where you’re from. How about birds? Have you ever ridden on a giant bird, Birdie? That’s be some pretty birdy bird-ception, right? Am I right? I’m so right, I’m so correct.
“Goddess, I wish I could have an actual conversation and not whatever this is.
“Have you ever eaten a bird? Would you consider that to be a kind of cannibalism? I would consider eating an ape or monkey to be like, cannibalism-adjacent but—“
Birdie was saved by the wild creature’s senseless rambling by Fishie’s triumphant shouts.
“You got the materials?” Link shouted out, looking up to see the octopus bumbling down the ramp, a bundle of rocks in their arms. Well, it’s not like they knew that any materials could be used to refuel the bike, and rocks were still materials.
Link didn’t know why literally everyone else also came down with Fishie, but hey, maybe they all just got intrigued by Fishie telling them about this, “super cool motorcycle.” Did aliens have motorcycles? They had spaceships so like…maybe? Ah, whatever, Link rubbed his hands mischievously as Fishie got closer with the fuel.
“Ooo, yeah, those look like enough to refuel this little guy!” Link told Fishie once they got close enough, “Now, this little guy in front me—yes, you!” Link ruffled Fishie’s head again, “—can refuel my cycle, if you want!” Link gestured at the rocks in the alien’s arm, and then at the seat. It felt like their eyes lit up as they screeched and rushed closer to the seat. It opened up for them, and they let all of the rocks fall right in.
And now, the Master Cycle Zero was fueled completely.
“Great job!” Link congratulated Fishie, stretching his hand out for a high five. Fishie looked at his hand blankly for a moment, and then swiftly smacked their own tentacle against it. Link cheered, Fishie cheered, all was well.
Then the other aliens were all “concerned” or something and tried to get Fishie away from the weirdo human’s strange, rock-eating machine. However, Fishie loved the rock-eating machine, and threw themselves over it, clinging onto it. Link laughed at how goofy the alien looked, and whistled a bit while trying to show them to get off. They did their species equivalent of a grumble, but pried themselves off. Then, Link hopped on and gave Fishie a wicked grin.
“I’m about to blow your invertebrate little mind,” Link told them, “I don’t know if you classify as an invertebrate actually—whatever! It’s pedaling to the metaling time!” And then Link started the motorbike.
Link drove around the aliens in circles, cackling gleefully— maniacally —as he did so. Then he did a wheelie. He did a lot of wheelies.
He mostly did wheelies in his frenzied fit of delight, because wheelies were sick as fuck.
Look, the planet’s terrain seemed to be pretty flat, sans the rocks scattered around, so it’s not like he could do any other tricks.
“Annnnddddd that’s the Master Cycle!” Link shouted as he came to a stop in front of Fishie. And once he completely halted, said Fishie was bouncing around him.
“Wanna try riding it?” Link asked as he slipped off. Fishie seemed like they wanted to try riding it, but was quickly pulled back by Wolfie.
“Oh, Wolfie, do you want a ride?” Wolfie tilted their head at that, but due to Fishie’s enthusiastic pointing at the motorcycle, Wolfie seemed to want a ride, suddenly.
Link stepped off to side and placed himself next to Birdie, as Wolfie awkwardly sat on the motorcycle, trying and failing multiple times to put their big, fluffy feet on the bike’s footrests. It was adorably funny to watch.
Link tried to explain how to get the Master Cycle to start, but most of it bleed into some pretty inane ramblings that neither of them would’ve been able to understand. So he just let Wolfie handle figuring it all out. And the alien did manage to figure out how to get the vehicle to start.
They did not, however, figure out how to make it stop in time for them to not fly off of it the moment they hit a big enough rock. They seemed fine, though, considering they hopped right back to their feet.
Armie—the Terminus, the fluffy, armored one that honesty look like they could be related to Wolfie, species-wise—walked towards Wolfie and the bike, and all the aliens were talking and stuff, but Link couldn’t understand it, so he chose to ignore it all. But after Armie checked up on Wolfie, they went over to the bike and decided to try it out themselves.
They met the exact same fate as Wolfie.
Everyone was—likely—laughing, including Link. It was pretty funny how things rhyme.
“Ey, Birdie,” Link lightly elbowed the feathered alien, “Wanna give that a spin?” Birdie looked down at him, blinked, squawked, and then walked towards to the cycle.
And they drove it perfectly. It was like they had bike riding in their blood. Link could only watch the bipedal bird—wait, were birds already bipedal?—with wide eyes and a slacked jaw. He looked at the other aliens and they seemed just as surprised, given their shouting.
Birdie even managed to do a flip off of a rock. A freaking. Flip.
Link was very jealous of this guy’s seemingly innate skills. Maybe they actually had ridden a motorcycle before. That was the only explanation he could think of.
That, or Birdie was simply that cool.
Birdie stopped in front Fishie, and appeared to offer them a chance to ride. Obviously, the octochild took them up that offer.
They were a bit wobbly, as wobbly one could be on a self-balancing machine, but soon took to it well. Not as well as Birdie did, but they did alright.
And as soon as they started gunning towards the ship, while the other aliens had panicked shouts, Link had a mischievous grin at what was coming next.
The other aliens rushed towards the ramp, with Bunnie and Scarfie taking the lead, but the bike was faster. They didn’t even make it halfway up the ramp when Fishie crossed the threshold into be inside of the spaceship.
Causing the Master Cycle Zero to despawn.
That, paired with Fishie’s little yelp, Link broke out into hysterics. Sometimes, the Master Cycle’s safety restrictions could be fun.
“Oh, forgot to mention,” —Link said as if anyone there could understand him— “the Master Cycle can’t be used indoors. Yeah, sorry about that, bud.” Link snickered a bit meanly, and then resummoned his cycle. Just as he was about to get on and style on this alien fools, he got tackled to the ground by Fishie.
Yeah, yeah that might be deserved. Didn’t stop him from fighting back, though. He did try to keep his teeth to himself, at least. It would be bad if one or both of them would get some sort of infection.
The rest of the aliens took the time to pry them away from each other, which was hard since one, Fishie had suckers, and two, Link practically had suckers himself, given his tendency to climb and cling onto anything he could.
But thankfully, for everyone there, the two creatures were finally torn away from each other. Link was pouting, and he was certain that Fishie was as well. They were both being scolded, anyways. Link didn’t need to understand their words to recognize Wolfie being disappointed in him.
“Sorry for laughing at you,” Link mumbly apologized, sticking out his hand towards Fishie. Fishie blubbered something back, then went to slap Link’s hand like they did earlier, but then stopped. They did nothing for a few seconds, but then grabbed Link’s hand, and shook it.
“Cool!” Link shouted, cause it was cool how they recognized that the context was different, and that they somehow knew to shake his hand, “I guess that means we’re friends again!”
Fishie let go of his hand and cheered, so Link cheered as well. The rest of the aliens seemed to be satisfied enough with this outcome. But one of them was missing from the group…
“Hey, where’s Scarfie?” Link asked, doing a tugging motion near his neck, to help the others understand what he was trying to ask.
The group all looked around, spotting Scarfie just in time to see them fall off of the bike by trying to do a wheelie.