Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Day 1: “Please don’t cry.”/Lamb to the Slaughter

CWs: Major character death, blood and gore, blood sacrifice

Day 3: (Alt) “A smile so bright, he’s the devil in disguise.”

CWs: Gaslighting

Day 5: (Alt) “If all my days are numbered, why am I still counting?”

CWs: Infection, depression, giving up hope

Day 7: (Alt) Viral

CWs: Infection, descriptions of gore

Day 9: Touch/Scalding

CWs: Non-con, non-consensual touching

Day 11: Hidden Injury/Laceration/Forced Reveal

CWs: Blood and injury, description of injuries

Day 13: Never Enough

CWs: Depression, major character death

Day 16: Immortality

Thoughts of suicide

Day 18: Ruins

CWs: Malnourishment

Day 20: (Alt) Jealousy

CWs: Minor stalking

Day 23: Unreality

CWs: Dissociation, panic attacks

Day 25: Lost Faith/Left to Die

CWs: Child death, major character death

Day 28: “Hold my hand.”

CWs: Near death experiences

Day 31: “I hate this job.”

CWs: Childhood trauma, PTSD, mentions of trauma, depression

Chapter Text

Wolfie charged ahead, leading the group of frantic heroes. He barely gave himself any time to track the scent, but the trampled foliage and splashes of blood served to lead them just as well. 

They were fresh out of a fight, practically abandoning it as soon as the daira took Hyrule. They waited long enough for Wind to chug a red potion to heal his broken ankle so he could run with them.

Legend wanted nothing more than to activate his pegasus boots and charge ahead. They knew that Hyrule had to be close, he couldn’t be too far ahead, but Legend also didn’t want to abandon his other brothers in case he needed them. Didn’t help that Time kept a firm eye on him.

After a while of running, the barren wasteland of brown grass and dying trees ended at a jutting cliff face. A cave was carved into it. The opening wasn’t even guarded, which raised immediate red flags.

Why would they do that?

Were the monsters so proud of their prize that they didn’t feel the need to?

Either way, the heroes were able to run in without any resistance.

The ground sloped downward into the earth. The heroes slowed to a walk. Though they were loath to do it, they needed to take it slow so they could better be aware of their surroundings while in enemy territory (though it’s not like the rest of the Traveller’s Hyrule isn’t enemy territory either). Sky was also starting to fall behind. They wanted to save their stamina potions for if when they found Hyrule, so they would have to let Sky’s stamina restore the long way.

The path sank further and further into the ground for seemingly forever. Their boots didn’t have tall heels, but what heel they did have buckled beneath them a few times. The only one not having trouble was Wolfie. His claws clipped loudly against the stone floors, but they still needed his nose in case they encountered a maze.

At some point, the path got steeper, further hindering their progress. 

The deeper they went, the louder the sounds of monsters got.

Growling and seething. Monstrous chatter as they talked excitedly about something. The heroes couldn’t understand their language, but whatever could make monsters so excited most likely did not mean anything good for the heroes. 

Or their missing brother.

The chattering grew louder and louder, until it reached a fever pitch. Then, the corridor opened into a wide room at the end as the corridor veered off to the right. As they approached, they could see that the room was full of monsters. And I mean full of monsters.

There was a line of them in the doorway, but they were too distracted with what was going on in the room to notice the heroes coming up behind them. 

With how low the ceiling was and how tall the monsters were (the tallest daira had to stoop in order to fit), the Links had no chance to see what was going on, and why the monsters were so excited.

Warriors silently gestured to where the corridor continued off to the right. They quickly scurried down that hallway, hoping that this one would bring them back around to the main chamber. Hopefully with a better view and maybe even a direct path to Hyrule.

Of course, when they got Hyrule, they would have to deal with the monsters that filled the room to the brim (it’s important to notice that they have no idea how big that room actually is). But they would deal with that problem when they get there.

Right now, saving the Traveler’s the only thing on their mind.

This corridor sloped upward, but it wasn’t nearly as steep as the main one. Or as long.

After a few minutes, they came across another opening into the main chamber. They crept carefully around the corner, praying that the monsters were so preoccupied with what was happening that they didn’t notice the heroes.

But it wouldn’t matter much if Legend could stay hidden.

As soon as he saw what was happening, Time had to grab his tunic before the Vet could dart out into the opening and put a stop to it. Though, to be honest, there wasn’t much keeping Time from doing the same. His eye burned with anger.

They were in the back of the room, looking out onto a stage. The room was flooded with monsters. Not even Warriors had ever seen so many monsters packed into one space before. 

On stage, a priest spoke his fucked up sermon to the cheering monsters behind an altar. It was raised, three feet above the ground. The top was a slate of obsidian. Flickering torchlight around the room shined against the black stone, revealing grooves etched into it. Archaic symbols and spells. The same etchings continued off the altar and around the stage, in twisting shapes that are all connected. They all led to a pile of grayish ashes. 

On the altar, bound in rope and so still the heroes feared they were too late, was Hyrule.

Wolfie whined. With the sounds of the monsters, Wolfie’s whine sounded monstrous enough that no one so much as batted an eye. 

Well, all except for the prisoner, that is.

Hyrule shuffled around to face them. He was gagged and had a black eye, but his green eyes–as familiar to his brothers as their own–widened in recognition. 

Legend wrapped his hand around his sword. He began to slowly unsheath it, the scraping sound of metal against leather barely audible over the monster noises.

But before he could unsheathe it and kill the monster looming over his successor, a meaty hand clamped around his wrist. Legend glanced back and found a large group of monsters had somehow crept up behind them, and had grabbed his brothers. The moblin right behind Legend picked him up by his wrist and crushed an arm around his middle, binding Legend to the moblin and bruising some of his ribs. 

However, that didn’t stop Legend from fighting back. He and the other heroes clawed at their captors, kicking and screaming for them to let. Them. GO!

Hyrule fought the restraints with renewed strength. He tried to weasel his wrists out of the ropes. They were behind his back, but he quickly learned that the edges of the lines in the rock were sharp. He rubbed the rope against the sharp edges, trying to use them to fray the ropes. 

But it wasn’t going to snap the ropes quick enough. So Hyrule switched tactics. 

After a few tries, he dislocated his thumb, allowing him to slip his wrist out of the restraints. 

He shook off the ropes and sat up, quickly getting to work on the ropes around his ankles. He fumbled with the knot in his hurry. But after a while, he finally managed to hook a finger beneath a loose loop and tugged on it. After some more fumbling, the knot came loose, and Hyrule was able to kick off the ropes. He eased the gag out of his mouth and tossed it to the side. 

But before he could get off the altar, a clawed hand grabbed his shoulder and slammed him back on the altar. Hyrule’s ribs stung from the force. The wind was knocked out of him, and his vision was blurry. He could barely make out the form of the priest standing above him, the torchlight gleaming off a fine metal dagger in his hand.

The priest easily kept Hyrule pinned in his dazed state. After saying a few more ‘words’, the priest brought the knife down on Hyrule’s abdomen and tore.

Hyrule’s yell echoed around the chamber as his brothers fought like wild animals to get out their restraints. 

Blood pooled around Hyrule, leaking into the etchings in the altar. But the priest wasn’t done yet.

He raised his knife and brought it down again. And again. And again. And again.

The heroes screamed almost as loud as Hyrule. They grew more and more frenzied. Wild accidentally kicked Twilight (who’d transformed back in an attempt to surprise the monster holding him. It didn’t work), but the Rancher didn’t care.

Hyrule’s blood leaked out from his body, slowly pouring into the etchings. When those etchings on the altar were full, Hyrule’s lifeblood spilled off the altar, into the etchings on the floor. 

The priest, satisfied with his work, raised the bloodied knife. The monsters cheered, celebrating as the blood filled the etchings and the stench of dark magic in the air became so thick that the heroes of light were practically choking on it.

Hyrule, weakened and bleeding out, fell still on the altar.

“NO!” Legend screamed. 

He grabbed the moblin’s thumb and tore it and the arm away with such force that, on a regular hylian, their shoulder would’ve been dislocated. As it was, the moblin’s arm was merely knocked away. But it was still enough for Legend to drop out of its grip, hitting the ground and darting towards his successor before the moblin could reach for him again.

Legend knew he should help the others get free, but the only thing he could think of was Hyrule.

The priest, oddly, didn’t interfere when Legend ripped the gag off Hyrule’s mouth. Instead, he just cheered and chanted with the other monsters.

Legend rifled through his bag, trying desperately to find a red potion or a fairy or anything that could possibly help.

For the first time since he was nine, Legend found himself praying to Hylia. Desperately begging her for mercy that she would save Hyrule.

Warriors was next to break free. He kicked back the monster holding him and unsheathed his sword. He spun around and buried it hilt deep in the monster. He quickly saved his brothers before charging out and killing the priest with more brutality than necessary. Normally. This time around, the others thought it wasn’t brutal enough.

Not finding anything in his bag, Legend gave up looking. He took Hyrule’s right hand in his, and caressed his brother’s hair with the other. 

“Please don’t cry.” Hyrule said weakly, noticing the tears building in Legend’s eyes.

The other heroes gathered around Hyrule. They borrowed through their own bags, looking for anything they could use. 

Warriors pulled out a spare tunic and began to rip it to shreds. He gave half of it to Time, and they began doing their best to bandage the wounds and put pressure on them in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding. 

Wind and Four sobbed, holding onto Hyrule’s other hand. While Four’s eyes were normally gray, with flashes of red, blue, green, and violet as the colors battled for control and influence, right now the irises were a solid red as he cried. Not even his fellow colors could console Red.

After fruitless searching, the rush for healing items stopped. No one had anything. Nothing that could help Hyrule’s grievous wounds.

It was a lost cause.

The monsters jeered and spat at the heroes as they gathered around and grabbed onto Hyrule. None of them even tried to hide their tears. 

Wind had now crawled onto the altar and had his head pressed against Hyrule’s chest. Hyrule carded his hand weakly through Wind’s fluffy hair. Time, Wars, and Twi tried to stop the blood from filling the etchings, but it was useless. There was just too much of it.

They gave up, dropping the rags they had been using to smother the blood. They joined the others and grabbed a part of Hyrule–his side, his ankle, anything.

“I’m sorry." Hyrule murmured. “Nev’r meant for this to hap’n.” 

“It’s not your fault.” Sky assured him, rubbing the back of the hand that was in Wind’s hair.

“I love you.” Hyrule said. His own tears poured out of his eyes.

“We love you too.” Everyone who could talk through their sobs said. 

Legend kissed Hyrule’s forehead. 

Hyrule’s eyes drifted closed, tears collecting on his eyelashes. He had a soft smile on his face, and the hand playing with Wind’s hair stilled. 

The heroes sobbed.

Legend buried his face in his successor’s hair and Wind hugged Hyrule’s body to him. Not even stoic Time could keep himself from crying. 

The sobbing and the dark magic in the air–growing heavier and heavier the further Hyrule’s blood spread–choked the heroes. They coughed and struggled to breathe. The dark magic soaked their strength out of them, or maybe that was just the crying.

Through their befuddled minds, the heroes barely stopped to register what the increase of dark magic meant until it was too late.

“Guys.” Warriors sniffed. “We need to go. Now.”

The captain watched as the blood reached the end of the vigils. Scary patterns were now full of Hyrule’s lifeblood.

The earth rumbled, shaking the heroes out of their reverie. They glanced up and looked around, wondering what was happening.

Twilight pulled Wind off of Hyrule and pulled his body into his arms.

Wind and Four held onto Twilight’s pelt. Legend grabbed Warriors’ scarf and let the captain lead him. 

But before they could all go into the corridor, there was a loud roar that shook the mountain on top of them.

Wild froze in his tracks. “No. It can’t be…”

He spun around, the others following him to see what had their Champion so on edge. 

Rising from the blood in the etchings were flecks of pink and black. It suddenly became even harder to breathe, if you can believe that. Now, the air burned as they inhaled it, weakening them even further. The monsters cheered so loudly, the heroes winced as the sound assaulted their eardrums.

More and more pink and black flecks rose from the blood until it became a storm of the stuff. The heroes coughed and their lungs burned and they called for Wild to follow them, but he was frozen, watching his worst fear rematerialize before him.

“Twi.” Wild squeaked. He reached out a hand but the only one that was there to take it and squeeze it reassuringly was Time. He stepped up to Wild and rubbed his shoulder.

The flecks of Malice flurried together in a storm, forming a monster that roared. It had a boar’s head and black tusks. The Malice that made up the monster filled the room, burning the heroes that it touched, and even the monsters.

Then Calamity Ganon roared again. Wild felt weak and insignificant as Calamity Ganon busted up into the mountain. Monsters squealed as the mountain fell down on top of them.

“We need to go.” Warriors repeated. “Wild. Snap out of it.”

Twilight led the charge, running back through the corridor, avoiding the falling boulders. Time tugged Wild after him. Wild stumbled on the first few steps, but got his feet beneath him and soon, he was the one pulling Time after him.

The heroes raced out of the chamber. When they came to the turn, they found the entrance to the main chamber blocked by a boulder, meaning that they wouldn’t have to worry about monsters.

Going back up the steep incline was harder than going down it. They slowed down significantly, but they pushed on anyway. They couldn’t afford to let it slow them down.

When the incline softened, they charged up the hill fast for the remaining stretch. 

The heroes sprinted out of the exit before the whole mountain collapsed behind them. The heroes moved out of the way of the collapsing mountain and turned around, watching the monster made of hatred punch its way out of the mountain. 

It curled around the crumbling remnants in a motion that was nauseatingly familiar to Wild. 

Wild collapsed to his knees, not knowing what to feel. 

His best friend died and his blood was used to drive Ganon even further into power-fueled insanity. So far that Ganon lost his physical form and became the very being that killed all of Wild’s friends and family. Even killed Wild himself.

Miniature roars that were nowhere near equal to Calamity Ganon’s rose up across the land as the monsters of this era rose up to their master’s call. 

“All the monsters in this era are going to be rushing here.” Sky said. “If we know Ganon, he’ll be leading sieges to every town in Hyrule, maybe even beyond. We need to get to Dawn and Aurora and warn them of what’s coming.”

But before the heroes could so much as turn in the direction of the North Palace, a portal tore through the fabric of space and time right in front of them. Wild, who was still staring up at Calamity Ganon in horror, was the only one who didn’t notice it.

“We gotta get outta here.” Twilight said grimly.

“C’mon Wild.” Time gently pulled the Champion to his feet and pulled him gently towards the portal, where the others were lining up to go in. 

On the other side of the portal, was Wild’s Hyrule.

“We’re in Sanidin Park Ruins.” Wild numbly announced.

They were in front of the horse statue. Behind them stretched all of the Era of the Wild. Mountains and rolling hills stretched behind them, with Satori Mountain behind them. 

It was the most beautiful place in Hyrule.

A perfect place to bury their brother.

“He always did love my era.” Wild murmured as a few of them used some of Legend’s many shovels to dig a grave in front of the horse statue.

They couldn’t build a coffin, so they wrapped Hyrule in his blanket. Hyrule once told them that it was the last thing from his mother, the last thing from Calatia. She had made him the quilt not long before he was chased out of Calatia into Hyrule.

While Warriors and Twilight dug the grave, Wild pulled a sizable stone out of the framework of the park ruins. Since this was his Hyrule, he decided to be the one to carve his brother’s gravestone. That way, people would be able to read the gravestone and know who’s buried there. Of course, they might think that Hyule is Wild, considering they have the same name, but Wild didn’t care about that.

In the end, Hyrule was lowered into the ground wrapped in his mother’s quilt. They put his sword and shield on top of him. Then they filled in the grave and Wild shoved the gravestone in the dirt at Hyrule’s head. 

The gravestone was sloppily made, but it was legible. 

Here lies

Link

The Hero of Hyrule

It’s dangerous to go alone. Never underestimate the strength of your friends.

They made camp there and stayed by Hyrule’s side for days. They refused to leave until the next portal appeared. Before they left, Wild placed the travel medallion at the park.

Then, every time the heroes appeared in Wild’s era, they would travel to the park ruins. They would stop and give Hyrule an update on their adventure, telling him everything. Even after the adventure, Wild would travel to Hyrule’s grave and talk to him.

Every time, it was impossibly hard to get the Hero of the Wild to leave his brother’s grave, no matter what reason you gave him.

Chapter Text

The second Ganondorf waltzed into her father’s throne room, Zelda hated him.

She can’t explain it, but there was just this burning sensation in her stomach. It felt like every part of her was just absolutely repulsed by this man. So much that it physically hurt her to be in a room with Ganondorf for an extended period of time.

Zelda was the only one who felt this way.

Her father, the guards, the members of the court… While Zelda’s very being rejected this man, everyone else was completely infatuated by Ganondorf.

The guards were having a good time learning from the gerudo king, adding new skills and moves to their repertoire every time Ganondorf showed up at the training arena. The lords and ladies of the court loved the way he always had a solution for whatever problem they had. Zelda’s own father even gushed to her about how kind and respectful Ganondorf was.

Zelda would just mumble ‘yes father.’ and would push her food around her table, ignoring how the very word ‘Ganondorf’ would turn over Zelda’s stomach.

Of course, every time that Zelda brought up how she felt whenever she and Ganondorf were in the same room, her father would tell her that she was just being greedy for attention and would brush her off like a fly. It always hurts her feelings. Zelda couldn’t understand it. How in the world could they like this man? She just couldn’t comprehend the idea of looking at him and feeling anything other than hatred and complete rejection of his being.

“Impa?” Zelda asked one day during ocarina classes. “How do you feel about Ganondorf?” If her Sheikah bodyguard liked Ganondorf, then maybe she was just greedy for attention. 

Impa set down her ocarina and hummed. “Why do you ask?”

“Please, just answer the question.” 

Impa nodded. “Well… I think he’s an odd character. Merging Hyrule and Gerudo would be a smart move, but I can’t help the feeling that he’s hiding something more. What it is, I can’t say.”

Ganondorf having an ulterior motive was one thing. Ganondorf having an ulterior motive and managing to hide it from Impa was a completely different thing.

“Good.” Zelda sighed. “I felt like I was the only one who saw something wrong with the man and it was driving me crazy.”

“You’re not crazy.” Impa assured her. “Sheikah and Hyrule’s princesses always seem to have a better grasp on the world around us. It would make sense that we’re the only ones who can see something wrong with Ganondorf.”

“But doesn’t that concern you?” Zelda pressed. “That his man sets off our sensors, but manages to convince everyone else he’s the best thing since sliced bread? Doesn’t that make him dangerous?”

“It makes him very dangerous.” Impa agreed. 

“But then we need to tell father!”

“No.”

“Why?!”

“Becuase your father is not as good at hiding his emotions as we are.” Impa explained. “If we tell your father, he will immediately become distrustful of Ganondorf. Now while that sounds like a good thing, we don’t know Ganondorf’s motives. I would like to keep him close to your father for a little while longer so we can uncover those hidden motives.”

“Okay.” Zelda nodded meekly.

But it took them several weeks before they actually found out what Ganondorf’s motive was.

Zelda had a dream. It was the kind that she remembered after she woke up, but she was still sure to write it down in her diary. Just in case she forgot it by the time that morning came around. She felt that Impa would like to know what the dream was.

In the dream, Zelda found herself on a front balcony looking out over Hyrule. She had watched as dark, menacing clouds rolled in from over the Gerudo Desert. The clouds threatened to suffocate the kingdom. The clouds caused Zelda to cough, and they blotted out all light as they filled the entire sky.

And then there was a light. It broke through the clouds and shone down on the distant forest. A figure, dressed in green with a glowing green stone and a fairy, emerged from the forest to bask in that light. 

Zelda couldn’t make out their details, but as they traveled across Hyrule Field towards her, the dark clouds lessened. It got easier for her to breathe.

By the time the figure made it to the front of the castle, directly beneath Zelda, the clouds had fully cleared and the sky was blue again. The figure waved up at her with a childish innocence. 

And then she woke up.

Zelda could never tell if Impa was humoring her, or if she genuinely cared about Zelda’s opinions. Zelda was only 11 years old. Every other adult seems to think she can’t think for herself, so it would make sense if Impa shared their opinions. But Impa always acted like Zelda’s opinions were as valid as a full grown adult’s. 

So when Zelda told Impa about her dream, Impa waited until she had fully explained it, and helped her try and figure out what the dream could mean.

“I think the clouds symbolize Ganondorf.” Zelda said. “The figure must be some sort of hero. We need to find him.”

“Sure, but according to the dream, he’s the one who’s supposed to find you.” Impa debunked. “Besides, you know the dangers of the forest. No one who goes in comes out again. I actually need some time to process that people apparently live in the Lost Woods.”

“So we need to do more waiting?” Zelda pouted.

“It appears so.” Impa nodded. “Patience is a virtue required of a good queen.”

“I know.” Zelda sighed. “I’m just sick of not being able to punch Ganondorf in the face.”

Impa gave a small, uncharacteristic smile.

One day, Zelda was in the courtyard; her favorite spot in the castle. Ganondorf was talking with her father. It’s not like she wanted to be in the same room as that man, but she found herself peeking in through a window to watch the gerudo as he approached her father.

Then she heard someone’s footsteps behind her. 

It wasn’t Impa–Zelda never heard her coming. So it must’ve been a guard, but what for?

She turned around and gasped. Standing in front of her was a boy around her age. He wore a matching green tunic and hat. He had blond hair and blue eyes. A blue fairy fluttered over his shoulder. 

“Who are you? How did you get past the guards?” Zelda didn’t get an answer. “A–a fairy? Then…are you from the forest?”

Could he be…?

The boy nodded.

“This might sound odd, but… Do you have the Spiritual Stone of the Forest?” Zelda tried not to sound too eager. “A shining green stone?”

The boy nodded and pulled it out of his pocket. It matched the same teardrop shape of the stone from Zelda’s dream. So he really is the hero!

“I have to admit, I’ve been waiting for you.” Zelda started. “You have no reason to believe me, but I had this dream… In the dream, dark storm clouds were billowing over the land of Hyrule. But suddenly, a ray of light shot out of the forest, parted the clouds, and lit up the ground… The light turned into a figure holding a green shining stone, followed by a fairy. 

“I knew that it was a prophecy that someone would come from the forest. Yes, I thought you might be the one…” Then proper manners caught up to Zelda like a wagon crash and she blushed fiercely. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry! I got so caught up in my story that I didn’t even properly introduce myself!” Oh father would be so embarrassed. 

“I am Zelda, princess of Hyrule.” Zelda bowed her head respectfully. “What is your name?”

The boy cleared his throat. “Link.”

“Link…” Zelda mused. “Strange, even though I’ve never heard it, it sounds somehow…familiar…”

Maybe it was the childish innocence/stupidity that her father and the members of court always used as an excuse to exclude Zelda, but she trusted Link. While her being told her to reject Ganondorf, it also told her that Link could be trusted.  

Besides, he hadn’t rejected her prophecy dream yet. That was better progress than Zelda had had with any adult other than Impa.

So she told him the story of the Sacred Realm. How the golden goddesses created the earth and then left, leaving three golden triangles at their point of exit. She also told him how the Triforce would reflect the heart of anyone who wields it. How it would grant the wish of anyone who can obtain the full thing.

Finally, she told him about the entrance to the Sacred Realm, sealed by the Master Sword and the Door of Time. Zelda didn’t tell Link, but she felt like he would be able to draw the Master Sword–something not many people can claim to be able to do.

Then, after Zelda had told Link everything he needed to know, she stepped aside and let him peer through the window at Ganondorf. 

“The other element of my dream, the dark clouds… I believe they symbolize that man in there!” Zelda said as Link stepped up to the window. “Do you see him? That man with the evil eyes? That is Ganondorf, the leader of the gerudo. They hail from the desert to the west. Though he swears allegiance to my father, I feel he is not sincere. I know the dark clouds symbolize that man!”

A few moments later, Link gasped and dropped below the window sill. 

“What is it?” Zelda asked, dropping down beside him. “Did he see you?”

Link nodded. 

“Don’t worry, he has no idea what we’re planning!”

After a while of waiting, he glanced up over the window sill and stood back up. Zelda followed him, seeing that Ganondorf had moved out of sight of the window.

“I told my father about my dream…” Zelda continued. “He didn’t believe that it was a prophecy. But I can sense that man’s ambitions! Ganondorf must be after the Triforce and the Sacred Realm. Which is why he came to Hyrule to claim it. He wants to rule Hyrule–no… the whole world!” It sounded outlandish, even to her own ears, but everything in Zelda told her that she was right. It wasn’t childish delusions of wanting to be a hero, it was the blood of the goddess reacting against Ganondorf.

And Link still believed her.

“Link!” Zelda pleaded. “We are the only ones who can protect Hyrule!”

Link nodded firmly. He was with her.

As much as Zelda wanted to join Link on his adventure to find the last two Spiritual Stones, she was a princess and as such, she couldn’t leave the castle. 

But she had made her first real friend. 

Zelda didn’t count her friendships with the children of the nobles. Her father made her play with them. It was all manufactured. If Zelda became friends with the nobles’ children, then those children are more likely to have higher positions in the government as Zelda comes of age.

Even as a younger child than she was right now, Zelda knew all the tricks in the book. She knew when she was being manipulated, or when people were trying to earn her favor for a higher government position. Zelda blamed it on Impa, who was teaching her in the ways of the Sheikah ever since she was old enough to learn. But Impa said that it was Zelda’s natural intuition.

Link was the first time Zelda was allowed to make a friend for herself.

And she enjoyed their friendship.

When he would visit, he would teach her games he played in the forest, he would tell her about his life in the forest, and they would play their ocarinas together. 

Impa would supervise with a kind smile. It was clear that she was happy with how Zelda had managed to find a friend as much as Zelda was.

Zelda was also happy to have found someone else not completely charmed by Ganondorf.

As the days went on, Zelda was forced to watch as Ganondorf sweet talked his way higher and higher up the food chain. Zelda noticed that he would artfully dodge around the union of Hyrule and Gerudo.

Even though that was the whole reason he came here.

And of course, Zelda was the only one who saw a problem with this.

Ganondorf just kept creeping higher and higher up the ranks and closer and closer to her father. And Zelda could do nothing but watch.

And then one day, Ganondorf snapped.

Even though Zelda knew that he didn’t have any of the Spiritual Stones, Ganondorf progressed with his plan and killed her father.

Gerudo thieves charged the castle, keeping the guards too preoccupied to deal with the real threat. During the siege, someone must’ve knocked over a brazier or something because the castle was soon going up in flames.

It was up to Impa to get Zelda out of the castle.

Zelda clung to Impa as she jumped from the balcony. They left Ganondorf behind. This usually smug but pleasant face was now twisted into an evil grin. As if he had already won.

Impa landed expertly and ran to the stables. Thankfully some stable hand had saddled their horse, likely preparing the princess’ means of escape as soon as they noticed the castle was under attack.

Impa sat Zelda on the horse and swung up behind her. With a loud “Hyah!” Impa snapped the reins and they burst out of the stable just as Ganondorf was getting to the stable. They almost ran him over, and Zelda had to hide the displeasure that they failed.

The castle bridge was up, but as soon as the guard saw them coming, he and his fellows started cranking it open desperately. As it lowered for them, Zelda gasped.

“It’s Link!” She shouted over the storm to be heard. “Impa! We need to bring him!” 

“It’s too dangerous!” Impa shouted back. “Ganondorf’s right behind us!”

Zelda felt guilty as they charged past Link. But maybe there was still something she could do… Zelda had been clutching the Ocarina of Time like a lifeline ever since the gerudo attacked. It comforted her because if she had the ocarina in her hands, then that meant that Ganondorf didn’t.

But right now, Link needed it. So with a mighty swing of her arm, the Ocarina of Time flew over Link’s head and landed in the moat behind him. She held eye contact with her only friend and begged that he knew that she was sorry and that she believed in him.

And then he was gone.

“Are you sure about this, Your Highness?” Impa asked.

Zelda nodded. “It is the only way to hide from Ganondorf.”

Impa nodded, and took a pair of scissors to Zelda’s hair. 

As she cut, Zelda ruminated on everything that had happened in the past 24 hours. Because there was a lot.

The gerudo sieged the castle, Ganondorf killed her father, she and Impa escaped, she left the Ocarina of Time to Link (she still didn’t even know what had happened to him after she left), Impa brought Zelda to a Sheikah safe house on the edge of the kingdom, and Zelda had decided to go undercover as a Sheikah boy to avoid Ganondorf’s suspicions. 

Of course, Zelda had been fully aware of what Ganondorf wanted to do since the moment she first laid eyes on him. She had known him to be nothing but an egotistical man willing to do anything to elevate himself and get him closer to his goal of world domination.

The only problem was that Zelda had been the only one to recognize the danger.

She had told her father multiple times about her suspicions. And yet every time, she was dismissed. 

Zelda was 11 years old. She was a child.

As far as any adult in her life other than Impa was concerned, she didn’t have the ability to think for herself. Much less for the benefit of the kingdom.

But what if they had listened? What if Impa had spoken up to her father? Would they have been able to do something about Ganondorf? Or would Ganondorf had just come back with the forces to overwhelm Hyrule like today?

Zelda knew that Ganondorf would’ve still tried to gain the Triforce. But maybe if her father had believed her, he would still be alive.

Zelda sniffed as Impa cut her hair.

But instead he had been charmed by the perfect illusion of kindness and charisma. An illusion that had hidden the worst of evils from everyone but a child.

But who would believe a child?

Chapter Text

Red, Blue, Green…

All that was left was Vio.

Vio wasn’t an idiot. Far from it. And even then, you didn’t need to be a genius to read the writing on the wall.

Vio was next.

And he still didn’t know what could be causing the Infection.

Shadow was doing his best, reconnecting with some old Dark World contacts and answering any of Vio’s questions involving dark magic. But they still weren’t making any headway in finding any dark magic wielders that could help them figure out what was happening.

Of course, the black blood the other Colors had developed was a clear sign of something involved with The Shadow (not Vio’s boyfriend, the evil time-traveling lizard that the writer needs to find a better name for). But The Shadow was dead! On top of that, the last time any of them had been in direct contact with it had been two years ago!

Was it like a virus? Did whatever caused this sleep inside Vio and his brothers for those two years before activating and taking over their bodies? But that still begged the question of how did it get inside their bodies to begin with?

Link had never been injured by The Shadow. At least, no injuries that broke skin. Besides, they’d figured out that The Shadow Infected monsters by way of a spell. As far as they knew, not only did The Shadow never cast this spell on the heroes, the spell also worked instantaneously. So the other colors would’ve been Infected within minutes, not years.

But maybe the spell worked differently on heroes because of the Hero’s Spirit? Link didn’t have the Triforce (at least not that he knows of), so it must be the spirit. But even then, they hadn’t seen The Shadow cast that spell, it would’ve been obvious, and Link and other heroes would’ve been able to put a stop to it.

Then there’s also the question of why the Colors were being slowly Infected one by one. Granted, the time between each Color succumbing to the Infection was decreasing, but still! Why not all at once?

There were a lot of questions that Vio for once didn’t have the answers to. More than ever, he wished the other heroes were here. Partly because he wanted to know if they were also being affected by the same Infection, partly because he wanted more people to bounce ideas off of, but mostly because he just missed them and wanted to cry in their arms again.

“Vio, you can’t stay holed up in here forever.” Zelda said. 

Vio barely looked up from his book. He had taken up two separate tables in the castle library that he had pushed together to make one. Books, notes, pencils, and various unfinished snacks were strewn around the tables. Zelda had given him full access to the library; day and night; and that included the restricted (and very limited) section on dark magics. 

Vio shrugged. “I have Shadow to keep me company and make sure I eat.”

Said hero was currently slumped over a nearby beanbag chair, snoring with a book camped over his nose.

At least Vio knew he was breathing.

“It’s not healthy.” Zelda tried. “You know how important it is to take a break.”

But Vio couldn’t. His clock was ticking. 

But he didn’t say this to Zelda. Vio knew that she was well aware of the little time Vio had left. Vio moved a book over the sheet of blood samples he’d taken from himself ever since Green was Infected. The blood had steadily been getting darker. Vio’s fingers were covered in band-aids.

“Please Vio.” Zelda begged. “I swear that your work will all be here when you return. The Picori festival is coming up soon, I’m sure everyone would appreciate your help.”

Ah. The golden word.

Zelda knew that Link had never been able to resist helping out when needed. His Colors were no different.

Vio sighed. He slipped a bookmark into his book and slid it closed. “Alright.”

Zelda beamed. “Thank you!” She kissed him on his temple.

Vio stood up from the table and walked over to his sleeping boyfriend. As cute as he was, a tendency for mischief and chaos was also a shared trait amongst the Colors. Vio picked up the book, making sure it was still open. Then, he snapped the book closed as loudly as possible, right above Shadow’s nose.

Shadow startled awake, cursing at the rude awakening. Then he realized what had happened and glared at Vio, who was smirking at him. 

“C’mon Shadow, we’ve gotta help prepare the town for the Picori festival.”

Shadow slumped back on the beanbag. “First you wake me up rudely, and now you’re forcing me to do something I don’t want to? I thought you loved me.”

Vio rolled his eyes. He’d say ‘don’t be so dramatic’, but Shadow was always like this. So he just grabbed Shadow’s arm and dragged him off the beanbag. Shadow, being a little shit, remained limp all the way out of the library. Zelda followed, clearly trying not to laugh. Vio had to threaten to dump Shadow down the library steps to get the teen to stand up.

As soon as they entered Hyrule Town, they were mobbed by children.

“Vio!” Zill cried, still rocking his chronically runny nose. “Do you want to play with us?”

“Yeah! Play with us!” Candy took up the cry. “We can play Hide-and-Seek!”

“I would love to.” Vio said. “But I need to help people get ready for the festival.”

“Aw…” The children visibly deflated. 

“When is Red coming back? He’ll play with us.” Erik said, not noticing how the trio of teenagers flinched at the name.

“Yeah, where’s Red?” 

“We miss him.”

“How much longer will he be gone?”

“Sorry.” Vio tried to hide his emotions. “Red, Green, and Blue are very busy. There’s a lot they need to do in Labrynna. But if you ask me; I think they’re just stalling and are too busy playing games and listening to storytellers than actually doing their work.” Of course, the other Colors weren’t in Labrynna. But the children didn’t know that. They wouldn’t be able to understand why they were gone. Even if they did, Vio didn’t want the children to be scared of him. 

“Are you going to go to Labrynna?” Joel asked. “To bring them back?”

“I’ll be joining them soon, yes.” Vio welcomed Shadow’s hand as it clutched his own.

“I’ll play with you.” Zelda spoke up, diverting the conversation away, even though it was clear she was as shaken as Vio was. “Who will be ‘it’ to begin with?”

“You!” Leila grinned, pointing at the princess. “You need to count to 20!”

“Don’t forget to say ‘Castor Wilds’ as you count!” Candy reminded her. “And cover your eyes!”

Zelda obliged, raising her hands to hide her eyes. “One Castor Wilds… Two Castor Wilds…”

The children giggled as they scattered. When Zelda finished counting, she squeezed Vio’s shoulder before going after the children.

“Are you okay?” Shadow asked.

“As okay as I can be.” Vio sighed. “But we have a job to do. Zelda’s keeping the children preoccupied, so we can put up decorations!”

“I don’t like putting up decorations.” Shadow pouted, slumping forward. 

Vio tugged him forward. “Aw, but you’re so good at it! It’s not like anyone else in town can just fly up to hang the banner.”

“Yeah…” Shadow straightened, his ego successfully bolstered. “I am pretty awesome like that.”

Vio rolled his eyes and they walked further into town. 

“Father!” Vio waved as he approached. 

His father looked up from where he had been helping organize the decorations committee. “Vio! Shadow! I assume you want to help?”

“No.” Shadow shook his head. “He wants to help. I’m being forced against my will.”

Vio’s father laughed. “Well, I’m glad you’re here. Can you help put up some flags?”

Vio nodded. His father handed him the bundles of colorful flags that the town reused every year as well as a map of the town, with the desired locations marked down on it. Vio let Shadow lead him through the town as they hung the banners. Whenever they went to hang up another banner, they had to spend several minutes untangling them. Something Shadow loved to complain about.

It didn’t take long before they had hung up all of their designated banners and were heading back to town square for more to do. They spent the rest of the day hanging banners, helping vendors set up their booths, moving flower pots around the roads, and keeping the children entertained and out of the adults’ way. 

“Are you going to participate in the sword tournament, Vio?” Harrison asked while they were taking a snack break; because running around playing games took a lot out of you.

“Uh…” Vio happened to glance up just in time to catch the scornful gaze of a guard. While the children just thought Vio’s fellow Colors were in Labrynna, the guards knew better. After Red’s rampage, they had been sure to keep the guard informed, just in case an Infected hero threatened a town instead of natural wildlife. 

Needless to say, the knights were as friendly towards Vio as Legend’s knights were to him.

They didn’t like Vio hanging around in town, much less around the children, which was understandable. They treated him like a lit bomb, which is also understandable. 

But Vio was keeping careful track of his Infection, and didn’t want to spend the rest of his life quarantined from the people he loved. It’s not like the guards could do anything without angering Zelda or the general public who didn’t know what had happened to their heroes.

Even still, the knights refused to let someone with darkening blood participate in the sword tournament. 

“Not this year.” Vio shook his head. “But I hear there’s a few strong contenders this year.”

Thankfully, none of them were actually minish sorcerers in disguise looking to steal the Light Force back from Zelda.

He checked.

“Aw.” Harrison sulked. “But I like watching you fight.”

“But don’t worry. I’ll be participating in the tournament.” Shadow grinned, revealing his fangs as he wrapped an arm around Vio’s shoulder and leaned his weight against the purple hero. “I’m much cooler than this loser.”

Vio chuckled, resuming his flower crown braiding with the girls. “You can’t use any magic in the tournament.”

“Pfft!” Shadow waved away that statement. “I don’t need magic! I’m Link’s shadow! I’m just as good, if not better than the four of you combined.”

“Wow, so humble.” Vio said dryly, but with a smile. “Almost reminds me of us before our second adventure.”

Shadow flicked Vio on the back of the head, causing the hero and surrounding kids to laugh. 

Shadow sulked. “You mock me? Oh woe is me!” With that, he flopped dramatically into Vio’s lap. Vio just moved his flower crown out of the way and rolled his eyes. He tied off the last of the flowers and dropped the crown onto Shadow’s head, the brilliant colors of the flowers stark against his boyfriend’s dark purple hair and pale complexion.

Shadow stayed in Vio’s lap, but adjusted his head so he could properly wear the flower crown without crushing the flowers. Then, he reached for a nearby patch of flowers and decided to weave his own crown–with Vio’s help, of course; this was Shadow’s first time weaving flowers. He was careful with his claws, to avoid cutting the delicate stems.

By the end of the day, Vio had realized what Zelda had done, as he was too tired from hanging banners, running around with the children, and flower-weaving to go back to studying. 

When he got back to his and his brothers’ shared room, he wrapped the flower crown Shadow had made of him out of red, blue, and green flowers, and set it on the desk. Tomorrow, he might press the flowers between his books for safekeeping, but he wanted to enjoy the colors while they were still fresh. 

Even though they blended into the colors of the room around them.

Link’s Colors are were really into color coding everything. Though to be fair, it lessened the fights over whose was whose, saving their father more than a few headaches. Though it didn’t save him because raising four traumatized heroes who loved arguing with each other was quite the task to ask of any one man.

Thank Hylia for their grandpa.

After getting ready for bed, Vio heard a knock on the door.

“Yes?” He asked, choosing the book to read before bed. This one wasn’t about dark magic, but rather a fiction about pirates. 

Vio’s grandpa poked his head into the room. “Sorry to bother you, Vio, but I was wondering if you would like to help me forge the sword for the tournament winner tomorrow?”

Vio smiled. “Yes grandpa, I would like that very much.”

His eyes wrinkled, and Vio could only assume that under the white beard and mustache, his grandpa was smiling. “Good. I look forward to that. Good night, Vio. I love you.”

“Love you too, grandpa.”

Then his grandpa left and let Vio crawl into bed with his book.

As upset as Vio was at not making any progress in the Infection problem, he was more than happy to help his grandfather. Forging was one of the things that Link had loved when he was one person. And when he was four, every part of him loved it as well.

Vio, like his grandpa, tried to ignore the lack of the three others as they worked. 

It was a rhythm they’d mastered over the years of Link apprenticing under his grandpa. Even though many years have passed, Master Smith was still the greatest blacksmith in the land. 

His grandpa will always tell Link or his Colors that they were better than him, but they never believed him. No one could be better than Master Smith.

When they were done, Master Smith called it the best blade he’d ever made.

Probably because it was the sword he would forge with his grandson.

Vio hopes that Shadow wins the sword tournament, to keep the accidentally sacred sword in the family. 

They were both efficient blacksmiths, and working together they were that much faster. They were done by lunchtime, just in time for Vio’s father to tell him of a monster camp on Mount Crenel.

His father might not have meant to pass the job onto Vio, but Vio sprang at the opportunity. He was a hero. If he was going to turn evil at some point, he wanted to do as much good as he could with the time he had left. Vio managed to convince his father to let him deal with the monsters, probably only because Shadow was also going.

“Be careful.” The captain said as they swung their swords on their shoulders.

“Don’t worry, I will.” Vio smiled before leaving the house, Shadow floating along beside him.

Vio let himself get lost in the mundaneness of travel. Stopping every few hours to rest and eat snacks to keep his energy up, the steady left right motion of his footsteps.

It wasn’t lost on him that his company was different from who he was used to, but he tried not to let it show. But if he found a cool rock and turned around with the name of one of his many brothers on his tongue, Shadow never mentioned it.

Legend and Hyrule had a lot more monsters casually on the roads in their times, but Four was a solid third place. Shadow and Vio were kept busy dealing with the monsters along the way. The knights usually kept the roads clear–especially with the festival so close–and after the defeat of The Shadow, the number of monsters had been going down. But there were still plenty of monsters to keep the heroes on their toes.

When they made it to the bottom of Mount Crenel, Vio equipped the grip ring before climbing.

Unlike Legend, Four never really liked having things on his hands. 

Shadow, the show-off, flew beside Vio. As Vio climbed, Shadow gave extremely unhelpful ‘you’re almost there!’ comments that made Vio want to punch him in the face. Then again, he did accurately warn Vio when boulders were heading towards him and which way to dodge.

The monster camp was about halfway up the mountain, thankfully well away from Melari’s mines. But Vio’ll be sure to check up on him and the minish after they took care of the monsters. 

There were a few darknuts, crows, chuchus, and of course; acro-bandits were sticking their heads out of the ground, looking around furtively. 

“How about you take care of the crows?” Vio asked. “Since you can fly and I can’t?”

Shadow nodded. “After I take care of them, I’ll help you with the darknuts.”

“Be careful.” Vio told Shadow.

“Right back at ya.” Shadow winked. “On your signal.”

The acro-bandits were the most annoying enemies there, so Vio decided to go after them. When they were close enough to his hiding place behind some boulders, Vio burst out into the open. Shadow flew up, dark mimic of the Four Sword drawn.

The top acro-bandit disappeared into the ground before bursting up on top of four of its fellows. But Vio was ready. As soon as all the bandits were visible, he started slashing with his sword, knocking bandits out from underneath each other. With all the mess about black blood lately, Vio was momentarily confused when his sword came back covered in red. But he got over his surprise. This was a good thing.

By the time the rest of the monsters had noticed them, the acro-bandits and crows were dead. 

Vio dodged past a darknut’s sword. Coming up in a roll, Vio headed straight for the three red chuchus. He slashed at them until they went down. 

“Behind!” Shadow cried, causing Vio to lunge forward to dodge the strike. He felt the movement of a slashing sword against his back.

“I distract, you attack?” Vio asked, Shadow landing beside him. They stood shoulder to shoulder facing the three darknuts as they slowly approached. Of course one of them was a black knight.

“Deal.” Shadow nodded.

They broke apart, Vio leading the darknuts to the left as Shadow went to the right to get around them.

“Hey!” Vio shouted to get their attention. Two of them were already focused on him, but one had noticed Shadow going the opposite direction and had headed over there. Vio banged his sword against his shield, drawing the stray third monster’s attention. 

Vio kept his shield up, dodging swords left and right. He mostly just stayed moving around the area, keeping the darknuts out of range. 

Shadow would come in with a few slashes before disappearing into a darknut’s shadow to avoid the counterattack as it turned around. Then, Vio would shout some more and reattract the monster’s attention.

They continued like this until they were down to just the black knight.

The black knight was a lot smarter than the other darknuts. It wasn’t black blood smart, but still smart.

When Shadow attacked it, it was much faster–impressive for a monster wearing more armor than Time.

It twisted around and struck Shadow with its sword, sending the hero flying away.

“Shadow!” Vio cried. He darted forward and dug his sword hilt-deep into the black knight’s exposed back. He ripped his sword out as the black knight turned back around. Vio rolled to the left, under the monster’s shield as it spun to the left. 

Vio came up behind it again. This time, when he struck it hard, the monster roared before slumping forward.

Vio ran over to Shadow’s side, setting aside the Four Sword. He ignored the way his left hand felt like it had been dumped in ice as he pulled Shadow over on his back. Shadow was still breathing, and Vio almost collapsed in relief. Instead, he pulled out a red potion and lifted it to Shadow’s lips, helping the barely conscious teen drink.

After a few moments, Vio sighed in relief as he watched the wound stitch itself back up. Vio took out a rag and began cleaning Shadow’s black blood (which he has as a creature of shadow; they’d gone down that rabbit already and found nothing). 

At least they wouldn’t have to worry about Shadow’s black tunic staining.

Vio stayed by Shadow’s side and watched carefully as his breathing steadied and he recovered. A few minutes later, Shadow had the strength to open his eyes and pull himself to a sitting position–with Vio’s help, of course.

“Don’t do that to me.” Vio buried his face in Shadow’s shoulder, grabbing his tunic in a fist. “By the Golden Three, you really scared me.”

“Sorry.” Shadow said, leaning his head against Vio’s. He raised a weak arm to hug Vio.

“I can’t lose anyone else.” Vio tried not to cry.

“Me either.” 

Shadow was quiet; barely a whisper, but the two little words froze Vio’s blood.

Vio was being so selfish, he never even considered what this situation would be for his loved ones. Vio had to fit by and watch his three brothers die. His father, grandpa, Zelda, and Shadow had to sit by and watch three of their loved ones die, while knowing that they’re going to lose another, they just don’t know when.

(Though the other Colors didn’t actually die, but unless they can find a way to cure the Infection, for all intents and purposes, the Colors are dead, and Vio will be too, soon). 

Vio pulled back. “I’m sorry.” He said weakly.

“What?” Shadow tilted his head. “No, Vio, none of this is your fault.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t take into account you and everyone else’s feelings.” Vio amended. “I’ve been too selfish, thinking only of myself.”

“Vio, your brothers are Infected, and you’re getting Infected too.” Shadow said, as if Vio didn’t know that every time he glanced down at his wrists. “No one blames you. Not only that, but you’re trying your hardest to find a cure. We could never be upset with you about that.”

Vio sniffed, just then being made aware of the tears gathering in his eyes. 

“Oh, Vi…”

Vio pulled him into a hug, crying into Shadow’s shoulder. Shadow rubbed Vio’s back and murmured soothing words.

“I’m scared, Shadow.” Vio finally admitted. “I’m scared I’m not going to find a cure. I’m scared that I’ll be a threat to people once I become Infected. I’m scared of how it’s going to feel like.”

Shadow just held Vio for a minute and let him cry until his tears dried. 

“It’s going to be okay.” Shadow said. He was a creature made for malice and destruction, but he was surprisingly good at emotions. At least, he was much better than his stoic purple counterpart.  “We’re going to find a cure. Even if we don’t, I’ll seal you in the dark world like the others. That way, you can’t hurt anyone. And I’ll continue looking for a cure until I find one.”

“What if there isn’t one?” Vio sobbed.

“Then I’ll search til the day I die.” Shadow said. “I won’t give up, Vio. Not if you don’t. I’m sure the others feel the same.”

Vio wasn’t the determined one; that was Green. But Vio would try. For his brothers.

“I love you.” Vio sniffed. 

“I know.” Shadow snarked, enticing a choked laugh from Vio. “I love you too.”

Vio sat back and kissed Shadow.

“Now, are you ready to get off this mountain?” Shadow asked, wiping away Vio’s tears.

“Depends.” Vio drew in a slow breath. “Can you walk?”

“Walk?” Shadow barked out a laugh before rising a few inches above the ground. “Who would walk when you could float?”

Vio rolled his eyes. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

LINK - A RANDOM INTERSTATE - JUNE 12th, 6:00pm

Link had to suppress a sigh when he glanced down at his dash and realized his RV was running low on fuel.

He’d been pushing it the past hour or so, praying that it would carry him all the way there. But apparently it couldn’t.

He exited the interstate at the first exit and pulled into a truck stop with a Lovee’s and a McDonald’s all in one.

Oh boy, choices! Link could already feel his indecision acting up as he pulled in next to an available pump.

As Link refueled his RV, he scrolled through his Sheikah phone for the first time since the last gas station stop some hours ago because he did not text and drive, thank you very much! (Though it’s not like Link’s road anxiety would let him do much else. He still doesn’t even know why he does this).

That’s why. Link smiled to himself as he scrolled through the photos he’d taken while at Hyrule National Park that he’d posted on his Forcegram.

The photos were beautiful.

Link had always wanted to travel the world as a kid, and though the stress from the drive and the stress of money and barely having any money for food (most of it going towards gas, of course) grated on him at times, the view from the Dueling Peaks was fucking worth it.

There was a deep clang that signaled the gas tank was full. After checking the screen on the pump to make sure it was right, Link took the nozzle, took it out, clinking it against the filling pipe to shake out any spare drops of gasoline (something his father taught him, he doesn’t know if it’s a common habit, but whatever), and put the nozzle back.

After telling the pump that he would not like a receipt, Link climbed in, locking the door behind him. After checking the cupboards to find what he feared (just packets of half eaten trail mix and candy, and an almost empty thing of coffee and an empty bottle of sweetener), Link pulled his RV out from beside the pump into a proper parking space (he can’t believe people who just leave their cars by the gas pumps while they go inside). Then, he locked the RV and went into the RV for dinner and to restock on road snacks.

On his way in, Link threw away the bottle of sweetener.

It was early evening, and there were only a handful of people in the truck stop.

After a game of eeny-meeny-miny-moe, Link decided on McDonald’s. After ordering, he went into the convenience store to buy snacks, coffee, and sweetener.

“Um, weird question.” The cashier asked nervously. “But…aren’t you that one travel blogger from Forcegram? Link?”

“Yeah.” He flushed, scratching the back of his head. It wasn’t often that he met fans and while he despised social interaction, he never wanted to be rude.

And he wasn’t a travel blogger, he just uploads pictures of my travels, and people like that, he guesses. Helps pay for gas and food, though. Not like anyone would hire a high school dropout, anyway.

The cashier grinned like she’d met a celebrity, complimented my photography, and made some small talk about my life on the road as she scanned my items.

I was glad when I could pay and leave. I found that my McDonald’s order was ready, so I took it and left.

Eating in public made me anxious, so I always ate in my RV. That’s just what I did.

I turned on the engine, turned up the volume on the radio, and sat down at the table to eat.

Of course, Link got the happy meal, despite barely being 18. Because you can be happy at any time in your life, fuck you.

Link had one ear on the radio as he ate. He didn’t really care, but apparently some Sheikah biological company being under scrutiny for maltreatment of human test subjects or whatever, but isn’t every Sheikah company under scrutiny these days?

About halfway through his meal, Link’s phone rang. It was his mother.

Link lunged over to the front of the RV to turn down the volume.

Back at the table, Link answered the phone, smoothly slipping back into his native tongue. “Hello Ma.”

“Hello dear.” She sounded tired. Link did some quick calculations in his head and figured that it must be early morning back in Calatia. “How was your day? Did you make it to Mabe Village yet?”

“No.” Link admitted. “I had to stop for gas and dinner. Hopefully I can make it before it gets late. I don’t feel like staying up til midnight again.”

“I hope you can too.” Ma said.

Link smiled. His ma had always been supportive of him, even when he decided to drop out of high school and use his money for college on an RV. She was the one who first introduced him to his love of photography and nature.

“What are you doing in Central Hyrule, again?” She asked. “Are you visiting Historic Hyrule Castle again? Didn’t you already go there?”

Link rolled his eyes with a smile, despite knowing she couldn’t see him (actually her not being able to see him roll his eyes at her probably saved his life). “Just because you go somewhere once doesn’t mean you can’t go there again, ma. And they’ve expanded the museum with some more artifacts the Hyrulean Historical Society has cleared for public viewing.”

Link could practically hear the eye roll from through the phone, mirroring his own seconds before.

“But no, that’s not why I’m here.” Link said. “There are a couple of friends from high school that I’m meeting up with, congratulate them on graduating and stuff.”

It really fucks Link up, knowing that if he hadn’t dropped out, he would be graduating right now. But something told him he would still make the same decisions to travel the world.

“Oh!” His ma cried. “That’ll be fun. Who is it?”

“The sisters, Aurora and Zelda.” Link explained. “Though they don’t know that I’m coming. As long as they still live in the same house, then I’m planning on surprising them. I’ve been in contact with their parents.”

“Well that’ll be nice.” His ma said. “I hope you have fun, dear. Tell the girls hello for me.”

“I will.”

“Love you dear, be careful and drive safely.”

“I will. Love you too.”

Link sighed as the call ended. The familiar pang of homesickness settled in his chest, like it always did when he heard his mother’s voice or spoke in his native language.

He finished up his dinner and got behind the wheel once again. He turned the volume back up and pulled out of the truck stop, getting back on the interstate and counting down the miles until Mabe village.

LINK - MABE VILLAGE - JUNE 12th, 10:04pm

Link finally pulled into Mabe village around 10 o’clock that night. As he drove through to the trailer park, Link couldn’t help but notice how Mabe ‘village’ was now much bigger than when he went to school there.

Two years ago, it was a relatively small town living in the Castle City metropolitan area.

Now, it has grown to its own sort of city with the influx of people moving to Castle City.

Link pulled into a trailer park for the night. After checking the estimated temperatures for that night, Link decided he didn’t need to leave the engine on, since it wouldn’t get too hot. Link made sure the doors were locked before curling up under the covers and finally allowing his tired body to sleep.

The next morning, Link decided to walk to where he was going to meet his friends because it was close, and he sorely needed to stretch his legs.

Link didn’t run into as many familiar faces as he thought he would, even though he knew the chances of him running into any school friends on the walk to the park was unlikely.

After a five mile walk, he made it to the park where Aurora and Zelda’s parents had said the graduation ceremony was being held.

Link somehow managed to sneak in right before the ceremony started. The girls parents (who had clearly been looking for me) waved him over when they saw him. They had saved him a seat next to the girls older brother.

“Hello Nigel.” Link gave him a soft smile.

“Link.” Nigel said through gritted teeth. He had always hated him (though he hated everyone) and disapproved of his decision to drop out of school. He had always been an entitled asshole, but ever since a prank he played on Aurora went too far and he genuinely almost killed her, he decided to try and turn his personality around and be kinder.

It was a valiant effort, but he still hated Link’s guts.

“Hello Link.” His parents smiled much more warmly over his shoulder.

“It is so nice to see you again.” Mrs. Sunday said with a bright smile. “I know we talked a bit on the phone but tell me, how’s everything going? Are you eating alright?”

“I’m getting along just fine.” Link smiled back at her. “My ma sends me a little money every month, but she worries too much. I’m doing just fine, you save a surprisingly large amount of money by not needing to pay a water bill. Anyway, I’ve still got the money for college I haven’t used up yet.”

Nigel scoffed but Link ignored him. It was his money for his education, and since he wasn’t going to use it for college, he could use it for gas and food and phone bill money.

“Well we’re glad you’re happy.” Mr. Sunday said.

Link smiled at him but didn’t have the time to say anything, as the principal had stepped up to the podium and began to welcome everyone to the graduation ceremony.

Link kinda zoned out during the ceremony. None of it was interesting, they were all just waiting for their kids/friends to walk across the stage.

Aurora and Zelda were Link’s best friends.

They met halfway through middle school and have been bonded for life. So much so that when Link’s father died, and his mother was scrambling for a way to bring him back to Calatia as well as find him a school (the school system in Calatia is horrible, part of the reason his parents argued), Aurora and Zelda just suggested Link move in with them. So Link lived with them for three years before he dropped out of school.

They were his sisters and he couldn’t wait to see them again!

After who knows how many names, it was finally time for Aurora and Zelda to walk across the stage.

Aurora went first.

She shook hands with the principal and took her diploma. She looked for the crowd for a moment, letting her parents take a picture. As she found her parents and brother in the crowd, she found Link, and her eyes went wide in disbelief.

The principal had to whisper to her to remind her to keep moving.

When Zelda took her diploma and posed for her picture, she saw Link and her mouth and eyes went wide as well, before she grinned madly. She hurried off stage and began to whisper with her twin excitedly.

After the ceremony, the Sunday family and Link walked off to the side, far from other families for some privacy.

Almost as soon as the students were released, Link was tackled to the ground by a grinning Zelda.

“Link!” She squealed. She hugged him.

Link laughed, shifting into a sitting position and hugging her back. Aurora joined the hug. Link blinked back happy tears. He was so proud of them and he had missed them so much.

“How’ve you been?” Aurora asked with an uncontrollable grin when they finally stood up. “We don’t talk as often as we should.”

“I know,” Link sighed. “but it’s hard, being on the road all the time. At least my Forcegram account lets you know I’m still alive, and where I am.”

“Thank Hylia for small miracles.” Aurora rolled her eyes.

After the ceremony, they went out to dinner.

Romani BBQ. It’s the girls’ favorite place to eat. It was also Link’s, and it was just as good as he remembered.

They spent a good while catching up. It was nice.

Link told them about his travels and his future travels, and they told him about the colleges they’re going to attend in the fall, as well as their majors.

Then, around 8 pm, as the sun was beginning to set, that peace was disturbed.

Link had finished eating his dinner. Aurora sat across from him and was in the middle of a sentence before she trailed off, looking through the window by the booth they were in, back behind Link.

Link turned around in confusion and his blood ran cold at what he saw.

Smoke billowed in the air. Some buildings had caught fire.

“What the hell?” Link asked.

Slowly, the others in the restaurant began to notice the fire.

There was confusion and some shouts from inside the restaurant.

Link crawled over Nigel and Mrs. Sunday to get out of the booth.

“Link. No.” Mr. Sunday called. “You can’t— What are you doing?”

“Trying to find out what’s going on.” Link explained. “Maybe an oil tank blew, but whatever it is, those people need help, and we might depending on what caused it.”

Mr. Sunday didn’t say anything. Instead, he just followed Link out of the restaurant.

People were running away from the burning buildings. Link ran down the street. The tallest burning building, in the middle of the fire and likely the cause of it, was the headquarters for the Sheikah Biological Research Center, the SBRC.

The front of the building had a row of glass doors and windows. Link looked inside and saw a security guard, just inside the burning building. But instead of running out of the building, the guard was…shooting at…something.

As if that wasn’t enough to raise the alarm, then what the security guard was shooting at definitely was.

It lurked into view slowly, taking tens of bullets and not seeming to care. In fact, the bullets didn’t seem to cut into its thick skin. Finally, one bullet nailed it in the side of its too-thin waist and sickly green blood poured out with the consistency of molasses.

After that bullet, the guard froze. He just wouldn’t move.

Link couldn’t hear anything going on in the building, was he reasoning with it or something? Little too late for that. Link thought as he remembered how the guard unloaded a full magazine of bullets into the creature. Maybe the guard was just out of ammo.

More and more creatures lurked out of the building. While the first one still lurched over to the frozen security guard, they inched their way to the glass doors.

One was on fire and didn’t seem to notice.

The automatic doors slid open for them.

One creature lifted its head and made direct eye contact with Link. Its eyes were glassy, but with a sure spot of black meant to be the pupil. They were trained on Link behind a crudely carved wooden mask that hid its face, showing only its eyes and teeth, making Link wonder where the lips were, if this… thing was supposed to be humanoid.

Link broke eye contact to glance back into the building and yep—the first creature was indeed eating the security guard right there. The guard looked alive, but was slumped in an immobile pile on the floor.

“Yep, time to go back to the restaurant.” Link said, turning and starting to run back as the wails of fire trucks and ambulances finally sounded from around the block.

Mr. Sunday and Nigel (when had he gotten there?) followed Link eagerly as the crowd of creatures split, the one who had made eye contact with Link following him at a leisurely pace.

On the way back, Link tugged at passersby staring at the creatures, too stunned to move. He got them to move and the survival instincts finally kicked in and they started running.

Link slowed to a walk and tried to seem calm when he reentered the restaurant—panic would get them nowhere.

But, of course, people were already panicking, seeing the burning buildings, the creatures streaming onto the block, and the people running and screaming past.

Half the restaurant ran out, muscling their way past Link, Nigel, and Mr. Sunday.

The rest stayed, unsure of what to do. Do they flee? Or do they wait and see if it’s just a prank? If anything, they should at least pay.

Of course, a news team had already appeared on the scene. A TV was tuned into their broadcast. They circled the burning building in a helicopter, talking about the building and then zooming in on the chaos surrounding the creatures.

The news anchor mentioned that the creatures might be the cause of some experiment by the SBRC.

Link didn’t think much of it—it was a news anchor’s job to spread gossip and breed distrust—but others in the restaurant seemed to take it seriously.

Those left in the restaurant watched the TV in horror as the creatures crept closer and closer to their hiding spot, leaving limp, half-eaten bodies behind them, attacking any who came close with their terrible claws.

The doors burst open to reveal a woman, holding a jacket to her badly bleeding arm. She was the victim of one of the claws.

Her arrival just caused more chaos. Link just shoved his way past the crowd to the woman.

“Hello.” He smiled politely. “My name is Link. I’m here to help you. Can you tell me your name?”

“Delilah.” She answered as Link led her to the booth he and his friends had eaten at mere minutes before. “Do you know what’s happening?”

“No one does.” Link shook his head as she sat down. “Can I see your arm?”

The woman dropped her jacket and revealed an awful, gaping wound the length of her forearm.

“I hate to tell you, but I doubt there’s any needle and thread to stitch up your wound here.” Link admitted. “And I’m not an actual doctor, but until we find an actual doctor, I’ll do the best I can.”

Delilah nodded. “Thank you anyway.”

Using a steak knife, Link cut off part of the table cloth and tied it securely around her arm. He’s sure he’s gonna get fined for it later, but he can’t find it in himself to care at the moment.

“Everyone calm down!” A commanding voice cut through the clamor of the panicked customers.

Everyone quieted down as they looked at the speaker. A man wearing a green shirt and fancy blue scarf had climbed onto a table, commanding respect from everyone as he talked firmly and calmly.

“I won’t pretend to know what’s going on, but I do know that panic will only make things worse.” He said. “First, we need to lock and barricade all doors.”

He nodded at a waitress who nodded back with a firm look on her face. She pulled out a set of keys and began to follow his instructions.

“We also need to draw all the curtains so the creatures can’t see we’re inside. If they don’t know we’re here, then they won’t have any incentive to come inside.” He continued. “We also need to get a first aid kit for the woman who just came in. Now.”

An employee went into the back as a group of people started dragging tables over to the door to barricade it shut.

With his orders given, the man came over to Link and Delilah.

“Hello there.” He smiled. “Can you tell me your name?”

“Delilah.” She replied.

He nodded. “My name is Link.”

Delilah snorted, side-eyeing the first Link.

“What?” The new Link asked, concerned.

“My name is Link.” The first Link said.

“Well that’s confusing.” The man said. “But we’ll have to figure out nicknames later. Can you come with me, Delilah?”

Link couldn’t help but trail after them as they went to the back of the restaurant. An employee handed the man a first aid kit, and he thanked the employee as they walked to the sink.

“So. Link.” Scarfie said as he untied Link’s makeshift bandages. “You seem to have a bit of medical knowledge. This wrapping speaks to some experience.”

“I took a pre med class in high school.” Link explained. “Learned the basics; CPR, stitches, how to tell if someone has a concussion, stuff like that.” He quietly kept the fact that he had a Life spell to himself. He felt his magic, humming and pulsing with his heartbeat. Ever since the fairies had abandoned Hyrule years ago, magic’s all but disappeared. Link wasn’t ashamed to admit that he was scared what power hungry hylians would do if the discovered he was a fairy.

“Well that’s helpful.” Scarfie said as he began to clean Delilah’s wound by wetting a paper towel and beginning to wipe away the blood from around the wound. Thankfully, the bleeding has mostly stopped. “Today was graduation, right? Congratulations.”

Link blushed. “Oh no, I didn’t graduate today.”

“Sorry.” Scarfie said. “I just assumed. You look older than you are.”

“Yeah I uh…” Link felt awkward talking about this. “I dropped out of school near the end of my sophomore year.”

“Really?” Scarfie asked.

“Yeah.” Link nodded.

“Can’t blame you.” Delilah shrugged. “I felt like doing the same thing multiple times.”

“What do you do now?” Scarfie asked.

“I travel Hyrule.” Link explained. “It was always a dream of mine, and you don’t need a high school diploma to do that. What do you do?”

“I’m a captain in the army.” Scarfie explained. “I enlisted right out of high school. How about you, Delilah?”

The captain used some isopropyl alcohol to sanitize her wound. Delilah winced and tugged against his firm yet gentle grip on her arm. When she spoke, her voice was shaky from the stinging pain.

“I’m a hairdresser.” She explained.

“You must meet a lot of different people then, huh?” The traveler asked.

Delilah nodded. “You have no idea.”

Satisfied with the cleaning of her wound, the captain got out the materials to stitch up her wound. “Okay, I’m not gonna lie, this will hurt.”

“Just do it.” Delilah gritted her teeth.

For her credit, Delilah kept the whimpering and wincing to a minimum as the captain stitched up the wound. When he was done, he tugged on the end of the thread enough to pull the wound closed. Then, he snipped the end.

“Hey traveler, can you help me?” The captain asked.

“Of course.” Link stepped forward.

“Hold this gauze against the stitches while I wrap it, please?”

“There you go.” The captain said after tying off the wrapping. “We’ll check it in the morning and see how it’s doing then, but I think you should be good until it heals.”

“Morning?” Delilah asked.

“Well aside from the obvious, it’s getting late, so I think everyone would rather stay here than try and go home when it’s so late.” The captain explained. “Thank you, Link.”

Link nodded.

He went back into the main part of the restaurant, regrouping with the Sundays.

“What are we going to do?” Zelda was asking as Link approached.

“Well we can’t do anything tonight.” Link spoke up. “Might as well wait here for tomorrow, see if the national guard or someone’s cleaned up those monsters. Maybe this is all just a dream on my part caused by road delirium. We’ll find out tomorrow.”

Nigel scoffed but didn’t say anything.

“Just in case though, I’d save your phone battery.” Link said.

Aurora reached into her purse and pulled out her and her sisters’ phone chargers. “Please Link, it’s like you don’t even know us. We’re always prepared.”

Aurora handed Zelda her charger and they went off to distract themselves with YouTube and social media. Link just shrugged.

He went back to the booth they’d eaten in and took out the journal he always kept in his pocket, took out his pencil and began to write and doodle in the pages.

When night fell, everyone curled up on booths and tables. Using tablecloths and jackets as blankets.

Link took off the flannel he’d been wearing (just because it was the nicest thing he owned), bundled it up tightly, and used it as a pillow as he laid on the table with Aurora and Zelda in the cushioned seats.

He’d willingly given up the seat to Zelda, but was starting to regret it as his back already ached from the hard, way too flat surface.

Link fell asleep, purposefully ignoring the hushed whispers of parents and adults in the back, the crackling of fire and gunshots outside, and his growing anxiety that this wasn’t some dream caused from delirium.

Chapter Text

The sun of the Gerudo Desert beat down on them. They had set out from Kara Kara Bazaar early enough that they didn’t have to deal with the signature desert heat that accompanied everyday. But they had gotten preoccupied with a den of monsters hidden beneath the sand dunes. It was just a group of red blooded monsters, nothing the heroes needed to worry about, but the fight had still delayed them enough that the sun was high enough to be a problem by the time Gerudo Town was visible in the distance.

They exchanged their cold weather gear for hot weather gear (The desert is a joke, Warriors thinks). In a flash of blue light, Wild was wearing the Gerudo Vai outfit. Warriors regrets making fun of it now, it was really helpful. It also wasn’t cool to make fun of something that your friend genuinely enjoys.

Wild didn’t understand the concept of gender (that much was clear early on). It was one of the things he forgot, and it’s hard to explain. The king had referred to Wild using he/him pronouns, so Wild just assumed those pronouns.

Warriors switched what hand was holding his scarf to his face. Wild didn’t have nine veils, so Wars just used his scarf. Wind was using the tail of Warriors’ scarf to keep the sand out of his mouth. Warriors knew he was there when the Sailor would tug on his scarf every now and then when he stumbled, or was repositioning the scarf over his mouth.

“So we know the plan?” Wild asks as they come up to the wall of Gerudo Town. 

The heroes shuffled underneath an overhang. The Gerudo may hate men hanging around outside, but at least they were kind enough to leave out blankets and soft pillows for them to sit. The guards side-eyed the heroes as they sat down and made themselves comfortable.

“Yep.” Time nodded. “You go in and ask for any monster reports. We’ll wait out here and set out depending on what you find out.”

Wild nodded. He gave a salute before jumping and climbing up the wall. The guards (and Time) sighed with a good-natured eye roll before the guards went back to guard duty, and Time settled down on a pillow.

Wind picked up a pillow, turned it over to the less sandy side, and flopped into Warriors’ lap, hugging the pillow to his chest. Warriors rolled his eyes and lifted a hand to play in Wind’s hair.

“Y’know, we could probably sneak Legend and Four in.” Hyrule said. “They look the most feminine out of all of us.”

Four and Legend looked down at their rather slender waists. Four huffed and crossed his arms, and Legend rolled his eyes and flipped off Hyrule, who just giggled. The Gerudo guards looked at each other. Warriors saw one had her eyes screwed up and assumed she was probably hiding a smile or laugh beneath her veil.

“We wouldn’t even need to find Legend a change of clothes.” Twilight snickered.

Legend glared at him. “My tunic is practical! Even I don’t know how many defense spells my Red Mail has!”

“And the lack of pants…?” Sky tried to hide a giggle, but was failing.

Legend huffed, ears turning the same shade as his hair. “Y’know what? I don’t have to explain myself to you!” He went to the very edge of the shade and sat down with a pointed huff, his back to the others.

They just laughed and rolled their eyes at his antics. He knew they didn’t mean to poke fun at him, but it might take a while for their dear Veteran to regain his lost dignity.

“You think they’d take my Gerudo token?” Time asked, digging in his pouch and taking out a piece of paper with a red ribbon strung through a hole.

“Lemme see?” Warriors held out a hand and took the token. He raised his eyebrows as he read it (he can’t raise just one eyebrow, as Legend so often likes to tease him about).”Sprite, this is old. Where’d you even get this?”

“The Gerudo captain gave it to me.” Time answered. “I beat a few of them in combat, broke out of their prison more times than I can count, and freed some carpenters. So she thought me worthy of being a Gerudo Thief. Even compared me to King Ganondorf.”

“You shouldn’t take that as a compliment.” Wind said, taking the token from Warriors so he could read it. “Guy’s kinda an asshole.”

“Oh I know, but to them, it was the highest praise to be comparable to Ganondorf.” Time said. “Anyway, think it’s redeemable here?”

“It’s thousands of years old by this time.” Twilight pointed out. “Maybe even hundreds of thousands of years old. They’ll just think you’re crazy and that you forged it.”

“But it’s signed by Nabooru herself.” Time pouted.

“Who’s been dead for longer than you have.” Wind rolled his eyes. He tried tossing it back to Time, but the paper token just caught a light breeze and looped through the air before landing a few inches to the right of where Wind’s hand was. Wind glared at the offending piece of paper as Time picked it up and stuffed it back in his bag.

“Hey guys!”

There was a thump! and a swirl of disturbed sand as Wild dropped down from the wall back beside the shelter. 

Four, who was right there, coughed and spat and glared at Wild. He was now coated in sand and Blue was evidently very upset about this as he tried to remove all the sand off his tongue.

“Sorry.” Wild chuckled. “Didn’t see you there.”

“Did you get anything?” Warriors asked. He stood up, ignoring the way Wind tumbled from his lap and the very pointed and vicious pirate-themed insults spat at him from the ground.

“Yeah, there’s a gathering monster force near the West Barrens.” Wild explained. “Apparantly there was a blood moon a few weeks back, so the molduga in that area must have respawned, so we’ll have to be careful. Sand seals can outrun it, though, so we should be able to get to solid land before it attacks.”

“Good.” Legend nodded, having recovered from the earlier embarrassment. “What landmarks are near the West Barrens? So we know what we’re looking for, especially if we have to run through a sandstorm again.”

“Well, you should see–” Wild started to say, but was cut off when a man approaching from the direction of the shrine called out.

He jogged closer. He wore a pair of glasses that reflected the light off the sand dunes without revealing his eyes. Strangely enough, he didn’t seem to be wearing pants for some reason.

Either he was like the Veteran, or it was a poorly disguised bid for the Gerudo’s attention.

At first glance, Warriors didn’t think much of this man other than he was just a lonely guy trying to get into Gerudo Town who won’t take no for an answer. But then he saw the way Wild stiffened at the sound of his voice, and Warriors’ mood soured.

Heroes loved all people. That’s what made them heroes. How could they save the country if they didn’t love the people living in it? But there was a flash in Wild’s eyes and the way he held himself suggested that he hated this man. Wild was the most loving out of any of them. Even Legend (despite what he says or does, it’s hard not to notice how much Legend loves people)! Wild didn’t even hate the Yiga.

That meant this guy was bad, bad news.

Warriors eyed the guy warily as he approached. His brothers assumed similar distrustful stances, catching up on the same thing that he did.

“Hey Bozai…” Wild said slowly. He turned to greet the guy, likely plastering on a fake smile despite the fact that he was wearing a veil and Bozai couldn’t see the bottom half of his face.

“Hey there! Haven’t seen you around in a while!” Warriors couldn’t see Bozai’s eyes, but he had a lovesick smile on his face.

Oh.

He thought Wild was a girl.

That shouldn’t be concerning, that was the whole point of the Gerudo Vai outfit. But there was a glaringly obvious problem.

Bozai looked older than Warriors, who was 24. Meaning he was likely late 20s, early 30s.

Wild, despite all the jokes about being a hundred years old, was 17.

“Yeah, there’s a reason for that.” Wild sighed.

“And who’re these men?” Bozai asked. Protectiveness leaking into his voice and form, as if thinking he can take on eight armed heroes.

“My brothers.” Wild responded.

Warriors really wanted to beat this guy to the curb, but Wild was giving them side glances that told the heroes to stand down. Wild’s got this. He probably doesn’t want to hurt Bozai, but Warriors really wanted to hurt Bozai.

“I see you still haven’t acquired any footwear after I took your boots?” Wild said in a saccharine voice that suggested he was very proud that he stole this guy’s boots.

Warriors glanced down and had to hide a smile at the fact that Bozai was, in fact, barefoot. He only had a pair of socks to protect his feet from the scalding hot desert sand. Legend, from behind Warriors, snorted, but Bozai didn’t seem to hear.

“No, but don’t worry, my dear.” Aaaand Warriors’ joy is dead. “Running barefoot is very good for your feet! Now, they’re stronger and there’s less of a chance I’ll get injured! And I can jog even better than before!”

“Good for you.” Wild said sarcastically. “Now if you’ll excuse me, my brothers and I need to be leaving.”

“But I just got here!” Bozai pouted. “You haven’t even introduced us!”

Bozai, ever oblivious to Wild’s discomfort, stepped closer and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

That’s it.

Warriors knows that Wild was trying to diffuse the situation peacefully, and he respects that.

But the way Bozai touches him, hands lingering on his exposed skin, eyes roving over his body… It reminded Warriors all too painfully of Cia. Her scalding hot hands, burning invisible scars into his skin…

He couldn’t stand by and watch the same thing that led to so much distrust of Artemis when she first admitted her feelings to him happen to his dear younger brother.

Beating Twilight to the punch, Warriors marched forward and ripped Bozai’s arm off of Wild’s shoulders by the wrist. Warriors bent Bozai’s wrist back, forcing him to take several steps away from Wild.

Twilight stepped forward and enveloped Wild in a hug.

“Don’t.” 

Bozai’s glasses slipped down to his nose, revealing his beady little eyes that reminded Warriors of a dirty rat.

“Touch.”

Warriors felt his brothers that were not comforting Wild step up behind him,

“Him.”

Bozai’s eyes widened at that pronoun. He glanced back at Wild, but the hero was shielded behind a wall of his brothers.

“Again.”

Warriors brought up his other hand and punched Bozai in the face as hard as possible. It made him wish he had Twilight’s natural strength, or one of Legend’s many power enhancing items. Warriors has never wanted to kill a man before, but if it kept vulnerable women from being taken advantage of by this asshole, he would gladly do it a hundred times.

As it was, Bozai’s glasses cracked. A shard of glass got stuck in Warriors’ fist. Another piece was sticking out of Bozai’s eye. His other eye was going to turn black soon.

Good.

“Now you can tell your mama how you lost your eye.” Time growled. His scarred white eye was open, making the man that much scarier.

Bozai didn’t deserve his eyes, if that’s what he did with them.

Warriors shook Bozai’s wrist so roughly, his shoulder dislocated with a nasty yet satisfying pop!

Warriors kicked Bozai onto his back in the sand. Bozai looked up at Warriors and his brothers with fear. The dirty rat had never been caught before.

Warriors didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he really wished that this would teach Bozai his lesson. To never touch an unwilling woman in that way again.

“Get lost.” Legend growled. He kicked Bozai hard in the side. 

Bozai winced, but scrambled to his feet, bumping into Wind in his hurry to get away from the heroes. He clutched a hand to his kicked side as he scurried away.

Warriors glanced at Wind. “Did you get it?”

Wind suddenly grinned. He removed his hand from behind his back to reveal Bozai’s wallet and watch in his hand.

“Good job, Sailor.” Warriors grinned right back.

He went back to where Twilight, Hyrule, and Four were crowded around Wild. He had changed out of the Gerudo Vai outfit into his trusty hylian hood and much beloved Champion’s tunic.

His hood was drawn, a clear sign he was uncomfortable. He gripped the end of his long tunic and had folded it up so he could rub the fabric against his cheek, taking calming breaths in the familiar color.

Wild had told them about the tunic. How it was a sign of his status as the Hylian Champion. How the other Champions had matching clothing. How it was so badly damaged during the Calamity that his Impa had to practically reweave it. As it was, she tried to find fabric or dyes the same shade as the original tunic, but the closest color was still several shades too dark.

“Are you okay Wild?” Sky asked softly.

Wild nodded. “Let’s get moving.”

“Hey.” Warriors stepped forward. “I know how you feel. It’s okay to not be okay.”

Wild nodded. He dropped the hem of his tunic and straightened. “Okay. I’m fine. Hopefully he won’t come back here again.”

“Why didn’t the guards do anything?” Four asked.

Warriors glanced back at the guards by the entrance to town. They were currently trying to keep a man from entering the town. He doesn’t seem to be getting the message.

“Bozai’s not one in a million.” Wild sighed. “The guards are really busy. They chased him off a few times, but you’ve seen how he is.”

“I hate men like that.” Legend glared at the sand at his feet. “There are always assholes. They’re more common in my time. There’s nothing you can do to change them.”

“You can still kick their asses to the curb, though.” Twilight said. 

Legend nodded. “You can still do that.”

“You ready to get going now, cub?” Time asked Wild, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Wild smiled. He nodded, and he looked much more certain than before. “Yeah. We’ve got a long journey waiting for us.”

Chapter Text

After the shadow invasion, the monster count in the Faron Woods has significantly decreased. Most of it was apparently thanks to Link’s truce with King Bulbin.

Despite the lack of danger, Rusl doesn’t want to let his guard down. Just because there weren’t as many monsters as there were, doesn’t mean that monsters still don’t roam the woods. Rusl was only one of two swordsmen in the village. Though he trusted Link’s strength and for his horse Epona to raise hell if she sees a monster, letting everyone in the village know there was danger before the monster even stepped foot in the proper village… Rusl just wanted to patrol, to calm his own nerves.

It appeared his paranoia was correct, as he spots a wolf not far outside the village.

Rusl extinguishes his lantern and hides in some bushes as he watches the beast. 

It was large, much larger than any normal wolf, which instantly set Rusl on edge. It had long dark fur, but there were white streaks running through its fur, sort of like a tattoo on human skin. 

Rusl knew starting a fight with his beast was death. So he just waited to see what it would do. If it tried to make for the goats in Ordon’s barn, Rusl would have no choice but to stop it.

The wolf pants, like it’d been running through the woods. Or maybe from hunting. Rusl thinks as he eyes the heavy and wet fur beneath the wolf’s mouth. Though it was odd that it didn’t carry its food. Maybe it already ate it and was going to wash off? Rusl didn’t think wolf hunts were so bloody. And where was the wolf’s pack? Wolves never traveled alone, and yet this one was, for some reason.

This wolf was an enigma.

The wolf stepped into a moonbeam and Rusl had to resist the urge to gasp as any sound would alert the wolf to the man hiding in the bush.

Rusl knew this wolf.

It was there the night after the children, Ilia, and Link were kidnapped. It had come into the village. Jaggle had tried to chase it off with a hawk, but it took Rusl striking it with his sword and nearly setting it on fire with his lantern to chase it out of the village. 

Then it also tried to come into Telma’s Bar, when Rusl first met Telma and Ashei. He and Ashei had both thought it was carrying something, but a Goron patron punched it in its side and kicked it out of the bar before they could investigate further. Rusl had always thought it odd that not only was the wolf so far away from Faron Woods, it had also managed to get into the town without being attacked (though that was likely attributed to the cowardly knights on guard that night).

And it was back in Faron Woods.

This wolf really was an enigma. 

The wolf scratched an itch on its neck before standing up and heading towards the village.

Without thinking, Rusl leapt out of the bush in front of the wolf. The wolf balked, stepped back in surprise. Its eyes were wide, and even in the darkness, Rusl could see the intelligent glint in the wolf’s shocking blue eyes. Rusl barely gave himself time to register that those eyes weren’t natural before he was unsheathing his sword.

“Get back!” Rusl demanded, aiming a warning slice at the wolf’s legs. 

The wolf backstepped in order to avoid being cut, but it still didn’t leave. It looked wary, glancing between Rusl and the only entrance to the village. 

“Leave, you beast!” Rusl roared. He stepped forward and cut a deep laceration into the wolf’s side, staining the silvery fur with red blood.

The wolf whined. It stumbled back, limping on its left leg to avoid tugging on the torn skin. The wolf’s ears were flattened to its skull. It gave one final glance to Rusl and the village he was protecting before whimpering, limping away from the swordsman and his village dejectedly.

Rusl relaxed as the wolf finally disappeared into the trees.

Rusl cleaned the blood off his sword before heading back to the village. For the first time in a while, he locked the gate behind him. There was still evil in the forest. The wolf may be injured, but it also may be hungry. He didn’t want the wolf entering the village and trying for the easy prey of Link’s beloved Epona. 

Rusl was sure to give said Epona a pet on his way past, seeing how nervous the horse seemed to be, constantly glancing back at the forest. His pets didn’t seem to calm her, so he just whispered some words of safety to her before leaving.

The next morning, Rusl made sure to double check that the gate was closed; which thankfully it was. 

On his way back to the village proper, Rusl caught Link right as he was leaving his house.

“Morning!” Rusl greeted.

Link looked up in surprise before smiling and nodding in greeting. Instead of taking the ladder, Link sat down on the ledge before his front door. He pushed off and landed with a small grunt.

“Hey, is Epona alright?” Rusl asked as Link walked up to him. Rusl ran a hand down the mare’s neck. “She just seems more stressed than usual. I noticed it when I came back from patrolling the woods last night. You’re not pushing her too hard, are ya?”

“Oh Spirits no.” Link shook his head with a soft smile. “Ilia would kill me.”

He came up to his horse. She lowered her head and bumped gently against Link’s left side, probably sniffing around for treats in his bag. Link gently lifted her head so he could look her in the eye. “I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’ll be sure to give her a full spa day after work today. Does that sound alright, Epona?”

Epona huffed and kicked at the ground in agreement. Rusl laughed. 

“She really is a spirited horse, ain’t she? Like owner, like horse.”

Link rolled his eyes as he scratched behind one of her ears. “Yeah, yeah. Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta saddle ‘er up for work today.”

Rusl nodded, taking the hint. “Well I’ll see you later then. Dinner at my house? Esie would love it.”

“Ah. I see how it is. Bribing me, huh?”

“No, no, not at all.” Rusl raised his hands in surrender. “Just… gentle persuasion.” 

“Maybe.” Link answered. “Feeling a little tired today.”

“Of course.” Rusl nodded. “Do whatever you need to. Just know you’re welcome tonight.”

“What? Only tonight?” Link asked jokingly.

“Depends on your manners tonight, young man.” Rusl sassed right back.

Link rolled his eyes. “Get goin’, old man.”

“Old man?” Rusl repeated. “That’s what we’re doing right now?”

Link and Rusl laughed before saying their goodbyes. Rusl turned around and walked into the village.

“Hey, is Link okay?” Fado asked Rusl later that day.

“What do you mean?” Rusl asked. Of course Link hasn’t really been ‘okay’ since the end of the Shadow Invasion. It took him a month to finally come home, and it was clear to everyone that he wasn’t the same. He’s gotten better, but if he was lapsing back into depression… But he seemed just fine this morning…

Rusl hated how easy it was for Link to hide things from him.

“I don’ know, he just seemed…tired.” Fado explained. “Looked a little pale. Took almost double his average time to herd the goats.”

“Maybe he didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.” Rusl remembered the lone wolf last night. It could’ve tried howling for its packmates. With how close Link lived to the forest, the howling would’ve kept him awake.

“Maybe.” Fado hummed. “Jus’... keep an eye on ‘im?”

“I will.” Rusl nodded. He’s sure that Link’s behavior can be explained away by something simple like lack of sleep. 

…Hopefully.

“Hey Link, need a hand?” 

Link looked up, startled from where he had been unbuckling Epona’s girth. Unbeknownst to him, Rusl had been watching, noticing how Link’s fingers couldn’t seem to get a grip on the buckles.

“Oh uh, sure.” Link smiled.

Rusl moved to the other side of Epona. Link was finally able to unbuckle the girth, and that end of it was released from around Epona, metal pieces clanging against the wooden floors of the stable. Rusl bent down to grab it, swinging it back over the saddle. Before Link could, Rusl grabbed the saddle. He pulled it off Epona’s back and walked out of the stable to the tack room. Or…tack closet. Link followed with the saddle pad in one hand and the bridle and reins in another.

“Thanks for the help.” Link said, hanging up Epona’s well loved gear. “And not that I don’t like seein’ you around but… Why are you here?”

“Fado was worryin’ ‘bout you, so I just came by to ask if you’re alright.” Rusl out and said.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Rusl had known Link for almost Link’s entire life, then Rusl might’ve not noticed the way Link tensed slightly, his muscles flexing for no apparent reason. But he did.

“Well you can tell Fado I’m fine.” Link’s voice was strained. Another sign that Link was hiding something. “Jus’ tired is all.”

“The wolf keep you up?” Rusl asked.

Link flinched. He stayed facing the wall for a second as he set down the saddle pad and then turned around with his usual stoic expression. “What?”

Rusl explained his encounter with the wolf last night, as well as his theory about the wolf’s howling keeping Link up all night.

“Yeah.” Link nodded. “Damn thing kept me up all night. Thanks for chasin’ it away. Maybe now I can finally get some sleep.”

“Are ya sure that’s all that’s botherin’ you?” Rusl asked, seeing through Link’s attempts at deflection easily. “You’re not comin’ down with somethin’ aren’t ya?” 

Rusl stepped forward to put the back of his hand against Link’s forehead, to check his temperature.

“I’m fine.” Link ducked out of the way of Rusl’s hand. “Jus’ tired.”

“You know you can tell me anything, right Link?” Rusl tried. He knew something was up with Link, but he couldn’t help if Link wouldn’t tell him what was wrong.

“I know.” Link looked down, digging out the saddle polish from a chest. Somehow, Rusl thought the action was just to avoid Rusl’s gaze. “I got it from here, thanks for the help.”

Rusl couldn’t help but feel like it was a slap to the face. Link was silent as he got to working on polishing Epona’s saddle, likely praying that Rusl didn’t notice the slight shake in his hands. 

But he did.

Rusl just nodded and left without a word.

“You take care of him, ya hear?” Rusl told Epona on his way out. “That boy of yours can be more stubborn than a mule.”

Epona whinnied in agreement, kicking her stall door. Rusl smirked at her agreement before turning to leave, his boots scuffing against the wooden floors.

When he stepped into the grass, Rusl took a second to take a deep breath and calm his nerves. If Link said he is fine, then he’s fine, Rusl. Quit worrying.

But he couldn’t help it.

Rusl was about to head back to the village when he heard a crash behind him…back in the tack room.

Rusl turned on his heel and raced back toward the tack room. He slammed open the door to find Link on the ground, next to the fallen saddle and spilled saddle polish.

“Link!” Rusl was by his side in an instant. He pulled him away from the saddle, laying him down on his back. Rusl scanned Link up and down, but he couldn’t find any reason for why Link had just collapsed.

Link was barely conscious as he tried to untie his shawl from around his waist. Rusl took over for him, sucking in a sharp breath when he saw the red bleeding through his tunic.

Rusl gathered Link in his arms, heading back out through the stable. Epona kicked the door, neighing and whinnying up a storm at the sight of her fallen master. At least now Rusl knew why Epona had seemed so stressed this morning. Link may be able to keep secrets from Rusl, but never from Epona.

Knowing she was probably going to break down the door at this rate, Rusl just decided to unlock the door and let her follow them back to Rusl’s house. 

They drew quite a lot of attention to themselves as they traveled through the village. It was clear everyone had questions, but they kept to themselves, even pulling their children away so they won’t be disturbed. 

“Oh Spirits.” Uli said when they came up to the house. “Bring him inside.”

Rusl stepped inside, going to his and Uli’s room while Uli had the uncomfortable job of telling Epona she couldn’t come inside. 

“What happened?” Uli asked, successfully preventing their children or Epona from disturbing them or Link.

“I don’t know.” Rusl shook his head uselessly. “Fado said Link had been looking tired and pale today. So I confronted him, he said he was fine, just didn’t get any sleep last night. I left the stable, and then I heard him collapse. It’s clear he’s injured, but I don't know how it happened.”

“Well first we need to get his tunic off, to see the full wound.” Uli said with a firm voice.

They removed Link’s work tunic, revealing that Link had wrapped a bandage around the wound. But, as they unwrapped it, he didn’t stitch up the wound. He properly dressed it, but with a wound as deep as this one, it wouldn’t do Link any favors to leave the wound open.

“He probably passed out from blood loss.” Rusl remarked. He dug out the dusty first aid kit. “We’re going to have to stitch him up.”

They worked quickly. By the end, it looked like this wound was going to join Link’s many other scars. Rusl never asked about those. He knew that Link gained them during the Shadow Invasion, but Rusl never pushed. He had his own scars from the Shadow Invasion, after all. But when Link woke up, Rusl was going to press until Link came clean because how in the world did he get such a grievous injury in a time of peace?

They didn’t have any red potions, but Uli fetched a jug of milk for when Link woke up. Milk wasn’t as regenerative as red potions, but it did the trick in large amounts.

Rusl and Uli watched over Link until he woke up, hours later. 

Uli was by his bedside as soon as she saw his eyes flutter open. He looked around in confusion, seeing Uli, then Rusl. Then his arm raised to brush against the new bandages they’d wrapped around him.

“We don’t have red potions, but we have milk.” Rusl couldn’t find himself to be angry at Link for hiding this injury as he poured a glass of milk. 

Uli helped Link sit up, adjusting the pillows to keep him comfortable. Link took the glass of milk in a shaky hand, and with Rusl’s help lifted it to his mouth and drained it.

“Thank you.” Link said, as Rusl poured him another glass. 

“You don’t need to thank us.” Rusl said, handing the refilled glass back. Link grasped it with a much firmer hand this time. “You’re family. We’re always here to help you.”

Link hummed as he drank.

Rusl wanted to ask what happened, but he patiently waited until Link had almost drained the jug of milk, watching him get stronger. 

“So how did this happen?” Rusl asked. “This isn’t the kind of injury you get from falling off your porch.”

Link lowered his cup into his lap, looking at it instead of at Rusl or Uli.

“You don’t have to–”

“No.” Rusl interrupted Uli, staring at the side of Link’s head. “I need to know.” What if Link had gotten attacked by a monster? Rusl would need to know if a monster had managed to get into the village. He hadn’t seen many monsters lately, and Link could handle himself, but if he got this injured from a monster, then there could be a serious issue brewing. Why was Link refusing to talk??

It wasn’t uncommon or unheard of for Link to just shut down and refuse to talk, but Rusl couldn’t allow Link to slip into a mute spell right now.

“Link.” He said firmly. “Tell me. Was it a monster? Are the monsters coming back wh–”

“No.” Link said softly. “It wasn’t a monster.”

“Then what was it?”

“Back during the Shadow Invasion,” Link said instead. “I didn’t get taken with Ilia and the children.”

“What?” Uli asked softly.

“I don’t know why, but they overlooked me.” Link continued. “I got hit pretty hard on the head by a bulblin club. When I woke up, I had a nasty concussion, and Ilia, Colin, and Epona were missing. I should’ve gone back to the village to regroup, recover, and plan a proper plan of attack. I know that. But when I saw that they’d been taken…I just saw red. I raced after them.”

Rusl nodded in understanding. When the dust had settled and everyone was missing, Uli was the only one who managed to convince Rusl not to charge recklessly after them in the exact same manner.

“When I got to Faron Woods, there was a black wall cutting off the forest. I would later learn that it was an unnatural twilight that a usurper king named Zant had cast upon Hyrule by stealing the light from the various Light Spirits across the land. I don’t know why Ordona was the only one unaffected.”

“You couldn’t go into the twilight?” Rusl asked. He was confused because not long after the children and Ilia had been taken, he had gone to Faron Woods to go after the monsters. He hadn’t seen any black wall.

“No.” Link shook his head. “But before I could react, a large black hand reached out, grabbed me by the throat and dragged me in. The hand belonged to a shadow beast. Annoyin’ little critters. It didn’t seem like it wanted to hurt me, more curious than anythin’. Then there was a flash of light and it dropped me. 

“One thing y’all should know about the twilight is that humans and hylians can’t naturally exist in it. It’s not like when the sun sets naturally, it was magic that pressed down on your spirit, preventing you from existing in your natural form. For most people, they become almost like spirits. They drift around, unable to see or interact with anythin’ from the twilight. All they do is live in endless darkness and fear of monsters that they can’t see.”

Rusl remembered Colin and some of the children mentioning something like that. Rusl himself never experienced this twilight, so he didn’t know what to say. But he was caught on something Link had said. “Most people? As in, not including you?”

Link shook his head. “Not including me.”

With the hand not holding his glass, he traced the triangular birthmark on the back of his right hand. 

“The twilight reacts differently with those with the marks of the goddesses.”

Rusl's eyes widened as he realized what Link was inferring. “You mean you’re chosen by the goddesses?”

Link nodded. “The one with the favor of Din was turned into a spirit in the twilight, but he had full awareness of where he was, and could affect creatures of twilight. The one with the favor of Nayru was able to keep her physical hylian form in the twilight. I have the favor of Farore, so I was also able to maintain my physical shape. But it wasn’t my hylian form. I shifted into something else–a shape that best reflected my heart. I turned into a wolf.”

Rusl felt his blood run cold.

“My wolf form is larger than the average wolf, with twili markings.” Link continued. “For a while, I could only be a wolf if I was in the twilight, but I eventually gained the ability to shift even in the light. It’s powerful shadow magic to be able to do that. Whenever I changed back, my hylian body would have changes to it as a result. In the beginning, they faded pretty quickly. But after a while they stuck with me for longer and longer, until it was permanent.” 

Link picked at his teeth, revealing two canines that had sharpened into fangs. Link brushed aside his bangs, revealing a sigil on his forehead. It reminded Rusl of an eye, and it looked achingly familiar. 

“You’re the wolf.” Rusl said softly, not wanting to believe it, for Link to deny it but–

“Yes.” Link said just as softly. “I am.”

The same wolf that Rusl encountered in the village the night the children and Ilia were kidnapped. The one he chased out with a sword swipe at the side and a lantern to the shoulder.

Rusl almost set it on fire. 

Rusl remembers feeling satisfaction back then. Now he just felt sick.

The same wolf the goron had punched in the side to chase out of the bar as Rusl stood by and did nothing.

The same wolf he attacked last night. 

With a deep gash in its side.

The same wound he just patched up on his son’s side.

Rusl wanted to throw up.

“What?” Uli asked, looking between Rusl and Link in confusion. “What does that mean?”

“I attacked him, Uli.” Rusl looked up with tears in his eyes. “I attacked Link last night. I caused this injury.”

“You didn’t know…” Link tried to say.

“But that doesn’t forgive it, does it?!” Rusl yelled back. “I hurt you. Twice! And I stood by and watched while you were attacked the third time.”

“I don’t blame you for attacking what you saw as a threat.” Link tried again.

Logically, Rusl knew he was right. Rusl had no idea it was Link. Humans shifting into wolf forms were nothing but fairy tales until this day. All he had seen was a predator, and he had wanted to protect the ones he loved.

But Rusl still hurt his son. 

And, looking back, Rusl had no real reason to hurt the wolf. It had never shown any intentions to hurt anyone. It had always flattened its ears, bore its neck, trying to look as unassuming and harmless as it could.

And yet Rusl had still attacked Link.

Link tried to assure Rusl that it was okay. He was fine now, and was healing up nicely.

But the damage was already done. 

Rusl had attacked and gravely injured his son.

He would never forgive himself.

Chapter Text

Link didn’t know why Navi left him, all those years ago.

It was one of his life’s greatest mysteries; why had his most valued companion stuck by him during the entirety of his first adventure just to leave him in the end?

Tatl also left him, after his adventure in Termina. But he knew why she did that. She had Skull Kid and her brother in Termina. Link couldn’t ask her to abandon them just because leaving her made him sad. 

Link wasn’t angry at Navi for leaving. He just wanted to know why. Tatl had left to stay with her brother. Why did Navi leave? They both shared a grandfather in the Great Deku Tree, who had died before Link’s first adventure. Did she have some other family he didn’t know about? If she did; why didn’t she tell him?

The name ‘Navi’ just enticed an ocean of unsolved questions. 

He had tried searching for her in the Lost Woods when he was a kid. That little skirmish was what had caused his second adventure into Termina to begin with. He hadn’t gone back since, aware that the Lost Woods were far too mysterious to fully explore without the Great Deku Tree’s guidance on the forest’s tricks and the areas where the fabric between dimensions was thin enough for a child to literally trip into.

The current Deku Tree hasn’t yet earned the title of ‘great’. He’s still young, only thirty years old. He doesn’t have the centuries of experience that Link’s grandfather did. 

But other than the Lost Woods, Link didn’t know where to search for Navi. He’s never seen any large gathering of fairies in Hyrule outside of the woods or Great Fairy fountains, and all the Great Fairies are on the lookout for Navi. 

Link’s wife, Malon, was the one to come up with the idea to leave out a bowl of sugar water. Just in case Navi was passing by and needed a drink.

Link visits the bowl twice a day. He loves playing his ocarina with the fairies. 

But none of them were ever Navi.

Which meant that the Lost Woods was still the most likely place for Link to find her.

Link wasn’t a stranger to the tales of travelers going into the Lost Woods only to become stalfos, cursed skeletal monsters that wander the earth forever.

But he also wasn’t a stranger to the woods. He grew up in them.

Well, he didn’t grow up in the Lost Woods. That’s risky, even for a Kokiri. But he did grow up in the Kokiri forest, among fairies and the children of the forest. He was a child of the forest. It’s been a while, but nothing can change the memory of his younger days spent in the forest, playing with Saria under the guidance of the Great Deku Tree. He wouldn’t be able to spend long in the forest, but it was long enough for him to scour the woods. Hopefully without being interrupted by a thief with the powers of a demon.

“Be careful.” Malon said gravely. She held Ana on her hip. 

“I will.” Link kissed her, and then kissed Ana on the top of her head.

“No…” Ana cried as Link tried to pull away. “Don’t go, daddy!”

Ana was still just a little girl. She didn’t understand why daddy was leaving, all that she knew was that daddy was leaving.

“Don’t worry darling, I’ll only be gone a couple days. I’ll be back before you know it.” Link meant it for Ana, but hoped it would soothe Malon’s worries as well. 

“Be safe.” Malon said. She was repeating what she’d already said countless times ever since he announced his decision to reopen his search for Navi. But Link didn’t care. He knew she was just worried about him. He would be as well, if their roles were reversed.

He squeezed Malon’s hand one last time before stepping away. Malon had told him she had a bad feeling about this, and he won’t pretend that it doesn’t make him uneasy. He’ll just have to be even more careful.

“C’mon Epona.” Link walked up to his horse. “Let’s get going.”

Epona was much older now than when they last entered the Lost Woods. They both were, but in a horse it meant much more. Link had packed as lightly as possible. He had considered not bringing her, maybe bringing a younger, stronger horse instead. But he knew that he would never be able to do it. He loved Epona too much.

And he knew that Epona was the pettiest horse in existence. If he didn’t bring her, then when he got back, she would refuse to look at him or let him pet her for a while. 

Her current record was two weeks, when he came back from his latest time-traveling adventure.

It entertained Malon to no end.

Epona whinnied. She visibly straightened, lifting her head up high, as if she was imitating a castle steed. She tossed her mane with a certain smugness to it.

Link laughed at her antics. “Then let’s go.”

He swung up on her back. He wasn’t wearing all of his armor, most of it in his magic pouch. He didn’t want Epona to have to carry any more weight than she had to. 

If Epona was bothered with the weight, she didn’t show it. 

Malon came up to them. Ana pet Epona’s muzzle, delighted now that she was suddenly eye-level with her. 

“I love you.” Malon said, placing her hand on Link’s leg. Then with a slightly playful tone added “Fairy Boy.”

Link smiled at the well loved nickname. “I love you too, Malon.”

Malon stepped back. Ana cried harder as Link rode away, but Link called back his final reassurances before he left earshot. As he rode away, his final sight was of his wife and their daughter, standing out in front of their beloved ranch home.

The Lost Woods was just as he remembered them.

Cold. 

That was the main thing.

Fog drifted around the trees, as thick as a cloud. Spirit laughter echoed in Link’s ears, and bells rang. Shadows with glowing eyes flickered and drifted just out of sight so that Link always knew he was being watched.

Link dismounted. Epona snorted and shifted on her hooves. She clearly remembered what happened the last time they were here. Or maybe the magic of the woods was getting to her as she looked around with the paranoia of a prey animal. But she was as courageous as her rider, and as loyal. She didn’t leave his side as he equipped his armor. 

“Let’s go.” Link patted Epona’s neck and they started walking further into the woods. 

Link didn’t know where to begin. So he just chose a random direction. As they walked, he occasionally carved Xs into trees at eye level. When they changed direction, he carved arrows pointing back where they’d come from.

As they walked, one thing Link was grateful for was how Epona walked on his right side, by his blind eye. Unlike Warriors or Twilight, Epona can’t talk or defend him, but she will still be able to warn him if a monster approached from the right side. And Link walked on Epona’s left side, to do the same thing. Old age had taken Epona’s left eye.

Link and Epona were almost as inextricably linked as Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf were. Or Time and his brothers were.

After a while, Link got the idea to draw out fairies, to ask them if they’d seen Navi and maybe drawing out Navi as well. So he pulled out the trusty Ocarina of Time, its paint chipped and began to play as he walked. First he played Saria’s Song, the song of the forest. Then he played Zelda’s Lullaby.

He ran through every non-magical song he knew. While the Song of Time only had an effect on time when he was in Termina, Link avoided that song with an even wider berth than the Minuet of Forest or the Bolero of Fire.

A few fairies flitted between the trees and under leaves at the sound of his music. Recognizing him as a child of the forest, they came out to play. They flitted around his head, danced to the beat of the music, made song recommendations, and decorated Epona and Link’s hair with flowers and little braids.

In between songs, Link would ask about Navi. A few fairies would fly off to their secret hiding places, and a few would just say they didn’t know her or hadn’t seen her. A few fairies knew Navi and exclaimed “You’re her child?” when he asked.

But as time dragged on, Link still hadn’t found Navi.

He tried not to be put down by it. The fairies he did meet were trying to help the best they could. The further they walked through the woods, the closer they got to finding Navi. At least, that’s what Link told himself to keep from losing hope. Because if he lost hope here, he would never be able to find her.

After a while, for the first time in his life since Termina, Link lost track of time.

A dangerous thing to do in the Lost Woods.

Epona was the first to notice that something was wrong.

She suddenly stopped walking. She whinnied, prancing in place and looking around in fear.

The notes of Saria’s Song drifted off, mid-chorus. “What’s wrong, girl?” Link asked, looking around at their surroundings.

Minus the fairies, they were completely alone.

But he had also thought the same thing before his first encounter with Skull Kid.

Even through his armor, Link felt the clawed hand on his shoulder.

Link shrugged it off and spun around, replacing his ocarina with his sword and shield. After his last adventure, he decided to downgrade to a one-handed sword just so he could use a shield easily at the same time. 

There was no one behind him. 

Both eyes, including his scarred and white one, were open as Link scanned the forest around him. The fairies had flown away at the mention of danger.

The fog had gotten thicker.

It was colder.

The shadows in the corners of his eyes were a lot closer, with fanged smiles and claws that reached out for him.

Epona, spooked, ran off with reckless abandon. 

Link, suddenly more scared of his mare’s life than his, ran after her, calling her name, “Epona! Whoa, girl! Calm down!”

But he was a mere hylian and she was once the fastest horse in Hyrule. Soon enough, he was completely alone. As worried as he was about Epona, he couldn’t help her if he couldn’t find his own way out. Animals were protected by the forest spirits, so she should be safe.

“Okay Link, stay calm.” Link told himself, taking deep breaths. “You just need to find the carvings you made.”

But Link had run off in a random direction. Link started walking in what he hoped was the opposite direction he had run off in. Link tried playing the ocarina again, to draw out fairies and ask for help getting out. But none came out. Had he scared them off? 

When Link had once again traveled what he thought was the same distance as when he’d run after Epona, he stopped and looked around for the carvings.

But he couldn’t find any.

He didn’t know if he’d gone too far or not far enough.

He didn’t know if he’d walked back in the exact same direction.

Link was lost.

Link was hopelessly, truly…lost.

Link was a grown man, but he wanted to cry.

Link felt hopeless. What was he supposed to do now? Well, whenever he got lost in the woods when he was younger, he would always reappear at the Kokiri Forest.

So Link set off in a random direction, and walked. His hands were shaky as his current situation set in. But if he could magically find his way to Kokiri Forest, then he would be safe. He would have Saria. He would have his big sister, who would comfort him and tell him everything was okay. Then she would help him find Navi.

He just had to get there first.

…Hadn’t he already passed that deadfall?

To calm his nerves, Link went back to playing his ocarina. This time, for himself. He played the Minuet of the Forest. When that didn’t work, he played the Prelude of Light. He played every teleportation song he knew, even the Bolero of Fire and the Song of Soaring.

None of them worked.

Link didn’t know how that was possible.

After a while longer of endless walking, Link put away his ocarina and sat down with his back against a tree. He didn’t know what to do. He was a child of the forest, the Lost Woods should recognize him…shouldn’t they? But if they did, then Link would’ve been sent back to Kokiri Forest long, long ago.

Link ate some rations he always kept in his pouch, a side effect of having Warriors as an older brother.

When he went to stand up again, he found that vines had begun to grow around him, anchoring him to the ground. Link tore at the vines and stood up. Thankfully they weren’t strong enough to anchor him down. But it was just another sign that he needed to find a way out of here.

But that was the point of the Lost Woods.

Link was never finding a way out of here..was he?

The fog was ever closer now. It had been encroaching on him ever since he first got lost. Link had been trying to ignore it, and the shadows, and the whispers, but it was impossible now. 

“I’m a child of the forest!” Link cried out into the fog. “Please! Let me leave!”

“You don’t look like a child anymore.” One spirit whispered in his ear.

“Besides, you don’t even have a fairy.” A spirit said into his other ear.

Link’s blood ran cold. Of course. Navi wasn’t here to keep him from getting lost. He’s almost always had her every time he’d gone into the Lost Woods before.

“But I do!” Link pleaded. “She just left me. That’s why I’m here; I’m looking for her!”

“Yes, she left you.” The forest whispered. “Which means you’re not a child of the forest. You’re a new playmate!”

There was laughter, loud in Link’s ears. The fog caught the wind and swirled around Link like the cyclones that Wind used to ride. Clawed hands tugged at Link’s armor, but when he would turn, no one would be there.

Link closed his eyes. “S-stop. STOP IT!”

The spirits didn’t listen.

Then, just there, outside of the laughter and the rushing of the wind, Link heard a song. Saria’s Song, sung on the Ocarina of Time. There was no way that could be true, not as Link checked and saw that he still had the Ocarina of Time. 

But it was definitely Saria’s Song.

And it was definitely being played on the Ocarina of Time. The Ocarina of Time had a certain sound to it, one that Link had come to recognize easily. 

What was this? How was the forest rewinding time, but just on sound? In all his years living among the Kokiri, so close to the Lost Woods, he never knew that it could do that. Then again, it could bend space and had exits that led to the goron’s cave, or Zora’s Domain. It even has entrances to alternate dimensions. Replaying old sounds shouldn’t be that difficult for it.

Then Saria’s Song faded out, and another song began to play.

Link straightened, his head perked up. It was Epona’s song. Sung by Malon.

Link turned around, searching for the source of the song. If he could find the source, then he could find the exit, and he could go home and leave this all behind him.

Link ran around, the hurricane of winds following him as his ears flicked this direction and that, following the sound. But it seemed like it was moving.

Link looked for the source of the beautiful song sang by his beautiful wife, but he couldn’t find it, he couldn’t find it, he couldn’t find it, he COULDN’T FIND IT, HE COULDN’T FIND IT, HE COULDN’T FIND IT, HE COULDN’T–

The wind stopped.

Everything was silent.

Link didn’t know when he had fallen on the ground, but he stood up. His armor clanked as he looked around at the suddenly deathly silent meadow.

He felt empty. 

He didn’t know why. It was like he had just lost a part of him, but the problem was that he didn’t know what part he just lost. It felt important, but if it was so important, wouldn’t he be able to identify what it was immediately?

Link turned around and froze. 

Laying below him was his own body.

He lay on his back, mouth slightly open and eyes unseeing. The scar on his face had reopened (when had that happened?) and now blood was slowly trickling into his helmet and hair.

With more calmness than one would expect, Link looked down at his body.

He was a skeleton.

There was a whispery haze around his exposed bones, the mere memory of flesh, muscle, blood, and tendons outlining how thick his arms and legs should be. His armor looked like it had aged a hundred years in an instant. But it wasn’t like Wild, it was more like the ruins that his Hyrule had in such abundance. Moss grew on his aged and rusted (sorry Four) armor. There were rips and chunks of armor were missing, as if he had died fighting in a war.

Link’s first thought was: The girls were right to be worried.

His second thought: I wish my boys were here.

Even if he was dead, he wished that he could’ve seen his brothers once more. Hugged them once more, made sure they knew exactly how much he loved them and how proud he was of them before he died. 

But he couldn’t.

Link knows Epona probably ran home. She’s an animal so the forest will let her leave, and she’ll run all the way back to Lon Lon Ranch. 

Malon will see Epona without her rider and immediately assume the worst. A few days later, her worst fears would be confirmed. 

And then Malon would have to explain to Ana why daddy wasn’t coming home, even if she didn’t know the reason either.

Link felt his skeletal face. He was too scared to talk so in his mind he wondered: Why? 

Why did this happen? I might not be a child of the forest anymore, but I’ve always been the Hero of Time. I’ve always had the goddess’ blessings. Why? Wasn’t I good enough? Didn’t I serve the goddesses diligently? Why are they abandoning me? Am I no longer their hero?

Link now knew how Legend could be so bitter all the time. Cause right now, he wanted to be bitter. He wanted to curse out the goddesses for abandoning him like this. He had a daughter to raise, a wife to support. 

He hadn’t even left anything for Twilight. His successor wouldn’t have any stories of the previous hero growing up to draw upon when he was doubting if he could do this; like how Hyrule said the stories of the Hero of Legend helped him through his adventure, and how Legend eventually admitted the Hero of the Four Sword helped him the same way.

Twilight wouldn’t have anything.

By his time, the only hero with anything worthwhile would be Four, who invented a new fighting style. But Four’s stories would have faded by then. Twilight also wouldn’t have anyone to look up to. To look at in the story books to marvel at and tell his amused parents ‘I wanna be like him when I grow up!’

All Twilight would have would be a story of a child preventing a coup. 

Link would be lucky if he got a second paragraph in the history books.

Well, he’s now a Stalfos. Now what?

You’re probably wondering ‘wow, Link is taking this all surprising well’. Well Link has learned to roll with the punches. He can’t do anything about this now.

And maybe his nonchalant behavior was just a result of the overwhelming despair and regrets he was now suffering under.

Link stumbled over to a tree trunk, trying not to think about the lack of feeling in his legs or body or how the fuck he was able to move at all without any muscles or tendons. He  sat down with his back against the stump. He looked out at the forest, watching as vines grew over his body and the Lost Woods reclaimed him.

There was the chiming of a bell. A fairy.

Link didn’t look up. They were too late to help him now.

Then a glowing ball of blue light fluttered to rest on his skeletal knee. She looked up at him. If Link concentrated, he could probably see through the light to the mousey creature within, but he couldn’t find the strength or willpower to do anything more but stare at the waving grass and twisting fog that now clung to his body like robes.

“Link?” The fairy asked. “It’s me, Navi.”

Link slowly raised his gaze to the fairy. He forced himself to look past the glow to the fairy. Her eyes were filling with tears and her dark hair was braided back. She looked good. She looked better than when he last saw her.

“Navi…?” The word grated against Link’s non-existent vocal cords. He also didn’t know how he was able to talk in this form, but he refused to overthink it like Hyrule or Legend would’ve. 

The fairy nodded her head, tears coming free and streaming down her face. “I–I’m so sorry I left. I had to help the new Deku Tree grow and–and–”

Link slowly raised a nail to catch her tears. Navi sniffed and hugged his finger to her chest. “The forest didn’t recognize you as a child of the forest anymore, all because I left. I’m so sorry!”

“No.” Link said. “Not your fault.”

Link was the one who made the decision to enter the woods to begin with. It was a stupid decision that he never should’ve gone through with. And now he will have to reap the consequences for the rest of time.

When Link was gone wallowing in self-pity, he got up. Navi made a point to stick with him, to make up for letting him get lost to begin with. 

Link was now a creature of the forest once again, so it let him leave.

Link’s armor clanked as he moved across Hyrule Field. Night had fallen by the time Lon Lon Ranch appeared on the horizon.

As he got close enough, he could hear the sound of his wife, singing to the horses in the paddock. A habit she never gave up.

Link got close until he could see her red hair. Then he stopped. He didn’t know if she would be able to see him, but even if she couldn’t, he didn’t want her to see what he had become. Life would be better for Malon if she just thought that Link had died to a monster and had passed on peacefully. He didn’t want her to know that her husband was trapped as a wandering spirit.

Malon came up to a mare whose mane glowed silver in the moonlight.

Good. Epona made it home after all.

Link saw Malon glance up to where he was standing. If she saw the skeletal warrior upon the hill, she didn’t show it. She just kept singing to the horses.

31,556,952,000 seconds passed. Link felt all of them ticking past for a thousand years. It’s not like there was much for a stalfos to do. It was either count the seconds, or wallow in his regrets.

Link very much preferred the former.

Though, about a hundred years after his death, Link began experimenting with his abilities. Poes can affect the real world (Link had more than a few scars as proof of that), and while Link wasn’t a vengeful spirit in any way, he hoped that he could affect the world in the same way.

Navi had left by then, so she couldn’t help. Link wasn’t angry at her for leaving, he knew how upset she felt whenever she looked at him, blaming herself for his death. And it’s not like Link would’ve forced her to stay with him for those 31,556,952,000 seconds. She had better things to do in service to the Deku Tree. She did visit him from time to time. It kept him from falling too deep into despair.

Even without Navi’s help, he was able to find a way to shift into a wolf form. Looking in a reflective spring, he found he looked a lot like Wolfie, just bigger. His fur glowing a spiritual gold, with pale patterns running through it, and the eye he had lost in life was a glowing red.

Link found that this form was much easier to maintain while on the mortal plane. The ease of his wolf form allowed him to interact with the world around him. He could cause ripples if he put his paw in water. He could flatten plants or cause them to sway when he flicked his tail. He could even get the light to bend around him as if he was a physical being that living creatures could see.

Link also found his way in the Sacred Realm. He didn’t even need to draw the Master Sword, he just needed to will himself there. Then he would find himself in a ghostly version of Hyrule, with the fog of the Lost Woods obscuring the main details. There, Link found it easier to exist in his stalfos form.

When the 31,556,952,000 seconds had eclipsed, Link suddenly found himself with something else to do than count seconds or whine about his regrets.

He was walking through the Faron Woods in his wolf form, when a strange sound reached his ear, causing him to pause so he could concentrate on it.

It was a sound he hadn’t heard in 31,556,952,000 seconds.

The sound of a child crying.

“Mama!” It screamed. “Papa!”

Link first felt a wave of sadness as he remembered Ana, with her red hair like Malon and her pointy nose that Malon and the boys always teased Link about. He took a second to remember how long it had taken Ana to talk, being a selective mute like Link had once been. Malon had been worried something was wrong. Link had known she would be okay, and he was right.

Link shook off the memories of his long dead family and focused more on the sound.He crept through the forest towards it. He was always a curious person. It came with the Hero’s Spirit. 

Curiosity and recklessness. It was all Sky’s fault.

Link eventually came to the sight of a wagon crash. He first found the horses. One, a strong full grown stallion, had seemingly hit his head on a tree. It was lying on the ground, dead. But his companion, an all too familiar bay silver yearling, stood up nice and healthy. She tossed her head, revealing a curious facial marking that looked like a lightning bolt. She turned her head to the side, and Link knew he had her full attention.

But the little thing didn’t run. She was still attached to the wagon, so it wasn’t like she could, but she didn’t even buck. She didn’t rear, she didn’t neigh. She just watched him calmly.

Link was as tall as she was as he approached. He gave her a quick sniff that confirmed his suspicions. 

This was Epona.

She smelled just like her.

Wolves can’t cry, but if they could Link would be blinking back tears. He nuzzled Epona’s shoulder, and she knocked her head against his side in the close approximation of a hug.

Please help my boy. Epona told Link. And suddenly he remembered what led him here to begin with.

Link crept around Epona and the fallen draft horse, examining the full extent of the crash. The coachman wasn’t far from the draft horse. He was clearly dead, but he looked really familiar to Link.

The wagon had flipped over. It was barely intact, crushing its stock and the passengers. Crates and bags were flung several feet away from it.

There was an arm, just sticking out from under the wagon. The body of a teenage girl lay on the ground, her legs crushed by the wagon and blood staining her brown hair.

And there, not far from the girl, was a little boy.

He wasn’t crying, but looked like he had been for quite a while before Link got there. He had some debris from the wagon crushing into his back. The boy had messy brown hair, and when he looked up at Link, his watery eyes were a bold blue. 

Another wave of sadness overcame Link. He was so sorry that the boy had to go through this.

The boy’s breath caught in fear as he took in the giant wolf. Strange, no one had ever been able to see Link before, no matter how hard he tried to reveal himself.

Link folded himself on the ground, making himself as small as possible. A damn near impossible job when you’re a giant spirit wolf.

He whined, trying to make himself look like an innocent little doggy that the boy could play with.

The boy didn’t scream, so Link crept closer and closer and closer. Until he was almost nose to nose with the child.

The boy looked up at him in wonder, tears completely forgotten.

Link moved past the boy and worked his nose underneath the debris that crushed him. When his head was fully beneath the beam, he stood up. It was heavy, but he was strong enough to lift it from the boy.

The boy scrambled out of the way of the debris before Link took back his nose and the debris fell back down. Link turned back to find the boy standing, thankfully uninjured.

Link got up close to the boy again. The boy raised a hand to pet Link’s head.

Link stayed deathly still and let himself be pet. The boy giggled as he rubbed Link’s soft fur.

“Good doggie.” He said.

Right on cue, there was a whinny.

The boy gasped. “Epona!”

He scrambled away from Link over to the trapped yearling. Link followed calmly. The boy was clearly inexperienced as he fumbled with the clasps tying Epona to the wagon (a notion Link found hard to believe, given what he knew of this child). 

When Epona was free, Link approached again to nuzzle her muzzle. 

Thank you. Epona told him.

Don’t thank me. Link told her. He glanced at the boy, staring wide-eyed at the interaction between the predator and prey animal. Even though the boy couldn’t understand what they were saying, Link knew it was an odd sight. I would do anything to protect him.

Glad to know we have that in common. Epona replied, bumping her head into the boy’s shoulder.

Link looked around at the Faron Woods. It had been quite a while since the last time he was here, but he was sure he knew the right way.

Link began walking in the vaguely familiar direction. Looking back over his shoulder to make sure the boy and his horse were following. 

When the boy got the message to follow, Link led them through the woods. When they passed the first Spring of Light, Link knew he was on the right track. He led them over a wooden bridge that spanned an ominous gorge, past another Spring of Light, a meadow with a large dead tree in it, to the entrance of the village.

This was as far as Link could go.

Link nuzzled against Link, licking his ear endearingly, hoping the boy got the message that Link loved him, and that he would always be there.

See you around. Epona swished her tail as he turned to leave.

Are you kidding? Link swiped his tail back at her. I’ll always be here.

He stepped back, hiding in some bushes so he could watch as the boy walked further into the village with Epona. A man–Rusl, if Link was remembering correctly–spotted them immediately. 

“What’s your name?” Rusl asked.

“Link.” The boy answered.

Maybe the Hero of Time would be able to pass on some guidance to a future hero after all.

Chapter Text

No one knows where the Fierce Deity came from. 

All the gods of the land came from somewhere. 

Null, the god of chaos was first. He was created when the festering chaos from before time steadily grew conscious. The Golden Three Goddesses were created of that same chaos. But instead of Null, who wanted to consume the world, the Golden Three were curious about what was hidden beneath Null’s chaos. 

They brought light to the world and banished Null beneath the surface. The Golden Three created the world. When they left the world and returned to the heavens, two things were left behind, the Triforce, a physical embodiment of the Golden Three’s magic, and Hylia, who was created from the Triforce. 

Farore had created animals such as birds and dogs, but Hylia created intelligent life. During a series of trial and failure, Hylia ended up creating three races capable of worship, the Gorons, a species that Hylia carved out of rock, the Zora, formed from the waves like other sea life, and the Hylians, who Hylia made out of wheat. The Hylians were the one race that most resembled Hylia. 

With her species formed, Hylia departed, rejoining her older sisters in the heavens. 

The species thrived, and started worshiping their goddesses, as well as creating more. You see, a god lives on worship and memory. If no one remembers that god, and no one worships them, they fade out of existence. But the reverse is also true. 

A settlement of Hylians living in the desert, started worshiping an unnamed goddess of sand. She was someone they could pray to for rain, or for safe travels through the desert, or to ask of her to lift a sandstorm. 

So the goddess came into form from her people’s constant prayers and worship and came to live in the heavens with the other gods in the form of a spirit made almost entirely from sand, with gold designs and clothing, and a pair of rubies as her eyes. 

When the races started cataloging the passage of time, they created the unnamed goddess of time. She was someone to explain the flow of time, who they would pray to if they were running late, and even someone to blame when they or someone they loved ran out of time. 

And so the goddess of time joined the small collection of gods in the clouds in the form of a seemingly typical Hylian woman with dark skin and clocks in replacement for her pupils and irises in her eyes. 

The races needed to explain where the wind came from, and what controlled the weather. Hence, Loftwing, the god of wind was born and came to live among the gods in the form of a great red feathered bird, large enough to carry a Goron on its back. Loftwing asexually fathered the loftwing race, who were similar to their common ancestor except they weren’t quite as large as Loftwing themself was. 

The loftwings then became the mounts of the gods who could not fly. 

Then Loftwing offered to carry Hylia, but she rejected. She had her own wings and didn’t wish to burden them. 

All these gods came from somewhere. 

All except for the Fierce Deity. 

He just appeared in the heavens one day. He preferred the form of a Hylian. He was the shortest god in the heavens, with hair whiter than the goddess of time, blazing white, pupil-less eyes, and red and blue markings on his face. He wore armor far more advanced than what the races on the surface had yet to invent, with strange symbols and a blue pointed hat. His sword was that of a helix, and was almost as tall as he was. 

He had marched into the city without a word, promptly making himself at home.

It wasn’t obvious to the other gods where this newcomer came from. But Demise knew, because the Fierce Deity was formed from the same actions as himself.

Demise was the god of evil, to put it simply. 

When hylians and the many other races on the earth developed their settlements, they also created discourse. As earthy minds developed, some minds yearned for and thrived on discourse.

Wars were waged as the people waged amongst themselves.

Demise emerged from the evil nature of the races. He represents everything from the fleeting impulsive thought that tells you to push that child over, to the act of murder. Or worse.

The Fierce Deity was formed from that same discourse. But while Demise thrived on it, the Deity hated it. While Demise caused the wars, the Fierce Deity represented the reason to fight. The urge to protect loved ones, the sense of duty to serve your kingdom, those ideals formed the Fierce Deity.

The Fierce Deity was always the god closest to the races. 

If paid the proper tribute, he would participate in their wars–though he never took sides unless he viewed one side as ‘evil’. Many wars were waged as proxy wars between Demise and the Fierce Deity.

All the mortals knew not to bother with the Fierce Deity. 

He was well… fierce, and his loyalty in wars would waver if he disagreed with what you were fighting for, or how you were fighting for it.

But just as there were cults dedicated to Demise, there were cults dedicated to the Fierce Deity.

More accurately, reigning the power of the Fierce Deity.

This was an impossible task, to say the least. Most people wouldn’t even know where to start. But if there’s one thing among hylians that’s stayed consistent, it’s their determination. They had to find a way to reign in the Deity’s power. If they succeed, they would become like gods. No one would be able to stand in their way.

Of course, this was very bad.

But the cults dedicated to enticing Demise to end the world never worked (partly because Hylia wouldn’t let Demise, partly because the cults weren’t big enough for Demise to notice their wills), so the Fierce Deity wasn’t too concerned about them.

He should’ve been concerned about them.

Using some very dark magic, the cult was able to figure out a spell to bind the god’s power to a physical object. The idea was that whoever wielded the object would be instilled with the Deity’s power.

But what to bind the Deity’s power to? A sword? A shield? Armor? Hm…

After some thinking, and accounting for the limitations of the spell, the cult decided to carve a mask in the likeness of the god. When the god’s power is bound to the mask, not only will the wielder be instilled with the god’s power… But the mask should be so similar to the god’s face that it’ll cause fear amongst those who look upon it.

Their plan was perfect.

Now all they need to do is lure the Fierce Deity close enough to cast the spell.

So, they pretended that the local village was being attacked by bandits who would ravage the house and assault the people before leaving. That would certainly be a worthy fight for the god to participate in!

It worked.

They performed the proper ritual. Hearing their pleas for help, the Fierce Deity walked right into the summoning…and came out right in the middle of a magic circle.

Before the Deity could do anything (read: kill anyone. For someone who fights on the ‘right’ sides of wars, he’s pretty violent when he needs to be. I mean, he’s the God of War for a reason, right?), magic ropes lashed out of the circle. Whenever the Fierce Deity would cut one rope, ten more would take its place, until the Deity was completely immobilized in the middle of the magic circle.

Then the cult began their ritual.

Now, the thing about gods is that they are power. They’re beings of pure, condensed power given form. That’s how they’re created, and how they can control their sphere of influence.

So when the cult went to bind the Fierce Deity to the mask, they bound every aspect of the Deity to it. So that, when the dust settled and the ropes fell away, there was nothing left of the god where he had once been. The only thing that was left was the god’s soul, which was whisked away by Hylia (who had been watching the whole thing) to later be reincarnated. I’m sure you already know who he was reincarnated as.

The cult could hardly believe it. They’d done it! They’d harnessed the power of the Fierce Deity!

What they didn’t know was that the Fierce Deity was still conscious. Inside the mask, he could see and hear everything, he just couldn’t move or affect the real world. It was like a nightmare, one that he would never wake up from.

There was a positive to the Fierce Deity being conscious, though. And that was that the second one of the cultists grabbed the masks and put it on, the Deity was able to form a connection between him and the cultist. He flooded the cultist with such sheer godly power that the cultist vaporised on the shot, letting the Fierce Deity mask fall to the ground with a dull, hollow thump!

Needless to say, none of the cultists were very eager to put on the mask after that.

Though it’s not like they were given the chance to, anyway. Cause just then, the goddess Hylia burst in with all the majesty of the war goddess who created life. She barely gave the cultists time to react before blasting them all to smithereens like their friend.

The goddess, contrary to the violence of her previous actions, knelt down and gently picked up the mask of her lover (did I forget to mention that?).

She felt the god pushing against the wooden confines of his prison. Searching for a weakness in the magic and finding none.

“I’m sorry.” Hylia said. Even as a goddess herself, she didn’t have the power to free the Fierce Deity. But she knew that she couldn’t let his mask fall into the hands of mortals, lest they have evil intentions. So she kissed the mask on its forehead before tearing open a hole through dimensions and throwing the mask through it. She sealed the rip closed and prayed that no one would come upon the Fierce Deity mask.

What she didn’t account for was a reincarnation cycle, or for a boy of that cycle to stumble through the Lost Woods. 

Said boy ended up quite literally tripping and falling through one of the many weak spaces between dimensions that existed within the Lost Woods. On the other side, the boy found himself in the land of Termina. A land plagued by a little demon and a promise that in three days, the moon will crash into the earth, destroying everything…if the boy doesn’t do something about it first.

Thankfully for the people of Termina, he was determined to do so.

A long time ago, back when the Fierce Deity mask was first thrown into Termina, a similar story was happening.

In the place that will become Clock Town, a ferocious monster lurked. Men would come after it to try and prove their worth by slaying it. None succeeded. It ate every one of them and delighted in the action.

Then one day, a mysterious man came to the land of the beast. But instead of fighting it, the man laid down a bongo and began to play.

The music was lively and brightened the sun itself. The monster, forgetting its hunger, danced for three days straight as the man played. It hardened and flattened the ground, the perfect foundation for a town. 

By the time the man finally stopped playing, the monster was exhausted from all the dancing. Breathing heavily, it laid down on the ground and died.

But to honor the mighty beast that once roamed the lands, the man took a piece of the beast’s armor and carved it into a mask. One shaped like a heart, with spikes sticking out of the top, and bright orange eyes that captivated the soul.

The spirit of the bloodthirsty monster lives on in the mask.

Although the story of Majora was much less purposeful and violence-filled than the Fierce Deity’s, it proves to show that the land of Termina was a home for lost souls. Even before the boy fell into the land.

As the boy traveled, he encountered and gathered masks; all of them filled with sadness.

One was filled with the soul of a son who got lost and died. One had the soul of a warrior who died unable to fulfill his promise to his people. One had the soul of a musician who couldn’t help his friend when she lost her eggs.

There were many more: a dancer who never got to share his dance with the world; a brother who failed his ambitions; the mask of a man who went missing before his wedding date; a torturous mask that prevents the wearer from sleeping; a mask that prevented the wearer from being noticed; a mark of adulthood given by a woman scared the boy would never grow up.

But the boy shared the Fierce Deity’s penchant for helping those in need. Aside from his main quest, the boy went out of his way to help anyone who needed it. So by the end of his adventure, his masks were only filled with absolute happiness.

The son was assured that his father knew what happened. The warrior helped the boy defeat the terrible monster and bring peace to the mountain. The musician helped the boy regain his friend’s lost eggs.

The dancer’s art was passed on to worthy successors; the brother was given new hope to follow his dreams; the missing man was found and returned to normal before his wedding; the torturous mask helped the boy learn of the story of the little demon and his friends; the woman was assured that the boy and her sister would get to grow up.

The boy even appeased the spirits of the land’s elemental giants by handing over all his masks. So when he finally marched up to confront Majora, he had no masks other than the transformation masks.

So Majora leant the boy a mask that he could play with; the mask of a god that he found on the ground thousands of years before.

Now, remembering what happened to the cultists, it would be reasonable to be wary of the boy wielding the mask. The poor thing didn’t even know what laid within the mask! By that point, the Fierce Deity had resigned himself to eternity trapped in the mask. So the boy couldn’t feel the god pressing against the mask. Cause he wasn’t.

But when the boy lifted the mask to his face, the Fierce Deity didn’t vaporise him. Instead, the Deity suddenly got a snapshot of everything that the boy did as their souls were connected. And I mean everything. 

The Fierce Deity saw that this boy was tied to a reincarnation cycle, and he was able to see every life the boy lived. It was enough to learn that his boy was the current incarnation of the Fierce Deity’s soul. 

It wasn’t exact, but when the Deity shared his power with the boy, it was the closest he had come to having his body back in thousands of years.

After defeating Majora, the boy carried the Fierce Deity mask with him through a war and the rest of his life. Eventually, the man got lost in the Lost Woods.

That was the first time the Fierce Deity had mourned a mortal’s death.

After his death, the man’s wife was careful to–quite literally–bury the god’s mask. He was locked under the silo for thousands more years. The only time he came up, it was after a calamity had destroyed the silo and a curious teen (who was also the Fierce Deity's soul, and was coincidentally descended from the Deity’s last wielder) dug him up.

Only this time, when the teenager put on the mask, the Deity could do no more than connect himself with the latest reincarnation of his spirit. The teenager might’ve gotten a brief surge of strength, but it was never much of anything. At least, the Fierce Deity was able to experience the thrills of battle while connected to the teen.

But soon enough, the teen stopped wearing the mask. And then he too died, this time of old age.

The Fierce Deity should’ve faded only a few centuries after he was originally imprisoned within the mask. But the magic binding him prevented him from fading long after the people had forgotten a war god had ever existed.

So the Fierce Deity was doomed to living a long life, trapped within the mask. His magic slowly dwindled, but the Deity soon came to wonder if he would ever pass on. Maybe, like his soul, he would be forced to exist for the rest of eternity.

The Fierce Deity found himself praying to die.

Chapter Text

There was nothing quite as dangerous as a people who had given up hope.

Link knew that intimately. 

Impa had been schooling Link in Hyrulean history every time he visited her, so he knew that Hyrule had been in decline for thousands of years. All the way back to the Fallen Hero, who enticed world wars with his death. Not even the Golden Age of Hyrule, brought on by the Hero of Legend, was enough to save Hyrule. 

It seemed like as soon as the Hero of Legend died, Hyrule resorted right back to self-destruction.

It seemed that every country in the world was suffering some sort of plague. Labrynna was suffering desertification even worse than what was happening to Hyrule. Holodrum was constantly being razed by forest fires so often Link was surprised there were any forests left to catch fire. And Hyrule was suffering a black hole of a central government and people succumbing to greed and selfish desires so much so that the only morally decent person in the kingdom wasn’t even from Hyrule.

No, because when he was a kid he left the war torn country of Calatia. Or rather, that’s why Link’s mother had stowed him away in a wagon heading to Hyrule with the promise that she’d be there soon.

All Link had of her was a broken promise and an old quilt. 

He didn’t even have his name. That, he earned in Hyrule. 

In Hyrule ‘Link’ was just another word for ‘hero’. It was just a title. But a few of the nicer people started calling him that after he saved them from monsters, and it stuck. Link didn’t even know what his name meant until Princess Zelda (the one nicknamed Dawn) explained it to him. When he learned that he was basically named Hero, it suddenly made sense why so many people would scoff and roll their eyes when he introduced himself.

‘But it suits you.’ Dawn had explained. ‘You’re our Hero of Hyrule.’

If only the citizens of Hyrule agreed. Most still felt that he was wrong to use that name, and was an attention whore. But it’s not like they knew that Hero was the only name Link had ever had.

Now, at 18 years old–two years after his last adventure and eight after his first–Link tended to spend his free time clearing out monster camps or running away from monsters that wanted his blood.

Strangely enough, the first thing always ended in the second thing.

Though that makes it sound like Link didn’t spend his whole life running. It was just a part of life for him, constantly on the run. Link had caves hidden all across the map. So secret that he refused to write them down on the map Dawn had given him but he never used. Ganon was in his blood, and every monster and cultist in the kingdom was looking to kill him to free their master.

Like right now.

Link ran through the woods. He’s only ever known a proper meal when visiting Dawn at the castle, or Aurora in her cottage (while Dawn offered her the throne upon her waking, Aurora prefers to live in the forest on the edge of the kingdom to wallow in depression. Link can’t fault her for it because it sounds like a much better life than the one he was currently living), and right now it’s been days since he’s eaten anything, period. The lack of nutrition weighed down on him as he pushed his body to its limits. 

He burst out of the trees and immediately swerved to the left to avoid running into the river. Glowing gold eyes watching him hungrily from beneath the water as the zora easily kept pace with him. Link kept one eye on it, prepared to dodge if it tried to shoot a fireball at him (why did the zora, an aquatic (Dawn just taught him that word! :] ) species, have fire-based attacks anyway? That just feels rude).

With the monsters in the forest on the left, and the zora in the river on the right, Link was forced to run along the woods and the river. An incredibly dangerous situation to be in, but it’s not like he had much of a choice.

Up ahead, however, Link could spot a bridge. It was wooden and even from far away Link could see the holes in the railing and floor where hylians had been dragged to their watery deaths by hungry zora (a species that prefers to let its prey drown before eating, instead of killing it themselves. Incredibly odd considering their sharp talons and teeth, but Link always thought they like watching their prey struggle). Probably because every bridge in Hyrule was like that.

Making a split second decision, Link decided that all of his choices were bad ones and chose the only decision that had the slim possibility of freedom at the end. 

He crossed the bridge.

Predictably, the zora attacked. Link dove to the bridge, hitting his chin on the wood and biting his tongue. Blood filled his mouth but at least he dodged the zora’s attack. He swallowed the blood and continued sprinting across the bridge. When the zora’s claws appeared through the floorboards at his feet, Link jumped away before the zora could remove the floor from beneath him. 

Link evaded the zora with all the expertise of a hunted man. Link managed to make it to the other side, and had to resist collapsing from relief. Or exhaustion. Probably exhaustion.

Thankfully, he managed to stay standing and continued running through the forest. When he decided he had gained enough of a lead, Link scrambled up a tree like a squirrel. If there’s any pros to malnutrition, it was that he was light enough to rise to very nearly the tippy top of the tree.

Link held his breath as the monsters approached his hiding space. The monsters could smell his blood, that was true, but after years of experience it seems like they couldn’t tell his exact location. So though the monsters may smell him here, they wouldn’t be able to detect that he was high up in the tree.

Small mercies granted by the Great Mothers and God (Hyrule’s god. Link doesn’t really believe he’s real, but if he is, Link at least wants to earn his favor).

The monsters surrounded his tree, sniffing around with their weak noses for Link. Link held his breath and watched as the monsters scoured this section of forest. They were in an area only slightly less dead than the rest of the forest. Green apples smaller than Link’s fist grew on the same branch Link was perched on. He looked around and found himself in an orchard of the apple trees. Link was tempted to pick the apples, but he didn’t know if the tree was diseased or not. With Hyrule’s luck, they probably are.

Link struggled to stay conscious. He pushed his body way too far. He gripped the trunk of the tree he was in, allowing the rough bark to bite into his hands, keeping him awake. If he fell asleep now, he would be dead no matter if he stayed in the tree or not.

Link watched the monsters investigate the copse of trees, hoping he wouldn’t have to try jumping from tree to tree. He can do it, but in this state it was questionable. But after a while, they threw in the towel and scampered off to go hunt easier prey.

Link sighed. He stayed up in the tree for ages afterward, just to make sure he really was alone before jumping down. He stumbled a little on the landing, a sign of his exhaustion. At this point, the pain of hunger wasn’t stronger than the pull of exhaustion. Exhaustion was more dangerous than hunger in this world.

Setting off in the opposite direction as the monsters, Link tried to find a good place to take cover long enough to get a few hours of rest. Link wanted nothing more than to fall asleep right now, but he wasn’t at the North Palace, and Secret the talking moblin was on the other side of Hyrule. 

After a few minutes of consideration, Link decided fuck it. He stole a few apples from the trees and munched on them as he walked. Link didn’t know how to tell if an apple was ripe or not, but these apples seemed to be riper than the kind sold by merchants who could afford to part with food. 

After throwing the first apple core on the ground and deciding that they probably weren’t poisoned, Link took out his map, found his location, and marked the secret orchard of miracle fruit. 

After a while of walking, a house appeared in the distance. 

Link swore and dashed behind a nearby tree, watching the house carefully. If someone came out and found him eating what they probably assumed were their apples, it would not be good. But after watching the house, Link didn’t see anyone enter or exit the house, or see anyone move around through the windows. 

Link crept closer, until he saw that the house was abandoned. The windows (it still had windows!) were dusty, the wood of the walls looked rotted. It looked like not even monsters knew that his place was here.

Immediately, Link dashed inside the sanctuary. Inside, the house was clear of furniture, but Link didn’t care. Not like he would’ve slept on old mattresses anyway. He was desperate, not stupid.

Link unrolled his cot next to the stairs that led to the second floor. Reasonably, the stairs would be the most sturdy place in the house, right? 

He sat down on his cot and ate another apple. 

The house he was in looked like it was old enough to have been built in Hyrule’s Golden Era. The first floor was a large central room with a half wall partition with a fancy granite countertop that Link was genuinely surprised was still here. Anyone in Hyrule would give up all their rupees for rock like that. Over the countertop was a kitchen. Link guessed bedrooms were on the first floor. There was a door near his cot. After glancing in it, he confirmed that it led down into a basement.

Link placated his urge to explore by promising himself he would investigate the house when he woke up. After his third apple, he curled up on the cot Dawn had insisted he take. He burrowed deep into his mother’s quilt and fell asleep.

When he woke up, Link was pleased to see that he was still alive.

He packed up his cot and ate the last three apples before finally giving into the urge to explore.

After using a stick to poke the wall, Link decided it was solid enough for him to explore. He climbed the stairs and explored the two bedrooms, the office, and the library that had nothing more than dust on its shelves. He didn’t find anything interesting, so he quickly returned downstairs before his luck ran out.

Then he descended the stairs into the basement. It was made of a cold stone that kept the house from collapsing into it.

In the basement were crowds of crates. Link could barely walk from one end of the basement to the other. He chose a random crate near the stairs and pried it open.

Link gasped at seeing the absolute treasure trove that was inside the sole barrel. It was full of fire rods. Digging through them, he knew most were fakes; probably to keep thieves from stealing the real deal; but there were like three or four that were real fire rods. Magic flickering around them like the flames they commanded.

After seeing the fire rods, Link looked up and looked around the basement with new eyes. Suddenly, he noticed the magic. The basement was bursting with it. Magic coated magic items inside crates and hung from the walls–wait is that a random pile of shovels? What were they doing here among all these magic items?

Never mind.

Link went from crate to crate, from wall to wall, just digging through the boxes. He pocketed as much as he could, and when he found a new magic pouch, he pocketed the rest in there. 

There were so many magic items that Link didn’t even know what half of them did. There were music instruments that Link pocketed but was really too scared to play for fear that he’d be sent 400 years in the past or something. There was a box with magic rings galore–but there wasn’t a guide to identifying them. Link couldn't help but marvel at their original owner’s apparent ability to know exactly which ring did what. Some of them–like the rings with the hearts or the shields–were obvious, others…slightly less so and–is that a cursed ring?? Why in Hyrule would there be a cursed ring among rings that regenerate health????

Needless to say, Link avoided that ring like the plague.

As Link looted the basement, questions raced through his head.

How did these items last so long? Were they recent?

Who made them? Or did their owner buy them?

Who has the rupees to buy magic items?

And most of all;

Whose house is this?

Cause normal people don’t typically have hundreds (minus the rings) of magical items in their basement. Especially magic items that looked a thousand years younger than the house they were found in.

Hopefully they were as old as the house was, so Link wouldn’t have to worry about robbing anyone who was very obviously quite powerful. But he hadn’t seen any proof of life upstairs. His footsteps were the only ones in the fine layer of dust on the floor. So even if their owner was still alive, they obviously hadn’t been here in a very long time. 

So Link happily looted the basement. 

Minus the shovels. Link already had one. Unlike this guy, he didn’t need fucking seventeen (*slight exaggeration).

Link had to leave the house after looting the basement, before monsters caught his scent again and found him at the house. But the next night, in a cave, Link experimented a bit more with some of the less scary unknown magic items. There was a green rod that, when swung, created a gust of wind from under Link’s feet, sending him higher in the air than his Jump spell. There was another magic item that was shaped like a shovel (but the massive holes in the shovel part would’ve made it rather difficult to use). Link swung it around, but it didn’t seem to do much. At least, not until it hit a pile of sand in the corner. The magic gathered the sand together and caused it to rise in a perfectly rectangular space. After some experimentation, it seemed like the sand was dense enough for Link to stand on–before it dissolved again.

Link still hadn’t figured out the use of all the magic items (much less the rings), when he–quite literally–tripped through a portal into another adventure. Then he found himself surrounded by heroes from the past, future, and apparently sideways through time. Of course, the heroes would all have the same title of Link. The only difference of titles was their last names.

Well, Link Hyrule thought that’s what they were going off of.

It’s not like the other heroes knew Hero of Hyrule was the only name Hyrule ever had.

Hyrule could barely conceal his excitement when he realized that one of those heroes he was now traveling with was the Hero of Legend. 

The hero wasn’t anything like what Hyrule had expected (he’d expected someone older, more muscly. Not an angsty, bitter teenage barely older than Hyrule), but Hyrule adapted. It’s not like there were any tales about what the hero was like outside of history book drawings that just depicted him as a man in a green tunic with blond and pink hair–at least they got that part right.

Hyrule was in awe with how the Hero of Legend always seemed to have the perfect item for the job. It wasn’t until Legend pulled out a green magic rod that looked an awful lot like what Hyrule had named his Whirlwind Rod, and used it to push himself up to a high ledge via a personal whirlwind that the rod had created. The only difference was that, when questioned by Warriors, Legend had called it his ‘Tornado Rod’ which is a much cooler name.

Hyrule had chalked it up to coincidence. At least for a little while. But as time went on, Legend revealed more and more one-of-a-kind items that Hyrule also had. 

“You said this was from your first adventure?” Hyrule asked one night, picking up a blue boomerang that Legend had set aside while digging through his bag for something. Legend barely looked up before humming in agreement.

“It looks so new!” Hyrule said. 

“Thanks.” Legend said. He pulled out some blue mail, but just laid it across his knee as he focused on Hyrule. “With a little help from some slightly trustworthy witches, I cast some provision spells on it. On all of my items, really. I don’t want them rotting or rusting when I may need them.”

“How long will the spells last?” Hyrule asked, remembering the items that looked brand new when he looted them.

Legend shrugged. “At minimum? For the remaining 70 or so years of my life. That’s all I really needed them to last, but Syrup had always told me I was more powerful than I knew, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they lasted for another hundred years.”

Hyrule nodded, knowing that they last for much longer than that.

Hyrule was still unsure about if the items he had stolen were the same as Legend’s items (sure, Legend said the provision spells might protect them for a hundred years, but there’s a large gap between a hundred and a thousand), when they suddenly found themselves in Legend’s home era.

“C’mon, my house isn’t far from here.” Legend curled his arm in a ‘follow me’ gesture before setting off in a direction only familiar to him. 

After a while, the forest on the side of the road turned from untamed wilderness to carefully constructed lines of man maintained trees–apples growing on every one of them. At least, they looked like apples. 

Legend apparently caught him staring because he grabbed an apple off a tree and offered it to Hyrule.

“No no, I can’t accept that.” Hyrule said. The part of him used to survival was wondering if the apple was diseased, even if it looked really delicious. “This looks like an orchard, don’t the trees belong to someone?”

“Hyrule, you’re too sweet for your world.” Legend smirked. “You’re right. They do belong to someone–me. Please, I’m giving it to you.”

“Thanks.” Hyrule accepted the apple. He marveled the red skin of the large apple. It looked comical, like it belonged in a children’s nursery rhyme book. When he bit into it, it was sweet and tough, and now Hyrule finally knew what a ripe apple tasted like. 

“I didn’t know you had an apple orchard, Legend.” Time remarked. “These trees look very healthy, you must be very proud.”

“Yep.” Legend smiled. One of the few times there wasn’t any snark or sarcasm in his stance. He straightened and looked genuinely proud of Time’s praise. “I inherited the trees from my uncle. He planted these trees. Some people say that the apples are so healthy, they can heal wounds and cure illness.” 

“Really?” Wild asked.

Legend shrugged. “I think they’re just exaggerating. Besides, if it was true my roommate would advertise them as such. I don’t want to give people false promises; I just want to give people fresh fruit.” 

“That’s surprisingly noble of you, Vet.” Warriors teased.

Legend’s face turned the same color as his hair. He turned away so Wars wouldn’t see with a quiet “yeah, whatever.”

When they reached Legend’s house, Hyrule had to keep himself from freezing in shock. 

It was the same house where he found the items. 

And with the apple orchard outside…

Maybe Legend’s provision spells really were a lot stronger than the hero believed. Which was a whole other can of worms regarding how powerful someone would need to be to cast provision spells with such longevity, but one thing at a time.

Even though he had only spent one night in the house, seeing it young and fully furnished was odd. It felt like bugs were crawling over his skin as his brain processed how the old, abandoned house and this one that was full of life were the same building.

Art was hung on the walls–all with the title Link written in a corner. Potted plants were in every corner and available desk space. Some even hung over the counter that led to the kitchen. 

But Legend just passed by everything and went to the dungeon, disappearing down the steps without much of a word for the others. 

Of course they followed him.

The basement was exactly like how it was when Hyrule had last been there. The only difference is, like the rest of the house, it somehow seemed more alive. Maybe it was how it lacked the bad smell of rotting wood and mildew, or maybe it was because there were eight other people in the basement with him this time.

“This place is where I keep all my things.” Legend reported, opening a chest. “I just wanted to switch out a few items. NOBODY TOUCH ANYTHING.”

That last part was well timed as the other heroes all touched something. 

Hyrule just wanted to appreciate how clean the crystal sphere looking thing was :(.

He dejectedly set it back down and kept looking around with slightly less sticky fingers. He already knew everything that was down here, of course, but he was looking around with fresh eyes. Even with the provision spell, all these items looked so much younger than the ones in his pouch. Maybe it was because their magic wasn’t as depleted? Hyrule’s sure that these items all got worn down during the many years of the Hero of Legend’s life, even with the provision spell.

“Some of these items are cursed.” Legend loudly announced, taking a ring from Wind before he could slip it on. He immediately turned to prevent their accident prone Champion from potentially (read: likely) shattering a mirror that Hyrule already knew had especially strong magic.

“Oops.” Sky grunted, and Hyrule glanced up just in time to watch the Skyloftian almost get crushed by the Veteran’s large collection of shovels. “Do you need this many shovels?”

But of course the Vet didn’t answer, busy facilitating the other heroes and trying to keep themselves from accidentally dragging them all to Hell or something by mishandling one of his magic items. Hyrule even watched in horror as Sky actually plucked a string on the multicolored harp that Hyrule was still absolutely terrified of accidentally triggering.

Thankfully nothing happened, and Sky could only pluck that singular string before Legend had–as carefully as possible–yanked the harp out of Sky’s hands. 

“Do you normally keep live animals in here?” Hyrule asked, catching sight of a pudgy little blue and white bird flittering between the chests and crates.

The bird flew up to Legend. Legend slammed the chest shut with a “BOO!”

The guy in purple rabbit robes behind the chest lid fell back in surprise–wait how had he managed to get here without anyone noticing him?

“He’s fine.” Legend said. He was smiling as Four and Twilight put away their swords.

“Aw c’mon Mr. Hero.” The man sulked as he stood up. “How could you possibly have noticed me?”

The white bird fluttered beside Legend’s shoulder and tweeted.

The man gasped in fake offense. “Sheerow! How dare you rat me out like that!”

“At least she knows that sneaking up on me is a bad idea.” Legend retorted. 

“You only stabbed me once.” The man poorly defended. “And it was still funny just to see the look on your face.”

“I’m sorry–who are you?” Four asked.

“This is my roommate, Ravio.” Legend introduced as Ravio pulled down his bunny hood to reveal a face that…looked an awful lot like Legend’s. How come he never mentioned having a twin? But Ravio had black hair and green eyes…what?

“And business partner.” Ravio pointed out.

“No.” Legend shut it down. “You do business in my house. Against my permission. We’re not partners. Our relationship is strictly landlord and freeloader.” 

“Sure, Mr. Hero.” Ravio smirked.

Later that night, Hyrule decided to confront Legend about the items. He was worried he wouldn’t get the chance to…until Legend announced he was going to take care of the orchard. 

Typical. Legend’s back home for two hours and he’s already putting himself back to work. 

But it was the perfect time.

“Legend!” Hyrule jogged after him. Thanks to Wild’s cooking, this is the strongest he’s ever felt. 

Legend looked up. “You coming to join me?”

“No.” Hyrule shook his head. “I just need to talk to you about something.”

“That’s scary.” Legend teased. “Hopefully it’s nothing too bad.”

Instead of answering, Hyrule sent his hand into his pouch and brought out the first thing he got his hand on, which turned out to be a red staff with a curl at the top.

Legend’s eyes widened as soon as he saw the rod. “What the fuck man? I told you not to touch anything and you fucking rob me?”

Legend snatched what Hyrule called the Red Staff away from him, all traces of his teasing mood replaced with righteous anger. If Hyrule didn’t have any knowledge of what was in Legend’s bag, or where the hero lived, then that anger would be all Hyrule would need to confirm the identity of the original owner of the stolen items.

Hyrule had had a speech planned out when he came out here, but the words suddenly died. How could he explain to Legend what became of the kingdom? How not even his greatest efforts were enough to save Hyrule from decline?

While Hyrule figured out what to say, Legend looked at the Red Staff with sudden confusion. His anger dissipated as he held the Red Staff in his hands and studied it intensely.

“This isn’t the Cane of Somaria…” Legend muttered. “I mean, it is, and it even has our name in my handwriting on it…” Wait, really? How had Hyrule missed that? “But…it’s also…not. Hyrule, where did you get this?”

Fuck it. “In an old abandoned house next to an apple orchard not long before that first portal opened.”

Legend looked up with wide eyes. “What…?”

“I found a basement full of magic items and I uh…kinda helped myself to them.” Hyrule giggled, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. 

“You’re my successor?” Legend pieced together.

Hyrule nodded. “I…I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Legend asked, Red–Cane of Somaria forgotten. “What for?”

“You know what my era is like.” Hyrule swallowed thickly. “I didn’t want to tell you that you were my predecessor because I knew you would feel responsible for Hyrule’s decline. How not even you showing Hyrule into its Golden Age could save it.”

“I’ll admit, knowing my hard work was for nothing does nothing good for my self-esteem.” Legend agreed. “But with how corrupted Hyrule was in my childhood, I’m not surprised. No hero could erase that much decline. But…”

“But…?” Hyrule repeated. He looked up from where he had been staring at his boots. He was surprised to find a smile on Legend’s face. 

“But I’m happy to see that despite how everything goes to shit, they still have a hero willing to save what’s left of Hyrule.” That was the last thing Hyrule expected Legend to say, but he wasn’t finished. “I know it can’t have been easy, with the world against you like that.”

Hyrule shook his head. Tears prickled in his eyes at the unexpected praise.

“I’m proud of you.” 

Well now Hyrule’s going to cry.

“You’re not mad at me for stealing your stuff?” Hyrule asked, remembering how angry Legend was at them earlier.

“Of course not.” Legend shook his head and handed the Cane of Somaria back to Hyrule. “Did they help you?” 

Hyrule nodded. One time he had been completely surrounded by monsters. On an off chance and praying to God, Hyrule had used a strange medallion that turned out to have the power of the earth. It had shook the ground and killed all the monsters around him with a massive shockwave. His magic had been drained for two days after that, but it was definitely worth it to still be alive.

“Then that’s all that matters.” Legend assured him. “I’m just surprised that my roommate didn’t sell any of it after my death.”

Hyrule snorted, a few tears leaking down his cheeks. “I mean, your house was clear of anything that wasn’t nailed down.”

“What an asshole.” Legend decided.

Hyrule dissolved into laughter. Not long after that, Legend joined him.

“Feeling better?” Legend asked when the laughter subsided.

Hyrule nodded with a firm smile.

“Good. Then do you want to help me take care of the trees?” Legend asked. “You said that my trees are still alive? Then maybe when you go home, you can properly take care of them for me.”

“I don’t know if the soil’s healthy enough for that…” Hyrule said uncertainly. “But I’ll try.”

Legend nodded. “Cool. And as we work you can explain to me how you already knew I was your predecessor.” 

“Well, it all started back when I still lived in Calatia…”

Chapter Text

Cia was a young priestess when she first saw him.

He was coming in for Sunday mass with all the others, but made sure to actually greet her. Most of the crowd would just give a forced smile and nod, but he gave her a beaming grin and asked her name.

He introduced himself as Link. He said that he just moved to Hylia Central and was opening a bookstore with his younger sister, who was right by his side.

Cia was touched by his kindness. Not many people cared to talk to her. She was supposed to be quiet in the temple, but here was a man who saw her as an actual person for once. She made a mental note to check out his bookstore later. I would do her good to have a friend, and if he and his sister just moved here, then they would need a friend as well.

Cia wasn’t able to visit her friend as often as she liked. Her job in service to the goddess took up far too much of her time for that. Not that she was complaining–she loved serving her goddess.

As time went on, Cia couldn’t help but develop the tiniest of crushes on Link. She couldn’t help it, he was just too kind and gentle. Didn’t hurt that he was easy on the eyes either. It seemed like Cia wasn’t alone; every girl in the town knew of him and were either crushing or lusting.

Cia tried to convince herself that she stood no chance. There were plenty of pretty women in the town. Link hadn’t even been able to see Cia’s face (the mask was supposed to strip the priestesses of their individuality while having the dual purpose of preventing the priestess from burning away lest she accidentally look upon the goddess. It was blasphemy to remove it).

But Cia couldn’t help but feel jealous whenever she saw Link talking with another woman. Though, to her pleasure, it never looked like Link reciprocated the flirtations.

But then the goddess visited for the first time since Link moved in, and everything changed.

The goddess visited more and more, which was extremely confusing because wouldn’t the goddess have more important things to do? And then Link started staying after church. It wasn’t unusual for people to stay after to have conferences with the goddess. What was unusual was how frequently Cia would spy Link stepping into an alcove to let everyone else flood out of the room before approaching the goddess. 

Cia tried not to think that there was anything going on between them, she really did. There could’ve been a number of reasons for this behavior. One of them being that Link’s sister had fallen gravely ill, he was likely staying behind to beg for his sister's health, or ask advice to treat her.

Maybe Link wanted to serve the goddess and was being blessed by the goddess. Cia liked this answer, because it meant she would get to see Link more often.

But as the behavior continued and Link’s sister didn’t get better, nor did Link join the goddess’ servants, Cia continued to get suspicious.

And then she saw Link walking hand-in-hand with a woman through the streets and all those hopes shattered. 

Because even with the woman’s brown skin and black hair, Cia knew her goddess enough to sense the veil of disguised magic. It was severely dampened–as one would expect of a mortal disguise–but it was still the very recognizable magic of the goddess Hylia.

They were clearly lovers. Walking hand-in-hand, laughing, he even put his head on her shoulder at one time (even mortal, she was taller than the short man).

It broke Cia’s heart, but she moved on. It was foolish of her to believe that she and Link would ever work out.

A few months later, the goddess came to Cia with a proposition. She said that she would elevate Cia to an immortal, if she swore to guard the flow of time with her life.

Of course Cia took the offer. Who wouldn’t? It was the perfect way to serve her goddess.

“I just have one question.” Cia said. After the goddess nodded, she continued. “Why isn’t the Goddess of Time doing this job? Why do you need a mortal?”

“The Goddess of Time controls time.” Hylia explained. “She is very busy guarding over youth and old age. It’s much more of a job than you might think. She needs an assistant to watch over time as a whole. She will check in on you to keep you company, and you will regularly check in with her. Especially if you see something going wrong that she needs to fix, okay?”

Cia nodded. “Of course my goddess. I’d be honored to work alongside the Goddess of Time in this capacity.”

Hylia smiled. “Good.”

Cia’s Temple of Souls was a temporal place in time. There was a physical location in the land of the mortals. It was used for if Cia ever needed to return to their world, and for mortals to offer sacrifices for her and the Goddess of Time. 

But Cia would exist mostly in the Temple of Souls built in the Sacred Realm. There, she would hone her newfound skills and powers and, of course, watch over the timeline as it progresses.

Cia’s job was…to be honest, pretty boring.

There were a few times when Cia would see a decision that would completely derail the timeline and fuck things up for everybody. But the Goddess of Time was able to circumvent all but one of  those times.

When asked why she let the young Hero of Time die, the Goddess of Time said that he needed to, or else the Sage of Light wouldn’t have rewound time with the knowledge that he needed to seal the Hero of Time away for 7 years before he could properly face Ganondorf.

She’ll be honest, the Hero of Time causing three timelines did make her job ever so slightly more difficult, but Cia never complained.

As she watched the timeline, Cia’s crush for her Link blossomed. 

She saw how Link died fighting Demise (Cia was inconsolable for what would’ve been days in the mortal world), and saw how Hylia had sent his spirit to be reborn. After he was reborn, her Link was able to defeat Demise, and the surface was once again habitable for the hylians, allowing them to leave their floating island home.

But Demise also created a reincarnation cycle.

Link would be reincarnated over and over again for the rest of eternity.

Cia fell in love with him every time.

Despite the changes in his personality–whether he was snarky or protective–at his soul, Link never changed.

He was always kind, always willing to help. He would do anything for those he loved.

It was all very endearing.

There was one problem (other than the obvious).

Hylia.

Now, Cia loved her goddess, but she didn’t really love how she was always there!

When Link died and was reincarnated for the first time, Hylia had shed her divine form to be reincarnated alongside him. Her justification had been because gods cannot wield the power of the Triforce.

But Cia saw through it. She just wanted to be with Link.

That first time, Cia had stewed in her jealousy as Link and Hylia grew up together and fell in love. They founded the kingdom of Hyrule and fell so deeply in love that it was disgusting.

But Cia told herself to remember her place.

She was Hylia’s servant. 

On top of that, it’s not like she could expect Link to fall in love with her when he didn’t even know she existed anymore. 

But Hylia was wrapped up in the reincarnation cycle as well.

So every time Link was reborn, Hylia was right there.

They didn’t always fall in love. Sometimes they were just friends, but they were always close. And they always spent their entire lives together.

Cia dug her fists in her robes and told herself to calm down. It wouldn’t do her any favors to blow her cool right now. She was still a faithful servant of the goddess. Who cared that said goddess was living out Cia’s dream with the man of Cia’s dreams? Definitely not Cia!

But it got harder and harder to keep her cool the more lives they both lived.

Cia was jealous. There! She said it! She was damn jealous of how Hylia got to live with Link over and over and over and over and over and–

Cia should’ve been careful. Maybe if she’d only looked a bit further in the future, she would’ve been able to contain her jealousy and everything would be fine, and she wouldn’t endanger the one she claimed to love so.

But she wasn’t, and she did.

The evil had crept into her sacred space while she was distracted. She was so focused on her jealousy and anger that she didn’t notice the danger until it had crept into her shadow and entangled her with its whispering lies of truth.

It found its way into her heart and twisted her love. Her jealousy twisted into something far darker and wicked.

The light of her old self was expelled from her body.

Cia was done thinking that she was okay with Hylia getting to have Link in every life. Cia was the only one who could have him. She was going to make sure of that.

Chapter Text

“The knights are out to get me; real or not real?”

“Not real.”

“I’m safe; real or not real?”

“Real.”

“You love me; real or not real?”

Ravio smiled. “Real. You’re okay, Link. This isn’t a dream.”

“I wish I could believe you.” Link mumbled. He laid his head against Ravio’s chest. Ravio ran his fingers through Link’s hair and Link looked down at Sheerow, tweeting pleasantly between them.

Link wanted to close his eyes and breathe, as Ravio was encouraging him to do, but he was too scared that he would open his eyes again and he would be clinging to that piece of driftwood in the middle of the ocean again. So he just focused on Ravio’s fingers in his hair, and the feeling of Sheerow’s feathers beneath his finger. He counted her feathers and Ravio’s breathing. 

Thunder rumbled outside the bedroom window and Ravio clung to him tighter. Link welcomed the tether to reality. Link hummed the Ballad of the Wind Fish and Ravio rocked him back and forth.

“I was thinking…what if I dyed my hair?” Ravio suddenly spoke.

Link looked up in surprise. “Really? Since when?”

Ravio shrugged. “I thought it would be fun. Besides, we would match.” He grinned and played with the pink lock of Link’s hair.

Link rolled his eyes. “You know it’s natural, right?” In fact, the blond on Link’s head was what was dyed. He originally dyed it to hide from the knights during his first adventure. Then he dyed it black while overseas in Labrynna and Holodrum. He redyed it blond when he returned to Hyrule. He was thinking of redying it again (his roots were turning pink again as well), but Ravio seemed to like it, so maybe not.

“Yeah, but then I can do like purple and it’ll be fun.” Ravio continued.

“Ravio, purple’s not going to show up in your hair.” Link pointed out. Unless Ravio wanted to dye his full head, or use a really light purple, it’s not gonna show up. But Ravio’s favorite shade of purple was too dark to show in Ravio’s black hair.

“You’re no fun.” Ravio pouted.

Link snickered. “I mean, we can do it. Just know that it might not work.”

“Not with that attitude it won’t.” Ravio said seriously, causing Link to laugh.

He knew what Ravio was doing. He was distracting Link so Link wouldn’t spiral down the ‘am I still in a dream?’ rabbit hole (no pun intended). He was grateful, but it wasn’t really working.

His eyes would unfocus and he would see a dreamy haze, or he would just doubt Ravio’s touch, or his warmth, or the soft bed they sat on. Then he would just feel disconnected. 

Link rested his head against Ravio’s chest again and used one hand to grip the back of his boyfriend’s sleep tunic. 

“You’re safe, Link.” Ravio assured him gently. “I promise you.”

Link nodded against his chest. He finally braved closing his eyes to take deep breaths. Ravio breathed with him, counting how long they inhaled, held it, and then exhaled. He grounded himself, focusing on the blanket around his legs, the feathers beneath one hand, the fabric gripped in the other, his boyfriend’s breathing, the sound of rain pattering against the window, Ravio’s hands on his back and in his hair… He focused on all that until he fell asleep.

Legend really wanted this to be real.

It was the first time he was around people who actually understood him. Heroes who’ve been through hell too many times (though he was angry to learn that his counterparts only ever had to go on one or two adventures, compared to his six). Legend could learn from them, teach them, and find comfort in them.

But it was too perfect to be real.

After all, who would believe that they were on a magical time traveling adventure with the other incarnations of the Hero’s Spirit?

Maybe that apple that had fallen on his head had hit a little too hard and he was currently unconscious under one of his trees. Or maybe he just didn’t really wake up that morning, and he was still asleep.

He wanted to know if he was awake or not, but in his experience, pinching himself and feeling pain doesn’t necessarily mean he isn’t awake. 

“Hey, random question,” Legend asked Hyrule as they walked one day. Hyrule turned to him. “but have you heard of the Wind Fish?”

Hyrule didn’t say anything for a minute, knitting his brow together. “No. I don’t think so. Why?”

Legend shrugged, hiding the flutter of hope deep in his stomach. “No reason. Just wanted to know.”

“What’s the Wind Fish?” Hyrule asked.

“It’s…” Legend’s worst enemy. “A god of dreams.”

“Is it a giant whale?” Legend’s blood froze over as Wind spoke. The young hero turned around to face them as he walked backward. Twilight noticed and rolled his eyes, using a hand on Wind’s shoulder to steer him around large roots so he doesn’t trip.

“Yes.” Legend said weakly.

“I met him, then!” Wind grinned broadly, ignoring how Legend’s hopes crumbled just then. “Well, he went by Oshus when I met him. He was the Ocean King. I met him on my second adventure, but it turned out to just be a dream. Weird, right? Have you had a dream-adventure too?”

Legend nodded numbly.

“Cool!” Not cool. “What was yours about? I had to defeat this creepy guy called Bellum.”

“I had to clear an island of nightmares.” Legend responded.

Wind tried to get more information out of Legend, but the Veteran hero only gave boring answers until Wind gave up.

So this was a dream, too.

Legend tried not to be too upset. He knew the chances of this adventure being real was very minimal. He just didn’t want it to be true. 

He knew what would happen. 

He would get attached to the people around him. Just for it to hurt that much more when he’s forced to leave them. And he’s always forced to leave them. It happens everywhere he goes.

Even when the Triforce brought back his uncle, his uncle still died a year later. That’s really what drove him to dye his hair black and go to Labrynna. 

That’s also a habit of his. He gets hurt and he leaves. Running from his pain instead of facing it like a true Hero of Courage would.

And the cycle continues.

One night when Link was covering the second watch, he packed up and left.

He felt guilty leaving them like that. What if a monster wanders upon their camp and there’s no one to warn them? What if one of them gets hurt or dies? Link doesn’t think he would be able to handle another death on his conscience. 

Then he reminded himself that it was just a dream. He shook his head and pushed harder down the path, hoping to be long gone by the time the first one woke up to find him missing. 

Link knew that Twilight had that wolf companion, so he was sure to bushwack and find a stream. Thankfully the steam wasn’t too strong or deep. So he removed his socks and boots and stepped in the stream, a violent chill being sent up his spine and his teeth immediately beginning to chatter at the frozen water. But Link just took out a coat to wrap around himself as he walked in the stream. 

Instead of walking to the other side, like an idiot, Link walked in the river like it was a path. It was a tactic he’d learned on his first adventure, when the knights had used hunting dogs to hunt him down.

The stream washed away his scent, so Wolfie wouldn’t be able to find him. And if he walked far enough downriver, then they wouldn’t be able to find him on either side of the stream.

Link walked for miles. Even as the sun rose and the sky turned a serene blue. 

The group had undoubtedly noticed Link’s absence. They were using Wolfie to track him. They would come to the stream and then they would be absolutely lost. They wouldn’t be able to find Link, and he would be free from the people the Wind Fish wanted him to care about.

Just like with Marin and the people and animals on Koholint Island, they were just a ploy by the Wind Fish to keep Legend trapped in the dream. Discourage him from breaking out. They want him to die where his real body lay. But this time, Link had something to fight for.

Ravio.

He didn’t want Ravio to leave the house to find Link dead on the ground.

Link kept the face of his love in the forefront of his mind as he walked. He had to wake up. He couldn’t let himself find a way to stay in the dream.

When Link became worried about getting frostbite, he stepped out of the stream and dried his feet. There were a few cuts on his feet from sharp stones that he hadn’t felt because his feet were so numb. He laid his fire rod over his cold feet and waited for his feet to warm up before slipping on his socks and boots to get moving again.

The last time he was trapped in a dream, he had to wake the Wind Fish using the Instruments of the Sirens. Link knew that it would likely be different this time, but it was a place to start.

Link walked for two more days before coming along a town hidden beneath the great trees of the forest it was built in. He immediately found a library and scoured its folk and legends sections for any mention of the Wind Fish. He even asked the librarians for any books on the Wind Fish and similar gods of dreams, saying that he was a mythology buff and was writing a book about mythology.

The librarians humored him, noting his polite nature. ‘Teenagers these days aren’t as polite as they should be.’ they ranted to him. Link just hummed and followed them through their catalogue.

Link had that clock from his first adventure back in his head, counting how long he had until the group of ‘heroes’ caught him. He didn’t even know if they were still chasing him. But he’d rather be safe than sorry. So after scouring the library (and finding fucking nothing), Link asked around town for the Wind Fish (finding the same result), and then left town. 

On his way out, he bought a map from a weirdo in green clothes (don’t you even start). He marked out a few landmarks he should investigate before setting off for the Northeast mountain range. The Wind Fish slept at the top of a mountain last time Link was trapped by it. If he doesn't find any clues there, he’ll head for the southern ocean.

Link bounced between footpaths and streams. Occasionally a traveling merchant will give him a ride in their wagon until they have to split again. If there was a dungeon waiting for him in the mountains, then Link would need as much time between him and his pursuers as possible.

It took two days for the mountains to rise above the distant horizon, easily mistaken for a tidal wave with the blue color. Another two days later, and Link was walking among them.

Link always loved the mountains. They were beautiful and a magnificent demonstration of the earth’s power. They were formed billions of years ago, and it will take even more for them to erode back into the earth. On top of all that, nothing bad ever happened to Link in the mountains. 

Not like the ocean, the beach, the plains…

There was a small village nestled in the valley of the mountains. Link asked around, again, for the Wind Fish. When that bore no fruit, he asked if there had been any monsters giving them trouble, or of any sacred temples that may have been defiled by evil (you’ll be surprised how often that happens).

There was no dungeon, but the locals said that there was a monster camp higher up on the mountain that would come down and ravage the village for their sheep. They were highly grateful to Link when he said he would take care of the monsters. They gave him a trail map with the appropriate route marked, and he was on his way.

The trail was physically taxing, as one would expect from a mountain trail. Link snacked as he moved to keep his energy up. He found the monster camp within a cave. There was a singular guard protecting the entrance. But they were clearly dogshit at their job if they didn’t notice the blond hero wearing a red overtunic in the bushes. 

But Link wasn’t complaining. He sat with his back against a tree and let his legs recover from the strain of climbing all the way up here. When the pain subsided, Link slowly unsheathed the Master Sword.
“You ready for a fight, old girl?” At least he still had her. 

As in the real world, Link felt a tingling on his left hand. The Spirit wasn’t strong enough to glow or talk to him. He only learned her name–Fi–becuase of a game where Link listed all the letters of the alphabet and she told him which letter was right. 

Link was sad that, even with the upgrades from the blacksmith, he couldn’t give her her power back. But he was glad that she was still here with him.

Link slid his shield on his other arm and charged out of the bushes at the guard. The guard wasn’t any kind of monster that Link recognized, but that didn’t change the fact that he knew how to fight monsters. The pig-like monster squealed when it noticed the hero. Link swung his sword and slashed at the monster’s throat.

To Link’s surprise, the Master Sword didn’t decapitate the monster. Only getting caught about halfway through. It was enough, and the monster suffocated around its severed trachea, but it was odd. When Link tugged his sword free, he brought it close to investigate the edge. 

“You might need a good sharpening, old girl.” His hand tingled before Link focused instead on the blood on his blade.

It was pitch black.

Link moved further into the cave. The monsters were smart to carve out this cave. It was much safer to be in here than to set up outside, with the threat of landslides washing everything away.

The camp was a large singular room, with a campfire in the middle. Furs made to be beds were scattered around the fire. In one corner, Link saw the stolen sheep. Or what was left of them, anyway. There were five monsters lounging around the campfire as they ate their meal.

Link didn’t have any cover. But they hadn’t spotted him yet, so he at least had some element of surprise. He took advantage of this by charging forward again.

Only one enemy was wearing a red suit of armor, so Link would get to that one last. There were two lizard-like creatures wearing shitty armor and wielding swords. The last two monsters looked like the pig-like guard from before. The only difference was that where the guard’s pelt was blue, the ones inside the camp had black pelts.

Link knew that because of the color difference, and how the red one was on guard, that these black ones were likely stronger than the previous. But he went for them first because at least he had a point of reference for how strong these monsters are. Even if that point of reference died quickly.

The monsters all flinched when they noticed the hero. They scrambled for the assortment of weapons leaning against a fallen tree log. Link noticed a bow and quiver among them and changed course. 

Instead of cutting off the monsters, he beat them to their makeshift armory. He broke the bow in his hands and flung as many weapons as far away as possible. Then he pivoted and launched himself at the offended monsters.

The armored monster and the two lizards went for the scattered weapons, but the pigs seemed perfectly content to use their fists.

One pig went to punch Link, but he just hid behind his shield. The fist connected and there was a pained screech from the pig. Link lowered his shield and slashed at the monster’s unprotected stomach. Black leaked from the cut skin.

Why do they have black blood?

Was it normal for this dream? Was the black blood just another signifier that this wasn’t real? Well he already knew that.

As Link attacked the two pigs, his sword faltered slightly. He just realized that he came all the way up here to risk his life for a town of non-existent people.

Link tightened his grip on his sword and growled. He wished he cared as little as he pretended to.

Seeing an opening, Link buried his sword into one of the pigs’ stomachs. The monster cried out as he wrenched his sword back but it didn’t die. Link brought his sword down so it got embedded in the same monster’s shoulder. It didn’t get very far, but it was enough for that arm to go limp. Then he slashed across the monster’s front again. This time, the monster went down in pain. Link hoped it was too weak to get back up as he turned to face the other pig.

The other monsters had retrieved their weapons. One lizard even dual wielded two swords.

Yay.

The pig leapt up into the air. It was horribly telegraphed and Link was able to sidestep before the monster punched the ground with its fist. The monster screamed at the pain in its fist–fucking idiot–letting Link go behind and run his sword through its body, right where its heart should be. The monster slumped forward and Link pulled back his sword to turn and face the oncoming monsters.

The lizards got to him first, the armos taking a lot longer.

The lizards danced around, trying to confuse Link. They wanted him to make a commitment to one of them, allowing the other to attack Link’s exposed back.

Link attacked the nearest lizard, only for it to dance around his attack. It hopped over Link’s head. Link spun around as quickly as possible, just in time for the lizard’s downward swing to be blocked by Link’s mirror shield.

These things were fast.

But so was Link.

Link lifted himself onto the balls of his feet so he could be lighter, more agile. He matched the lizard’s pace. 

He caught the single wielding lizard’s sword on his, holding it for a second. Then, he kicked out and pushed the lizard away so he could avoid the other lizard’s attack. Even then, the sword nicked Link’s shoulder, causing him to hiss in annoyance.

He slashed at the offending lizard, effectively cutting its arm. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough for the lizard to drop the sword, more black blood leaking from the wound.

Link blocked a strike from lizard #2 with his shield and parried away a double attack from lizard #1.

Suddenly, the hair on the back of Link’s neck stood up. The rabbit part of him screamed DANGER! and while Link may be ashamed of that side of himself, he knew better than to question it. Letting instinct take over, he strafed to the side and backflipped to avoid the armos’ downstrike and then subsequent side strike. 

The armos caught lizard #2 in the side, enticing a growl of warning from the lizard. But the armos didn’t care and just approached Link with its large ass weapon.

The lizards went around the armos. So Link added a new challenge to the fight; keep moving so the armos can’t catch you until you’re ready to fight it.

The lizards were more than willing to participate in the challenge. They kept up with him easily as he kept backstepping from the armos. They traded blows. Link got a few cuts around his arms, but luckily any attack to his torso bounced off the enchanted Red Mail.

With a well timed strike, lizard #2 went down, leaving just the lizard that dual wielded two swords that made the blacksmith in Link weep. Though, in their defense, it’s not like monsters are evolved enough to know to take care of their weapons.

Link dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding a stab that would’ve hit him straight in the face. Unfortunately, it meant that he dodged straight into the sword that left a sizable cut in Link’s left arm. 

Link growled and brought his sword down on the monster’s right wrist. The scales were too tough to fully cut through, but the lizard successfully dropped one of its swords. Link kicked the sword away, sending it skittering away into the fire. Link then attacked at the lizard’s now exposed side. He cut deep into the lizard’s upper bicep.

He ducked under the lizard’s next strike and, two hands on the hilt, drove the Master Sword into a chink in the lizard’s armor that exposed soft underbelly. The lizard slumped when Link yanked his sword out.

Time for the big guy.

Stepping around the lizard’s corpse as it dissolved, Link faced down the armos. It was obvious that the weak point would be on the back. A white cape fluttered from its shoulders and it carried a shield that only really hid half its body.

Unfortunately, the armos was well aware of its weak spot. It was very careful to keep Link in front of it. It attacked him and made sure he didn’t have the time to dodge around and take advantage of the slow moving monster.

The armos’ sword even cut a gash into Link’s upper thigh, cutting through the skirt of his undertunic. Link bit back a yell of pain. His right leg steadily grew numb and Link tried to hurry the fight up without getting careless.

But he did get bold.

Noticing that the monster could only protect half of its body at a time, Link feinted to its legs. When the shield lowered to protect the legs, Link stepped on the top edge of the shield and used it as a boost to jump into the air, flipping over the monster’s head. When he landed–ignoring the shock of pain sent up his right leg–Link spun around with the grace taught to him by Din, and drove his sword in the armos’ back.

The armos froze before slumping forward. Dead.

Link let out a loud sigh and had to catch himself before he could fall to his knees–he does not trust the floor to be clean. Link hobbled out of the cave, cleaning the blood off his sword and putting his shield away as he did. He found a sturdy looking tree by the side of the path, not too far down from the cave entrance, and climbed it.

Getting himself comfortable, Link pulled out his first aid kit. His injuries weren’t grievous enough to warrant a red potion. Link cleaned the blood from around the wound, disinfecting it before he began stitching the wound closed. 

Link was used to the pain, and barely reacted beyond a grimace as he pulled the wound closed. He repeated the process with the gash on his right arm. That set of stitches wasn’t nearly as pretty since he had to do it with his non-dominant hand. When both gashes were stitched up, he gently cleaned the wounds a last time before wrapping them the best he could (especially on his arm). Then he did the same for the nick on his shoulder.

When his wounds were properly dressed, Link exchanged his green undertunic for a light blue one so he could fix the green one. 

The sun set early in the mountains, so it wasn’t a surprise when Link soon couldn’t see. He dug out one of his lanterns and hung it on a sturdy branch above his head so he could still work on his undertunic. He’d have to wash the blood out of it later, but Link can worry about that later.

When he was almost done, Link’s ears perked up at the sound of a large animal stepping on a twig. Link’s arm snapped up to extinguish the lantern. He blinked and let his eyes adjust to the pitch darkness, the only light coming from the stars and almost full moon high above.

Link calmed his breathing to near silent–another tactic he honed from when he was being hunted.

Link scanned the forest floor behind him, down the path. That’s where he’s sure he heard the noise come from. 

It took a minute before Link saw darkness shift. Then the glowing blue eyes of a predator rose to lock on his. Link couldn’t tell what the animal was, but his rabbit instincts certainly knew.

Wolf.

Link didn’t know what to do in this situation. Wolves can’t climb trees, can they? Does Link need to stay silent? Or scare it away, show it that he’s not easy prey?

His rabbit self chose for him.

Link felt his body lock up in the eyeline of the predator. It was the ‘maybe if I stay still it won’t notice me’ mentality of prey that usually got them killed by predators. Link wanted to move, but his pulse raced–compared to his usually fast rabbit-like pulse. Fear locked his limbs in place.

The wolf tilted its head–it was easier to make out the dark body of the wolf when he knew where it was. It licked its nose and whined before sitting back on its hind legs. Then it slowly lowered itself to the ground.

What’s it doing?

It almost seemed like it was trying to make itself…non-threatening. Did wolves usually do this?

Even through the dark, Link could ‘hear’ (more like read, but it’s hard to explain) what the wolf said.

“It’s okay.” The wolf whined. “I won’t hurt you.”

“How do I know that?” Link managed to unfreeze his jaw enough to ask. 

The wolf startled. “Did…you just…hear me?”

“Yeah, I can ‘hear’ you.” Link scoffed. “You know, for a wolf, you wear your heart on your sleeve.”

The wolf’s eyes widened in surprise. 

“It–it’s a human expression.” Link realized that the wolf might not know what ‘wearing your heart on your sleeve’ meant. Mainly because wolves didn’t wear sleeves. “Anyway, get lost. Find some easier prey.”

The wolf glanced around. Its eyes caught on the tree trunk below Link and Link was suddenly scared that it was going to try and climb the tree to get to him. But then the wolf’s eyes snapped back up to him. “You’re injured.” It wasn’t a question.

Shit. Link must’ve left some blood from his leg on a branch or something while he was climbing. “Yeah, but I can still fight back. Get lost!”

Wait, where was this wolf’s pack? They had to be somewhere around here. Well, if it’s hunting, then maybe not.

The wolf whined some more. But it must’ve agreed that it wasn’t worth the risk and got up to walk back down the path. Link waited until he was sure the sounds of its footsteps had fully faded out before letting out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. It felt like a weight was lifted from his back as he relaxed back into the tree.

Just before he could reach back up to turn his lantern back on, Link saw a flicker of light. He twisted back around to the direction the wolf disappeared in. Lanterns flickered as a large group of people made their way up the path.

Either they’re cultists…or they’re the ‘heroes’.

Either way, it was bad for Link if he got caught in the tree. So he retrieved his lantern and shoved it back into his bag before stabbing the undertunic with the needle and throwing the dark green fabric over him like a blanket. Hopefully the undertunic would be enough to hide him from the strangers. He made sure his hands were hidden so that the firelight wouldn’t reflect off any of his rings.

No, no, no, not again! Link mentally screamed at himself as his body locked in place again.

He quieted his breathing as he listened to the group’s approach. They weren’t being subtle, tromping through the woods so noisily it actually hurt Link’s sensitive ears. Seriously, they were just asking to get attacked by a monster.

Link listened as the group came up the path and suddenly stopped…right underneath Link’s tree.

“It’s okay. We won’t hurt ya.” A southern drawl reached his ears. 

Link’s first thought was that that was eerily similar to what the wolf had said. His second thought was that he recognized that voice.

Twilight.

So it was the heroes after all.

“We see you, there’s really no point in hiding.” Wind called up as Link’s body slowly unfroze. 

Link took a deep breath and schooled his face into a familiar scowl. “What do you want?” He snapped, lowering the undertunic but not putting it away. 

“Some answers.” Time explained. “Like, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Link shot back, suddenly wishing he had longer sleeves so he could hide the bandage around his arm. At least they were on his left side, so they couldn’t see his leg.

“The blood on the tree begs to differ.” Time replied.

Link crossed his arms and refused to look at them.

Warriors sighed. “Why’d you leave us? Especially during watch? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”

“Captain.” Time shut him down before he could start ranting.

“Why should I care what happens to you?” Legend scoffed. “It’s not like you really exist or anything.”

There was the sound of flesh hitting flesh.

“Wind, you’re real.” Sky said.

Link glanced down to see that Wind had slapped himself in the face, apparently to check whether or not he was real. Link scoffed at Sky’s answer and continued stitching up the tear. Link knows better than anyone how real people in the dream feel.

“What do you mean by that?” Wild asked at the same time that Hyrule said “What makes you think that?”

Link barked out a laugh. He snickered for a while, probably to the confusion of the others below because he heard them whispering amongst themselves. “‘What do you’--How can it not be?!” He shouted down at them, silencing any sidebar conversations. “You go through a rip in time and space just to find eight men and boys who claim to not only be heroes of Hyrule’s past and future, but they’re also incarnations of you, and you’ve all been brought together to chase after some unknown evil! Who in their right fucking minds would believe that bullshit?” Link snickered, shaking his head as he pulled the needle through.

“We’re not lying to you.” Sky softly said after a while of silence.

“That’s not what I’m worried about.” Link replied. “I’m worried that I’ll get attached. I’m scared that I’m going to get close to you guys only to learn that it was a dream and none of you existed in the first place.”

“Why would you think that?” Four asked.

“Because it’s happened before.”

More silence.

“So if you think this is a dream, what are you going to do about it?” Time asked.

“Wake the Wind Fish.” Link tied off the thread and used his teeth to cut it. He began putting things away. “He’s the one in charge of his shitshow. So I wake him, and this dream will fade. But apparently, Wind’s the only other person who’s heard of him, so my search isn’t going very far.”

“How can we convince you this isn’t a dream?” Twilight asked.

“You can’t.” Link told him. “The Wind Fish’s dreams are so lifelike that it’s incredibly hard to tell it’s not real. Unless, of course, you get told that it’s a dream. Then you can notice the flaws.” Link leaned back against the tree, swinging his left leg below the branch with his right one propped up on it.

“And have you noticed any flaws?” Four asked.

“Yes.” Lin answered. “I mean, besides the impossible Hero’s Spirit bullshit?” Link pointed towards the cave. “I just fought a small monster camp. Every single one of them bled black instead of red.”

“We faced some black blooded monsters as well.” Link looked down to see Time’s thoughtful frown. “But some of them still had red blood. Did you notice a difference in strength with your monsters?”

Link hummed. “I mean, I never fought those types of monsters before. But…they did seem to be a lot stronger than they should be.”

“Our theory is that the black blood is making the monsters stronger.” Warriors continued. “We think that must be the reason why we’ve been drawn together.”

“You’re not dragging me into an adventure with you, if that’s what you’re getting at.” Link shut him down. “No, I’m perfectly content to continue searching for the Wind Fish alone.”

“Another question; why are you sure that we’re also a part of this dream?” Wind asked. “Could it be possible that maybe we were also dragged into the same dream as you? I know it doesn’t mean much, but I feel perfectly real to me.”

“Yes, you’re not real.” Link scoffed. “Even if there was any evidence to prove that you were real, people in the Wind Fish’s dream always feel real. Not even I can see the difference. Marin looked and felt perfectly real to me, and yet look what happened.”

He didn’t mean to trauma dump on these imaginary people, but here he was, blinking tears out of his eyes anyway.

“Marin?” That annoying captain asked. “No–but I met her.”

Link’s head snapped to him so fast, it took a moment for the world to sort itself out before he could focus on Warriors. “You met Marin?”

It made sense; the Wind Fish’s dream needed a way to keep Link trapped here. Bringing back Marin was a sure seller. Even if he loved Ravio now, he would never be able to pass up the chance to see her one last time. To apologize.

Warriors nodded. “During the war. She came through a portal, stumbling about on the battlefield.”

Forgetting where he was, Link snarled “If you put her on the frontlines, Captain, I swear–”

“No, no!” Warriors held up his hands in a placating manner that only made Link angrier. “It was never like that. Marin wasn’t a fighter. She was a musician. She played us a few songs along with some other time travelers displaced by the war. Then, she and a few others left for a town to live until the war ended and she could be sent back home.”

Link nodded, relaxing back into his tree. He took a deep breath.

Why does Link have to feel everything so much? It’s like every emotion is multiplied tenfold for him. Uncle said it was because of his empathy. Despite trying to get rid of it, it followed Link like a shadow.

“Uh, Legend? You’re gonna have to decide whether or not to come with us quickly.” Wind spoke up. 

“And why is that?” Link asked.

“Becuase a portal just appeared, and I think we have to go through it.”

Link looked over and saw a swirling purple portal, like the one he went through at the start of the dream. It hovered above the path.

“Yeah, no.” Link shook his head and settled on the tree, closing his eyes to try and rest. “There is no fucking way I’m going with y–AH!” Suddenly, the tree disappeared from underneath him, and Link experienced a horrible feeling of uncontrolled weightlessness as he fell through the dark portal.

Fucking Wind Fish wouldn’t even let him finish his sentence.

“Oof!” Link landed hard on his back, effectively having the wind knocked out of his chest. He sat there for a minute, heaving for air. When it got easier to breathe, Link noticed that he was laying in the middle of a copse of apple trees in the middle of the day. Hyrule was leaning over him, trying to help him breathe by mimicking what he should do.

As if Link needed remembering how to breathe or something.

Link rolled his eyes and sat up. The rest of the group was around him as they left their portal. 

Link waved off Hyrule as he stood up. The pain in his chest subsided as he looked around at their surroundings. He heard Time ask if anyone recognized where they were, but all that faded into background noise as he turned around and set his eyes on a cute little cottage through the precise rows of apple trees.

He numbly shuffled over to the house. He flinched and came to a stop when the back door opened. 

Then he appeared.

Wearing his signature purple robe with the ridiculous rabbit features stitched into it. His white bird fluttered around his head as Ravio noticed the men standing in the orchard.

“Mr. Hero!” He exclaimed, running towards Link, somehow not tripping over his robe.

“Oh, Mr. Hero, I’ve missed you so much where—Mr. Hero?”

Link choked out a sob and backed away. “N–no. How… How can you be here?” Link’s back hit a tree. 

Ravio glanced at the others before slowly stepping towards Link, each step making Link flinch. “What do you mean?”

“You’re not real.” Link whimpered, his voice just barely louder than a breath. This was just cruel. 

Link couldn’t see Ravio’s face under the hood, but his lips (barely visible under the hood) formed a quiet ‘oh’ of realization. 

“Link.” Ravio spoke softly. “It’s okay. You’re not in a dream.”

“How do you know that?” Link sniffed.

“I just do.” Ravio answered. “Give me your hands. Let me prove it to you.”

Link wanted nothing to do with this Ravio lookalike. But he raised his shaky hands anyway. Ravio took them in his and goddesses they felt so real it broke Link’s heart. He sobbed again.

“Link, can you breathe with me?” Ravio asked in that gentle voice of his. He took exaggerated deep breaths. Link was shaky, but he slowly got in the rhythm. Ravio counted how long they inhaled, held it, and then released it. The tears eventually stopped.

“There you go.” Ravio smiled. “Now, can you please name five things you see? Be very specific.”

“Um…” Link said. “I–I… I see the stitching on your hood. I see that one white stitch in the right eye where you made a mistake. You didn’t pull the thread through fully.”

Ravio nodded. 

“I see…” Link turned to look at the ground. “That yellow ladybug with 15? No, 16 spots. It’s crawling on a blade of grass.” Link looked around again. “That pink worm eating through a golden delicious apple on the top of the tree.”

“Good.” Ravio encouraged.

Link took a deep breath, relaxing. “One of Sheerow’s feathers on her left wing is out of alignment. I’m guessing you interrupted her preening to come out here?”

“Yes.” Ravio giggled. “She is very mad at me.” Sheerow twittered in agreement.

“I see Four’s eyes.” Four looked startled that Link was looking at him, but gave a soft smile. “They’re gray, but they flash different colors. Blue, green, purple, and red. Because of the lighting? I’m not sure.”

“Very good.” Ravio said soothingly. “Now can you name four things you feel?”

“The bark against my back.” Link started. “There’s a knot digging into my shoulderblade. I feel my bandages. They’re tight.”

Ravio looked like he just noticed the bandages, but didn’t say anything as Link continued. 

“I feel the breeze. It’s nice and cool. Fall’s just around the corner.” Link reported. “And, I feel your hands in mine.” He tightened his grip around Ravio’s hands. “They’re wet, you just washed them. I feel the calluses from working on items.”

Ravio nodded. “Three things you can hear?”

“I can hear…” Link’s ears twitched. Because of his rabbit soul, he had extremely good hearing, even for hylians. “The leaves rustling against the wind. It’s gentle, but a nice sound. I can hear Wind’s fabric scratching as he shifts back and forth.” Wind blushed and Sky smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Finally, I can hear Warriors’ pencil scratching as he writes something down in his notebook.” Now it was the Captain’s time to blush.

“Two things you can smell?”

Link sniffed. “I smell apple pie.” He grinned. “Freshly baked.”

Ravio grinned right back. “That’s right. What else?”

“I smell…eight men who haven’t taken a bath in weeks.” 

The heroes squawked and protested and Link just grinned. 

“And one emotion that you feel?” Ravio asked.

“I feel…calm.” Link said, closing his eyes to focus on the sound of wind through the leaves. They rustled together and it was such a familiar sound that he had to take a moment to bask in it. Link dipped his head forward and pulled Ravio in for a hug. One that Ravio was happy to return.

“You’re not in a dream, Link.” Ravio said when Link opened his eyes.

Legend shook his head against his partner’s neck. “No, I’m not.”

Ravio smiled and relaxed. “Good. Now why don’t we all go in and enjoy some apple pie?”

The heroes perked up. Wind bounded ahead, shouting “Race you!” at Four as he passed. Four squawked at the cheater and activated his pegasus boots to beat the other to the door.

The others laughed and chased after. But Ravio and Legend stopped Time, Twilight, and Warriors before they could.

“You’re okay?” Time asked, worry etched into his face.

Legend took a deep breath, focusing on the firm earth beneath his feet. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“I’ll tell you more strategies we use to calm him down.” Ravio was telling Warriors. “That one we just did is the most effective, we usually only use it for when it gets bad like that. You really just need to help him focus on the world around him to help him feel tethered. Positioning him so he can hear your heartbeat is also good.” 

Warriors nodded, jotting down notes in his journal.

“How did you know to use the rivers like that to escape Wolfie?” Twilight asked.

Legend shrugged. “It’s not the first time I was hunted.”

There was a moment of silence after that.

“So.” Warriors clapped his hands together, his journal put away. “Apple pie?”

“Yes!” Ravio brightened. “Let’s go.”

Legend smiled as Ravio pulled him back towards the house, where he could hear the other heroes already arguing over who gets the first slice of pie. Maybe this new adventure wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Chapter Text

In the Kokiri Forest, Link didn’t know what religion was.

There was just him, the Kokiri, the fairies, the Great Deku Tree, and the Spirits of the Forest. Link grew up knowing that the Spirits of the Forest were playful but temperamental. They loved the children of the forest, and the animals that call the forest home, but despised anyone not from the forest. They were the closest thing to gods that Link had ever known. 

Then he left the forest.

The Spirits were protectors of the forest. They knew that their children couldn’t live outside the forest. Either because the children would just die without access to the forest’s magic that they thrived on, or because the outside world was just too dangerous for children. When Link left, he thought the Spirits would show up and stop him. Or he thought he was just drop dead.

But he left.

Link left the forest behind and suddenly he was standing in sunlight so bright it blinded him. It wasn’t green, it was golden.

Link felt strange. Lighter, but in a bad way. 

He was suddenly without the protection of the Spirits. They weren’t watching over him anymore. Link was sad, then hateful. Did the Spirits hate him? Did they want him to die? Why didn’t they stop him from leaving the forest when they knew it meant death for him? Didn’t they love him?

Then Link realized that he wasn’t dead.

Link didn’t know how to feel about it. Because the outside world could’ve still been dangerous, Link might still be in danger, now without the Spirits to protect him from the monsters he never saw in the forest. But then, what if they–everyone–had lied to him? What if the real world wasn’t really dangerous? But why would the Great Deku Tree and the Spirits lie to him about the danger of the real world?

Link felt so angry.

The only god-like beings he’s ever known and they either didn’t love him anymore, or they had lied to him his entire life. 

When he met Zelda, she told him of the gods of Hyrule.

This was the first time that he ever heard the word ‘god’. It sounded more tangible than ‘spirit’. But ‘spirit’ sounded more trustworthy than ‘god’.

Which was saying something if the Spirits had lied to him.

But while the Spirits of the Forest were protective spirits that kept their children safe from evil, Zelda’s goddesses actually created the world. Din created the red earth, Nayru gave the world law, and Farore created life. When they left the world, they left behind a golden power that Link thinks is the closest thing Hyrule had to the Spirits of the Forest.

That’s what Ganondorf was after. Hyrule’s Golden Spirits. And despite Link’s shaky relationship with his Spirits, he knew that Zelda must really love hers. It also sounded like the Golden Spirits weren’t protective gods. They didn’t actively protect the people of Hyrule, but people with their power could. 

They could also destroy it.

Link may not know the people of Hyrule, but he knew Zelda. And Zelda was really nice and he liked her hair and she loved playing games with him.

It also sounded like Saria, Fado, the Know-It-All-Brothers, and even Mido were in danger. Everyone he grew up with. Link couldn’t let them die, even though he knew that the Spirits of the Forest would protect them. He just needed someone to fight for, other than Zelda and her scary but nice bodyguard Impa.

Link’s quest drew him to every major settlement in Hyrule. 

And then he had people to fight for.

The creepy Happy Mask Salesman with his funny masks. Link found himself quickly making friends in Castle Town because no one knew who he was. He could trip over his worlds and say embarrassing things but no one would care because no one knew who he was. Link liked the keaton mask the best. But as he grew more comfortable in Castle Town, he also started wearing the bunny hood. Bunnies were one animal Link had never seen in the forest, and he thought they were cute and wanted to be cute like the bunnies.

The shooting gallery guy who taught him to properly aim his slingshot, and who would somehow lose his sight if Link missed while on a winning streak, and would give Link a treat whenever he lost. The crazy dog lady who introduced him to doggies. Doggies were now Link’s second favorite animal after bunnies.

The guards protecting the castle and Castle Town were also really nice to Link. When Zelda told the guards to let him in the castle, of course. On their days off, they would help Link with his swordplay; though he always thought they were humoring him until he beat one of them in a spar. They would also tell him stories; ones they made up, ones about their family, ones they knew about Hyrule’s history or mythology. The castle librarian was best for those kinds of stories, but Link liked how the stories varied depending on who you asked.

Malon was fun to play with and had her funny horses and her beautiful songs. She had a lot of games that he didn’t know. He’s sure some of them were just Malon trying to get Link to do her chores, but the horses were fun. They were Link’s new favorite animal, above doggies and bunnies. 

Talon was just happy that his daughter had someone to play with. Link thought he was nice too.

Link liked Darunia the best of the gorons. He was nice and called Link his brother despite only knowing him for a day. He liked Link’s music, and was willing to tell Link all about how the gorons didn’t worship a god, but they respected Din. Apparently Din was also the goddess of red and fire, and since the gorons lived on the volcano, they respected her and gave her offerings to keep the goddess happy–if she really existed.

Ruto was overwhelming, but Link knew she was just lonely. She was a princess and her father didn’t see past her future duty as queen. Link really wanted for Ruto and Zelda to meet because they’re both princesses, so they might be good friends.

But it would have to wait until the problem with Ganondorf was over.

Ruto told Link about how Nayru was the goddess of blue and water. As an aquatic race, they were her people. They didn’t worship her like the hylians, or just merely respect her like the gorons. No, they viewed her like their mother. They paid their respects, every night they told her thank you and that they loved her. It reminded Link of the Kokiri’s relationship with their Spirits.

So all that was left was Farore.

No one seemed to explicitly worship her that he could see.

But he still hadn’t met the Gerudo (sure they served Ganon, but calling them all evil would be mean. There’s definitely some nice Gerudo, just like how there’s nice Kokiri and mean Kokiri). All he knew was that they lived in a desert and they served Ganondorf. Did they count Ganondorf as their god? Or did they serve Farore? Every goddess has their own color, what was Farore’s? Something told Link it was green.

But if it was green, wouldn’t she have a connection to the forest? According to Zelda, she was the goddess of life. It would make more sense for people living in a forest to worship her than for a desert people to worship her. 

But Link had never heard of her before meeting Zelda.

Link wished he could talk to the Great Deku Tree, but he was dead.

Link wished he could ask the Spirits of the Forest, but they had no physical form and couldn’t answer his questions.

Were the Spirits and Farore one and the same? Or did the Spirits serve Farore? Link had spent his whole life thinking there was nothing greater than the Spirits, but gods seemed like things that Spirits served. The gods created the earth, the Spirits protected it.

Specifically, the Spirits protected life. That’s why Link thinks the Spirits of the Forest and Farore could be connected.

Did that mean Farore loved him? Or did she actually hate him, and she’s the reason why the Spirits didn’t protect him anymore?

Link wished he could talk to the goddesses and the Spririts–the Golden ones and the ones of the Forest–to ask him all his questions. Zelda mentioned that the Golden Spirits could grant someone a wish. If they could grant someone a wish, could they answer his questions?

But the Golden Spirits scared Link with their power. He almost didn’t want them all to be in one space together.

But Ganondorf did, and that’s why he was so dangerous. Link couldn’t let him do that. That’s why he was gathering the Spiritual Stones.

He didn’t want his new friends to be killed by Ganondorf, Link doesn’t know what he’d do. Really, he didn’t. Link was unfamiliar with grief. The Great Deku Tree was the first time he lost someone, and Link almost couldn’t handle that pain. He doesn’t want to imagine losing more than one of the people he loves.

So when Link had finally gathered all three Spiritual Stones, he immediately went back to Zelda.

Or tried to. 

A storm had been gathering ever since he left Lord Jabu Jabu’s belly. It wasn’t until he left Zora’s Domain and reemerged in Hyrule Field that it broke.

Navi hid in Link’s hat. He was jealous of her cover, but he knew that it probably didn’t offer much cover as the cold rain drenched him and soaked through his clothes. Link wiped his bangs out of his eyes. He squinted against the rain, the dark clouds making it seem like it was midnight at midday.

Lightning flashed across the sky.

“Be careful, Link!” Navi had to yell to be heard over the roaring wind. “You’re in a plain; lightning likes to strike the tallest thing it can!”

But while lightning struck the ground around him, Link didn’t seem to be its target. 

As Link got closer to the castle, he noticed a strange glow coming from the direction of the castle. 

“What is that?” Link asked, glaring through the rain at the orange light.

Navi popped up over his shoulder, glowing like a little sun in the dark. “That’s fire.” Navi gasped. “Link! The castle is on fire!”

“What’s fire?” Link asked, even though he picked up the pace.

“It’s that hot stuff that the dodongos breathed at you.” Navi explained. “It’s super dangerous and destructive. You weren’t allowed to have it in the forest because one stray spark would’ve burned down the entire forest.”

Link hurried back to Castle Town. He was frustrated but not surprised to see that the town bridge was up. He stood there for a minute, fuming and trying to figure out a way across the moat and over the town wall when the bridge lowered.

Clopping hooves was all the warning Link had before a white horse came galloping across the bridge before it even fully lowered. Link dodged out of the way, twisting around just in time to see Princess Zelda throw him something before Impa pressed her against the horse’s neck. The object Zelda had thrown splashed into the moat, but Link made eye contact with Zelda as she left. Why was she leaving?

Then there was a second sound of clopping hooves.

Link turned around just in time to watch a black horse in red armor pull to a stop. It reared up and screamed as loud as the wind. Its rider, Ganondorf, sadly managed to stay seated.

“I lost her.” Ganondorf growled, looking off into the distance. Zelda and Impa were well hidden behind the distant hills and beneath the dark clouds. He looked over to Link, sending chills down the young hero’s spine. “You, over there! Little kid! You must have seen the white horse gallop past just now… Which way did it go?”

Link stayed silent, a common habit of his.

“Answer me!”

Well they weren’t going to get along.

Link stepped back before pulling out his sword and shield. Navi flew around his head, yelling at him to stand down.

“So you think you can protect them from me… You’ve got guts, kid.” Ganondorf said with a humorless laugh. “You want a piece of me? Very funny! I like your attitude!” He raised his open palm and dark magic correlated there before blasting out and striking Link in the chest, sending him backward.

Link lost his grip on his sword and wheezed, struggling to pull air into his chest. 

“Pathetic little fool, do you understand who you’re dealing with?” Ganondorf asked. But this time, it didn’t seem like he was waiting for an answer from Link and immediately continued. “I am Ganondorf! And soon I will rule the world!”

As far as Link was concerned, only one of those statements was true.

Ganondorf then kicked his horse roughly, and he ran off into the storm in the direction Zelda and Impa had disappeared off to. 

Link pulled himself to his feet and recollected his sword. He watched Ganondorf until he had also disappeared into the dark. Link put away his weapons. There wasn’t much he could do right now.

Remembering that Zelda had thrown something at him, Link moved to the moat. At the bottom was a blue object that looked like a rupee through the roiling water. But when he jumped in after it, Link realized it was the Ocarina of Time. 

The message was clear; Link was to continue on the mission without Zelda. She had taught him the Song of Time when they first met, and the notes of the song ran through Link’s head as he ran through Castle Town.

No one was out. 

Every light was out and Link could see some people boarding up their windows. They were reasonably scared of what was happening and were trying to hide before Ganondorf came back to unleash his fury on them.

Link ran down a side street to the Temple of Time. The garden in front of the temple was getting drowned in the downpour, many flowers having their stems snapped from the heavy rain or the wind. 

Link felt like a monster dripping water on the pristine marble floors of the temple, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Link shivered–both from the rain, and from the chill of the temple. He walked over the symbol of the Golden Spirits on the floor before coming up to a black pedestal. There were three empty plaques and words written on it. Link couldn’t read it, but he assumed that it was just the instructions. Good thing that Zelda had already told him what he needed to do.

Link placed the Spiritual Stones on the plaques and looked up at the wall behind the pedestal. It had the design of a sun shining its rays across the stone. 

Link brought the Ocarina of Time to his lips and began to play.

When the final notes of the song rang out, there was a scraping sound as the Door of Time opened. The Spiritual Stones had vanished from their positions, but Link didn’t care. He made his way around the pedestal to the raised dais behind it, and through the now open Door of Time. 

Behind it, was a large circular chamber. There were stained glass windows so high above everything, Link wondered how in the world anyone was expected to keep them clean. In the middle of the chamber was another raised dais. Symbols were engraved in a circle around it, and on the dais was a sword.

“Link…” Navi was quiet, as if she was too afraid to break the sacred silence the temple had. “I think this is it… The Master Sword! The Blade of Evil’s Bane–Link we did it!”

Link grinned at her. So all he had to do was pull the sword and he would be able to get into the Sacred Realm to secure the Golden Spirits? It sounded way too easy, but Link stepped up to the sword anyway.

The Master Sword was as tall as Link was. A small rectangle of stone jutted out of the dais. Link hopped up on that rectangle, with his feet on either side of the blade. He gripped the handle (his hands could barely wrap around it), and pulled.

The sword felt much lighter than Link expected as he unsheathed it from its resting space. It was also surprisingly not covered in dust.

When the sword was out, Link stumbled back onto the dais. 

From where he had just been standing, a tear in space time appeared. It looked like someone had just caused a rip in the fabric of reality. Through the rip, Link could see a world of white. Far away from him, were the Golden Spirits. They shined in the sunlight of the Sacred Realm (wait, did the Sacred Realm even have a sun?). Link felt a tug in his gut, as if the Golden Spirits were daring him to step into the Sacred Realm and claim them.

And he was going to–if Ganondorf hadn’t interrupted him.

There was a sinister laughter behind Link, causing him to turn. Ganondorf strode into the sacred chamber as if he belonged there, his arms crossed and a smug look on his face. 

“Excellent work!” Ganondorf praised, and Link got the sinking feeling that he had just been played. “As I thought, you held the keys to the Door of Time! You have led me to the gates of the Sacred Realm… Yes, I owe it all to you, kid!” He laughed, as if it was the funniest thing ever.

“Now get out of my way.” Ganondorf said when he was done.

Link did no such thing. Instead, Link hefted the Master Sword and shifted into a defensive stance. Hopefully Ganondorf didn’t see Link struggling to keep a hold on the sword, or see how Link’s arms quivered from the effort.

“Oh? You wish to defy me?” Ganondorf asked. “Yes, you and that little princess… Conspiring against me. Did you really think you two could defeat me? And where is that little princess of yours now? Why would your friend leave you? Unless she never cared about you at all?”

Link growled. “Don’t talk about her like that!”

Zelda cared about Link! 

…Right?

Link shook the pessimistic thought out of his head and lunged. The Master Sword was way too heavy, and even if Ganondorf hadn’t dodged, Link wouldn’t have been able to hit him. 

Link shook it off. He just needed to get used to and account for the weight. It’s fine. He could do this. If Ganondorf reaches the Sacred Realm, everyone dies.

Link can’t allow that to happen.

“Hyah!” He struck out again, this time managing to cut Ganondorf’s leg before he could dodge.

Ganondorf growled as he stepped away. “Little punk!”

Link didn’t give him much time to recover, already attacking again. Hey, he was getting a hang of his!

“You don’t even know what you’re doing.” Ganondorf remarked even as Link cut him again. He just rolled his eyes. “Well, you can’t say I didn’t give you the chance to run, kid.”

“MY NAME IS–”

But Link didn’t have time to finish. Ganondorf whipped out a scimitar (where did he get that from?) and, with a flick of the wrist, cut through Link’s beloved Kokiri tunic. Red quickly stained the tunic brown.

Link’s vision blurred as his abdomen burned. He heard the chiming of a bell as Navi cried out. 

Then the bell went quiet.

“Stupid boy.” Ganondorf muttered. “Stupid fairy. Do you have any idea how bad of an idea this was? No, of course you wouldn’t. Cause all you children know is blissful ignorance.”

Link somehow managed to keep his grip on the Master Sword as he attacked.

His right arm burned as a new cut formed along it. 

Link kept attacking, and more wounds opened up on his body. 

A quick jab through Link’s ankle.

A cut on his leg.

A cut through his right eye.

Link shakily stabbed Ganondorf through the thigh.

That was the final straw.

Link screamed as Ganondorf dug his scimitar into Link’s back. Then he dug it out and it hurt that much more.

Link fell, dragging the Master Sword with him. He heard Ganondorf hiss in pain, and felt a small sense of victory. But he wasn’t done yet. He still needed to stop Ganondorf from entering the Sacred Realm.

As Ganondorf stepped over his body, Link grabbed his ankle. He wrapped both shaking arms around Ganondorf’s leg, and beat against his injury. Link couldn’t let him win.

With one hand, Ganondorf wrenched Link’s hand away from his leg. With the other, he brought his scimitar down on Link’s left wrist.

Link screamed and was forced to let him go. 

Ganondorf stepped toward the Sacred Realm. Link relishing in the sight of the man’s limp even as his heart sank. It wasn’t long before Link was openly sobbing on the floor. The tears just stung against the wound in his right eye, but Link couldn’t stop. He had been struggling bad enough to breathe before, but now it was much harder.

Link saw something in the corner of his last eye and blinked the tears away just long enough to identify the small ball of a creature in the corner to be Navi.

She wasn’t glowing anymore, and the blue blood of fairies leaked out around her, brilliant against the white marble floor.

“NAVI!” Link sobbed. He tried to crawl over to her, ignoring the pain of his whole body. For some reason, he dragged the Master Sword with him.

Link cupped a hand around his fairy companion and cried when she didn’t even react to his touch. “I’m so sorry.” He choked out. “It’s all my fault.”

But was it?

Zelda said there were goddesses that created Hyrule and watched over its people. She even said that they were the ones who instigated their meeting because they wanted Link and Zelda to save Hyrule from Ganondorf. 

But now Link was dying.

And the goddesses weren’t doing anything about it.

Didn’t they love him, like Zelda claimed? Or were they like the Spirits of the Forest? Were they just lairs, and they never cared about Link at all. They wanted him to die. They wanted Ganondorf to win because they didn’t like him.

Did Zelda want him to die? Like Ganondorf had implied?

“Saria…” Link wanted his big sister. He wanted her to show up, to brush back his hair and wipe away his tears. He knew she would comfort him and tell him that everything was going to be already. He would tell her his stupid fears about the goddesses and Spirits abandoning him and she would laugh and say that he was silly and that they did love him.

But Saria was in the forest.

Saria…

Ganondorf had the Golden Spirits. He was going to destroy Hyrule. Link knew that the Kokiri forest wasn’t going to be safe from his rampage.

Saria…Fado..the Know-It-All-Brothers..Mido…

They were all going to die. The forest was going to be burnt to the ground like Hyrule Castle before the Kokiri even had the chance to plant a new Deku Tree. 

What would happen to the Spirits of the Forest? Without a forest, where would they go? Would they continue to stay there, on burnt, broken land? Or would they disperse? Would they die like Link was right now?

Another round of sobs tore through Link’s damaged body as the faces of all his new faces flashed through his mind.

Everyone in Castle Town was dead. The shooting gallery guy who gave Link treats whenever he lost, the Happy Mask Salesman with his funny masks that helped Link gain his confidence, the crazy dog lady with her cute and funny doggies, the castle guards who told him fun stories, the castle librarian who was trying to teach him to read… 

Once Ganondorf was done with Castle Town, he would move onto Lon Lon Ranch. Pretty Malon with her fun games and beautiful voice, Talon who taught him how to ride a horse, Ingo who was rude but let Link help him with the chores and would slip him an empty bottle of milk, Epona who also liked Malon’s beautiful voice and felt like a reflection of Link’s spirit–if he was a horse.

Then there was Kakariko. The guard who asked for the keaton mask for his son but wears it himself, the guy stuck on the roof of his house, the witch with her fluffy cat, the crazy cuckoo lady, Dampe the gravekeeper, the construction workers who never seemed to actually do any work.

Darunia who called him his brother and loved him like one, Ruto who had a father who didn’t love her and who just wanted a friend…

Link hoped he had been a good enough brother and friend.

Before confronting Ganondorf, Link had been scared about losing his friends. He didn’t expect to lose them like this. Because he was losing them all at once, and it hurt. Link scrambled to remember the names of every one of his friends, watching their faces flash before his one eye. He hoped he wasn’t forgetting anyone, because he wanted to remember everyone as he died. They all deserved to be remembered. 

There was a flash of golden light from the rip to the Sacred Realm. 

Ganondorf had gotten the Triforce.

Link sniffled. It was getting harder and harder to breathe, even as his sobs subsided. He knew there was a reason for that.

Link thought he saw the Master Sword glow purple. Was it trying to help him? Link appreciated it, but there was nothing anyone could do to help him now.

Link just hoped that the goddesses and Spirits knew that he loved them, even if they didn’t love him.

Then Link’s eyes shut and his heart dropped further as he knew Hyrule was doomed to death because of him.

And he died, a child whose name will soon fade from the minds of those who knew him. Just an idiot child who thought he could stand up to a grown adult like Ganondorf.

Music flowed through the deathly silent Temple of Time.

Chapter Text

If the monsters had one thing going for them, it was that they were persistent.

A few days ago, the Chain had cleared out a monster camp. But, a few monsters had apparently escaped and called for reinforcements from their bigger, uglier cousins. They had chased the heroes and confronted them on top of a cliff. Off of which, the heroes had already thrown many monsters.

But there were still many more.

“Fuck!” Four cried as a tower of his era’s weird raccoon bandits swept out his legs with a well timed rock.

Wind jumped over a rock and ducked under another as the tower of raccoon bandits spat out boulders like vaguely more annoying octorocks. Wind got back to his feet before the tower of monsters and slashed back and forth with his sword until all the raccoon bandits were dead. Thankfully, they were only red blooded, so they went down in one hit.

One of Wind’s bokoblins attacked with a meat cleaver bigger than its arm. Wind deftly dodged and darted in to stab the bokoblin under the arm. This monster was black-blooded, which was definitely annoying.

Wind jumped back to avoid the monster’s second swing. Then he reached out and left a large gash across its chest, which finally killed it.

Discarding his Phantom Sword with a grin, Wind picked up the massive meat cleaver and with it in both hands, leaped through the air to bring it down on one of the lizalfos overwhelming Time. The thing died, allowing Wind to slash at the side of another lizalfos. That one didn’t die, but Time was able to finish it off with a slash of his biggoron sword.

Time nodded his thanks to Wind. Wind nodded back, taking the brief second to focus on his breathing before he was running over to Four.

The shortest hero was taking on one of Wild’s silver moblins. The thing towered over the hero as he dodged around it easily. Wind knew that Four could easily take the monster himself, but a black-blooded silver moblin was something even Time would have difficulty with.

Four barely spared Wind a glance before they fell into the same dance of baiting then dodging then attacking. It wasn’t long before Wind saw an opening. The moblin slammed its club on the ground, and Wind dodged to the side, rolling around until he could jump in the air and drive his sword (he abandoned the meat cleaver) through the moblin’s back–right where its heart should be.

The moblin slumped forward, and it was Wind’s grip on his sword that kept him from losing his balance and being flung forward.

Wind ripped his sword from the moblin’s back and searched for a new fight, or someone who needed help.

Wind found one and dashed out toward Twilight, who had his back to him. Wind slashed his sword through a tektite before it could attack the hero’s turned back. Twilight didn’t even notice the action, so Wind just shouted at him to watch his back before moving on to a pair of Sky’s bokoblins.

The bokoblins had learned to block slashes by holding their meat cleaver above, below, or to either side, in order to catch a sword. You either had to feint them out, or be faster than them. Sky had given the heroes a full lesson about it the first time they encountered his monsters, who were almost as fast as the hero that fought them.

Wind wasn’t as fast as his brother, but he sure as hell could feint. A feint is just a lie, after all. And pirates were experts in that.

Holding his sword to the side like he was going to strike from the left, Wind waited for the bokoblin to block that side before raising his arm and dragging it down vertically. The monster was stunned, allowing Wind to get in a few more attacks–not nearly as many as Sky, but enough.

They continued this dance. Wind telegraphing his moves, just to strike at the bokoblin’s unprotected sides. The bokoblin somehow never learned what he was doing. Maybe that’s why Sky’s monsters are the only ones that do this. They just gave up after dealing with the much smarter Skyloftian knights.

After the first bokoblin died, Wind turned to the second bokoblin. He repeated the process, and soon enough, the second bokoblin laid dead at his feet.

Wind scoured the battlefield for somewhere to help. He was barely able to raise his shield to block a punch from one of Sky’s lizalfos.

Uh oh.

Sky had warned them that fighting his lizalfos sucked. They were even faster than the bokoblins were. Sky had a trick to defeat them, but even then it still took the Chosen Hero a while to kill them. Sky hadn’t even taught them the trick yet.

Wind just kept his shield up. The lizalfos was smart enough to read a feint. Wind was still able to get some hits in that way, but he shouldn’t rely on it. More often than not, he hit the lizalfos’ stoned arm gauntlet (seriously, what the fuck is up with that?). 

“Sky!” Wind yelled. “A little help here!”

Wind ducked another punch and jumped over a sweep of the lizalfos’ tail in quick succession. The Chosen Hero had heard him calling out and was trying to make his way across the battlefield, having to finish a fight with some persistent bokoblins from Twilight’s era before he could.

Wind raised his shield to block a punch just for a second fist to crash into his side, aggravating a pre existing slash he’d gotten from the moblin. Wind gritted his teeth and looked over to find that a second one of Sky’s lizalfos had come over to gang up on him.

Wind’s eyes darted quickly between the two lizalfos, using his sword to parry hits from one, and shield to block the other. It was tiring work, and it wasn’t long before he got sloppy.

A tail with a spiked barb at the end of it (these lizalfos just hated playing fair, didn’t they?) crashed into Wind’s left side. That was the previously uninjured side, so at least the lizalfos was nice enough not to hit the side with the moblin wound.

The force from the tail sent Wind tumbling to the side. It was only when he didn’t hit the ground did Wind realize just how close to the cliff the lizalfos had been pushing him.

Those dirty bastards.

Wind had a line of much worse insults ready to fall from his lips, but lost focus on his tongue in favor of survival. Wind dropped his Phantom Sword and threw his hand out to the cliff. The rocks ripped up his hand badly, but he was able to grab a handhold. Wind tried to find purchase against the cliff with his feet as he put his shield on his back so he could grab onto the wall with both hands.

Wind looked up at the cliff edge, screaming for help. He watched as one of the lizalfos got booted off the cliff. It screeched, but was a lot farther from the cliff than Wind was and had no chance of survival. Wind couldn’t see what happened to the second lizalfos, but he heard a screech, and then Sky’s head popped over the side of the cliff.

“Wind!” Sky yelled. He laid against the groundHe was too scared to release his hold and reach for Sky anyways. His feet scrambled for purchase. The cliff had been worn down by years and years of wind. Ironic that the winds may be the one to kill their hero. The only footholds he could find, only a goat or Wild could make use of.

Sky laid against the ground. He didn’t even try to hold out his hand. Wind was too far away.

Sky dug around in his bag before bringing out his blue and red whip. Wind was suddenly very grateful he didn’t steal it last week when given the chance. 

Sky snapped the whip toward Wind’s wrist. It slapped uselessly against the stone just out of reach. Well, Wind probably could reach it. But without solid footholds, he was too scared he would miss and would lose his grip.

Sky, the Skyloftian who wasn’t afraid of heights, leaned over the cliff as much as he dared (which was still a lot more than normal hylians). Still, the whip wasn’t close enough for Wind to grab.

Sky rolled his whip back up and set it off to the side. Hyrule’s head appeared beside him, face stricken at the sight before him.

“Don’t worry, sailor!” His voice was almost swept away by the wind. “We’re coming to get you!”

Another second later, and Wild had thrown himself off the cliff. He snapped out his paraglider and drifted easily down next to Wind. He easily found a grip on the wall as he put his paraglider away. 

Wild looked to Wind, his hair flying around him in the breeze coming off the sea far below them. Wind loved the sea, but he was too scared to look at it now.

“You’re going to be okay, take a deep breath.” Wild followed by example, taking in deep breaths so that Wind would mimic him. Wild had a hand on Wind’s back as he calmed down. “Okay, so you’re going to climb on my back, and then I’ll pull you back up, okay?”

Wind nodded. His fingers burned as they clutched the rock. His handholds were small, and he had stubbed his fingers desperately trying to find the handhold. Wind’s left hand was covered in scratches and he was quickly losing feeling in that hand. Blood leaked out from under his hand freely, making it harder for Wind to keep holding it. Wind tried to adjust his right handhold, hoping to relieve the pressure on it so it wouldn’t hurt as much when he could finally relax it fully.

Big mistake.

Instead of curling back around the rock like planned, his right hand fell loose off the rock. It had been holding the majority of his weight, so the slippery hold his left hand had on the rock gave way just as easily.

A scream ripped its way out of Wind’s throat, drowning out the similar screams from his brothers atop the cliff. Wind squeezed his eyes shut and whispered a prayer to Zephos and Cyclos. Immediately, Wind felt a pressure close around his wrist. He slammed back into the cliff face, knocking the wind (hah) out of his chest.

Wind’s vision was blurry from tears, the pain of hitting the cliff again, and from how hard he had squeezed his eyes shut. Wind struggled for breath and let his eyes focus. He wiped his bloody hand against his beloved lobster shirt (sorry Grandma) and raised it to once again find a handhold. His toes found tiny ledges to press into.

Wind looked up to find Wild–his maniac brother–scrawled across the cliff face horizontally. His right hand was high above his head, and his feet were somehow supporting his weight on footholds, despite the odd angle and no longer being directly beneath Wild. Wild’s left hand was clamped around Wind’s wrist so tight Wind knew he would have bruises there. And then Wild’s face was drawn in immeasurable fear. Wind’s older brother blinked away tears and had to take deep breaths himself.

“Can you find a handhold with your right hand?” He finally said. “I’m not Twilight, I can’t lift you onto my back.”

Wind nodded numbly. He gripped a ledge just a few inches to the right of his hand. Wild nodded and began to climb down to be level with him. He never let go of Wind's wrist, and Wind knew that it had to be very difficult for Wild to be climbing like that. But the Champion handled it with his usual level of grace that made Wind think he was a mountain goat in a past life.

“Okay, now you’re gonna climb on my back.” Wild gave a shaky smile. “Ready?”

Wind nodded.

Wild removed Wind’s hand from the wall, still keeping a firm grip on it, and led it over to his shoulder. Wind gripped the familiar blue fabric. Following Wild’s instructions, he reached out with his right leg to loop it around Wild’s side. Using his right leg to support him, Wind moved his right hand to Wild’s right shoulder. When that was done, Wild helped Wind move his left hand to his shoulder. Then Wind just had to move his left leg.

Wind wrapped his arms around Wild’s neck. He was wary of choking his brother as he gripped both elbows with a death grip. Wind wrapped his legs around Wild’s middle and borrowed his head into his brother’s hair.

“Are you ready?” Wild asked softly. Wind was so pressed up against him that he could feel Wild’s vocal cords vibrate. Wind nodded against Wild’s back, too scared to say anything.

Wind kept his eyes closed, thanking Zephos and Cyclos for answering his prayer. And Wild began to climb, resisting the iron grip of gravity that tried so desperately to drag them down onto the most likely sharp rocks below.

Wind listened to Wild’s heavy breathing as they climbed. Gravity just increased against them as they moved up. Then, with a mighty grunt from Wild, instead of moving up, they were moving forward. 

Wild moved far away from the cliff before stopping.

“Wind.” A hand landed on the youngest hero’s shoulder. “You can let go now.”

Wind shook his head and just borrowed deeper into the crook of Wild’s neck. Now that Wild wasn’t moving, he could feel himself shaking like a leaf. But when someone began to pry him off of Wild with firm but gentle strength, Wind didn’t resist.

Twilight pulled him off Wild’s back and set him down on the floor. Wind found himself with his cheek pressed against Twilight’s chest as Twilight draped his wolf pelt around Wind. Wind clutched at the pelt and started sobbing in Twilight’s arms.

“Shhh.” Twilight whispered soothingly. “It’s okay. You’re safe now.”

“‘m not a kid.” Wind sniffed when his tears had tried.

“We know.” Wind heard Time say off to the side.

“Good.” Wind said. “Didn’t want you to forget.”

“You were very brave today, Guppy.” Wind heard Warriors say. His big brother was shoulder-to-shoulder with Twilight, in a way that let Wind lean his back against the Captain. Warriors had also wrapped Wind in his scarf. The sailor felt like he was in a cocoon…he liked it.

Wind made a face. “Not a fish either.” He tried to glare at Warriors, but it was an awkward angle, so he doubted the older hero got the full extent of Wind’s scowl.

Warriors chuckled. “I know.”

Warriors cleaned Wind’s bloody hand before dressing it and wrapping it snugly in a bandage. Wind took deep breaths to steady his heartbeat while he waited for his arms to stop hurting so much, and his whole body to stop shaking so badly. While this happened, Wild used his paraglider to fly to the bottom of the cliff to retrieve Wind’s dropped sword. When he came back over the cliff, Wind’s beloved Phantom Sword was all bent out of shape. Four promised to fix it as soon as they found a forge, or a boulder flat enough to act as an anvil. In the meantime, Wind was borrowing one of Wild’s many swords.

When Wind had stopped shaking, they started moving again. No one said anything, but it was clear that they all wanted to get as far away from that cliff as possible.

When the sun began to sink below the horizon, and purple bloomed on the far reaches of the horizon, they set up camp. They had left the woods. Their camp was made under a natural overhang. It wasn’t going to rain, so Wild was still able to set up the fire just out from under the underhang.

Wind made his way over to the Veteran hero and sat down next to him on his bedroll. 

“What do you want?” Legend tried to sound as snappish as always, but Wind knew him well enough at this point to see the concern in his hunched shoulders and furrowed brow. He was like Tetra in a way, and Wind had long since learned how to read her.

“Can you teach me to read a map?” Wind asked. “And use a compass?”

“Sure.” Legend was clearly surprised by the request. “Why?”

Wind shrugged. “On Tetra’s ship, I was the bosun. I would live in the crow’s nest and work with the sails, furling and unfurling them depending on my orders. But now…I don’t think I want to do that anymore.” Wind didn’t want to say he was scared, but it was obvious. With today’s scare, Wind didn’t know if he would be so comfortable in his hammock, so high above the deck anymore. “But I wanna still be helpful to Tetra. I ran through the other jobs… Treasurer is boring… Steward is boring… I can’t cook… Master gunner would be fun, but that job’s already taken by Niko.” Wind sulked at that. “So I thought I would be the sailingmaster. Y’know? Help navigate?”

Legend nodded. “That sounds smart.” Legend dug through his bag before pulling out a bundle of rolled up maps. He unrolled one of them on the ground, and they used rocks to pin the four corners down. 

It was a map of the ocean.

“I used this map when I was sailing back to Hyrule after my adventure in Labrynna.” Legend explained. “Since you’ll be navigating on the ocean, it’s probably best to teach you to navigate the ocean rather than land.”

“You know how to sail?” Wind caught onto that little detail as Legend dropped a compass embedded in glass on the map. Lines and numbers were drawn on the rectangular glass around the compass. Wind picked it up and fingered the long tassel attached to it.

“Yeah.” Legend says. Wind could sense a story there, but didn’t push. 

“Wait, didn’t you sail on your own for your quest?” Legend remembered. “Shouldn’t you already know how to do this?”

Wind scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Not really… The King of Red Lions did all that navigation for me.” At Legend’s confused face, he continued “My talking boat.” …Yeah that did not decrease the confusion on Legend’s face. Legend just shook his head and moved on.

“I’ve seen weirder stuff than that, anyway…” Legend took the compass from Wind’s hands and began to teach him how to take a bearing, both on its own, and with a map. Together, they plotted a route from Labrynna to Hyrule, ignoring the lines and numbers Legend had already drawn on the map for his previous voyage.

Then Legend compared the compass’ readings to the degrees in turning a ship. 

With all the ocean talk going on, Wind could almost feel the comforting rocking of the Ocean Queen beneath him. Could hear Tetra’s orders shouting out across the deck. Could almost feel the rigging in his calloused hands as he made sure everything was in order.

Tetra would be disappointed that Wind couldn’t be the bosun anymore. But hopefully she would accept it if he came to her with his new navigation skill. 

Wind might have a fear of heights now, but he would miss being among the sails. Climbing the rigging as easily as Wild had climbed that cliff face. The feeling of being that much closer to the big beautiful sky, with the ocean stretching for miles in every direction. Being able to see it all.

Wind really hoped he could overcome his fear of heights so he could see everything again.

Chapter Text

Link was ten years old when he heard the princess plead for help inside his own mind. 

Any normal person would’ve thought he was dreaming and would’ve rolled over and gone back to sleep. But it’s been well proven that Link isn’t normal.

So he ignored the warnings of his uncle and went out into the dark, stormy night with nothing more than a lantern and a cloak. Just to watch as Ahagnim murdered his uncle. To have his uncle die in his arms.

Link was ten years old when he was branded the worst criminal in Hyrule, and when he was told he was the only one who could save it.

He had to dye his very recognizable pink hair blond in order to hide from the knights. He also learned how to walk in streams to wash away his scent from the hunting dogs. He learned not to trust anyone, how to run, and how to hide. Most importantly, he learned how to survive in a world that wanted him dead.

Link almost died countless times, particularly during the Swamp Palace (fuck all those annoying ass enemies, genuinely), the Palace of the Four Sword (Link was pissed when he got his ass beat by that boss just to learn it was fucking optional!!!), and then of course–Ganon’s Tower.

Link was ten years old when he defeated Ganon for the first time.

When Link made his wish on the Triforce, he wished for peace and prosperity–and his uncle. He was ecstatic to have his uncle back, hoping that everything would go back to normal. But of course, things could never be normal again once you’ve become an evil slaying hero, can they?

Link was restless. Zelda tried to set him up with some mental healer that they had at the castle. But unless they could fix him, Link never saw the point. He loved playing with Zelda, and Impa was nice, too. But even after coming out of Aghanim’s mind control, the knights were still convinced that he kidnapped Princess Zelda and that he, a ten year old, was a threat to the kingdom.

Not even the revelation that he and Zelda were apparently twins (though she was older) could change the knights’ minds.

So after his uncle died again a year later anyway (what’s the point of wishing on the Triforce if his wish wasn’t permanent?), Link packed up his shit and left.

But he wanted to say goodbye to Zelda first. Which, of course, led to him picking a fight with a young knight and having to run… To the very room they kept the Triforce. Link was eleven years old, and wanted to make another wish for everything to go back to the way it was before his uncle died the first time. But before he could, the Triforce threw him into Holodrum with instructions to save the land.

So Link was eleven years old when he went on his second adventure. 

Of course, he didn’t know what he was saving Holodrum from. But in his searching, he had a conflict with Onyx, the General of Darkness. It had felt like the monster had drained Link of his life with a single thought.

Pretty intimidating, if Link’s being honest.

Link woke up to find that a local dancing troupe had found him, and had been taking care of him. Impa was even a part of the troupe, though whenever he asked her about what she was doing there, she would smirk with a particular glimmer in her eye.

Forgetting his mission, Link spent two months with the troupe. He learned how to spin plates on his sword, and soon enough he was dancing with the star, Din. It was fun, but of course the goddesses couldn’t let Link forget why he was there to begin with.

Din was the Oracle of Seasons. Onyx kidnapped her in an attempt to control the seasons.

But Link wasn’t completely alone this time. He had Ricky! The overenthusiastic kangaroo boxing champion. Maple, the witch who definitely couldn’t care less what happened to him (that’s why she came back to save him). And Moosh! Moosh and his fluffy fur! Link loved taking naps curled up against the big flying bluebear.

Link saved Din. She let him keep the Rod of Seasons; she didn’t need it. 

Link stayed with the dancing troupe for a few more weeks before packing his bag again and leaving. This time, he went to visit his grandparents in Labrynna. He would even deal with his grandfather’s moaning about him not becoming a knight just to see some family. 

But he didn’t spend long there before going into Lynna to find the Oracle of Ages with Impa. 

Link should’ve known that something was wrong with Impa. She wasn’t acting right, and he noticed. He should’ve asked questions. Instead, he led Veran right into Nayru’s sacred grove.

Link was still eleven years old when he was sent 400 years into the past on his third adventure. 

Because every self-respecting Hero of Hyrule worth their salt’s been involved in time travel at least once.

There, Link–of course–met his ancestor, Sir Raven. 

He also had to deal with Nayru’s annoying friend Ralph. Sure, they became friends by the end. But in the beginning, Link couldn’t stand him. Link thought he had left Ralph behind when he originally traveled through time, but he just had to lose the Harp of Ages fucking immediately, allowing Ralph to track it down and chase after Link.

They immediately were pulled back to the present. Where they had an odd encounter with a gang of undead skeletal pirates.

But they eventually found their way back to the past just in time to confront Veran.

Little did Link know, the defeat of both Onyx and Veran generated enough power for a tag team of fucking ancient Gerudo witches to use in their spell. Their spell? To revive Ganon.

Because of fucking course.

(Apparently they were his grandmothers??? Considering Ganon’s a giant pig, Link has no idea how that worked. He didn’t want to know how that worked).

At least Ganon was dumb as bricks this time. 

Link was grateful for that.

Link was twelve years old when he killed Ganon for the second time.

Link said goodbye to Sir Raven, Queen Ambi, and most importantly of all; Sir Raven’s horse. He returned to his time, where he bade goodbye to Ralph and Nayru. Nayru let him keep the Harp of Ages as a keepsake. As the Oracle of Ages, she didn’t particularly need the harp, it just helped her focus her power.

And she liked playing music.

Returning home to his grandparents, Link had quite a laugh at how some ancient Labrynnian had recorded his adventures just so that his grandfather could name Link after himself. Though the painting was really off. Really, could no one ever get his nose right? Against popular opinion, his nose actually wasn’t as big as the Fallen Hero’s.

As always, Link left.

He learned how to sail and used those skills to set sail across the sea that separated Labrynna and Hyrule. 

Along the way, a storm he hadn’t predicted rolled in. His tiny vessel–maybe too tiny for such a trip, in hindsight–got tossed around by the giant waves. The cleat hitch keeping the mast stable was broken off. Meaning that, instead of taking shelter below deck, Link had to wrap the rope around his arm to keep the mast steady. He had been trying to lower the sail while doing so when there was a bright flash of light and everything disappeared.

Link had been struck by lightning. So the first thing he felt when he woke up was the burning along his back. He would later find that the lightning bolt had left jagged, interweaving scars across his back. The design mirroring the shape lightning took.

The second thing was that he was lying on a bed. That wasn’t bobbing and waving with the waves.

Link was thirteen years old when he woke up on a beautiful island crowned with a mighty mountain, a peculiar white and pink spotted egg in the caldera. He would later learn that the Wind Fish slept inside it, and it was his job to wake it.

There was a girl by his bedside when he woke up. In his fuddled, groggy brain, Link thought that he had washed up on the shores of Hyrule (despite being in the middle of the ocean), and that she was Zelda. Probably preparing to lecture him about not sending her letters just to find him washed up shore, unconscious. 

But it wasn’t Zelda.

It was a girl named Marin.

Marin had red hair and green eyes. Her favorite dress was the blue one, and she loved tying a pink ribbon around her waist as contrast. She was joyful and bubbly. She had a mischievous side that matched well with Link’s own chaotic tendencies. 

Maybe Link was too young for love.

But either way, Marin was his best friend in the world. 

He loved playing with her, chasing her around the village, hiding in increasingly more obscure spots just for her to find him anyway (he swears she was cheating). He loved her singing voice, it always brought him peace. Link loved playing the ocarina beside her even more so.

Everyone on Koholint was just as kind and unique. There didn’t seem to be an evil bone in any one–human or animal–on the island.

Link enjoyed mushroom hunting with Tarin. Old Man Ulrira’s advice was always helpful. The quadruplets certainly had fun confusing Link every time he tried to learn their names. Richard and his absurd love for frogs (to be fair, they are amazing creatures, so Link can’t really blame him). Christine the goat who catfished (goatfished?) Mr. A with a picture of a princess (who was neither Christine nor Zelda).

Just like everywhere else he went, Link made fast friends with everyone he saw.

Other than when he confused Marin for Zelda, and whenever Marin asked, Link never really thought about Hyrule or his goal to return there. In fact, the longer he spent on the island, the more he forgot about Hyrule.

That should’ve been the first clue that something was wrong.

But no, Link let himself get lost in his newfound friends and his feelings about Marin. 

Only for it to all come crashing down at the Face Shrine.

Koholint Island is an illusion.

A dream dreamt up by the Wind Fish. It dreamed of a beautiful island with kind people. Peacefully floating by under the waves in the real world.

Link just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, spending him into the Wind Fish’s dream.

None of it was real.

The plants, the animals, the people… Marin.

All of it was just an illusion, just meant to keep happy to discourage him from waking the Wind Fish and destroying everything. 

And Link almost didn’t.

Link fell into a depressive state, worse than after his uncle died the second time. Not even Marin could cheer him up. How could see, if she wasn’t even real to begin with? 

Link didn’t want to destroy the beautiful island with the beautiful girl that lived on it. He contemplated the pros and cons of just not waking the Wind Fish. Of living there forever, getting to grow old with Marin…

But no. The nightmares that plagued the island were relentless and could only be fully driven away if the Wind Fish woke. Link could just keep fighting them back, but as time went on, and the nightmares grew stronger and stronger… Link knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up that fight forever.

Besides, Link still had people to go home to.

He had his sister to go back to. Impa would most likely be back in Hyrule by now. Syrup the witch, who would ‘miscount’ his rupees every so often when he bought potions. Din and the dancing troupe back in Holodrum. Nayru and Ralph in Labrynna.

Link may have a lot of friends in the Wind Fish’s dream, but he had much more in the real world. 

Link didn’t want to lose them or let them down.

So, using the Instruments of the Sirens, Link woke the Wind Fish.

It took him a while, because he kept getting too choked up to play the ocarina, but he did it. The sacred instruments danced around him, invisible spirits following his lead as they played a melody that would forever haunt Link’s dreams.

And Link woke up.

Clinging to a broken piece of driftwood–the only thing that remained of his ship. Despite spending months on Koholint Island, only a few hours had passed in the real world. By then, the storm had completely passed.

Link pulled together some driftwood and debris to make a makeshift raft. 

How Link didn’t get pulled down with his sinking ship, he’ll never know. Maybe the lightning bolt had simply ripped the boat apart, so that it didn’t cause a downward current that would’ve absolutely pulled Link underwater. He just thanked the gods that he survived.

Link would’ve died anyway, if it weren’t for a trader ship passing by and just happening to see his raft. They brought him on board and thankfully they were heading to Hyrule. The resident medic checked him over and said that he was physically fine, but he would likely have PTSD after the ordeal; as if Link doesn’t already have PTSD.

But Link didn’t say anything about his mental troubles. He knew enough about sailors to know that they may just be superstitious enough to throw him overboard if they knew. Some people still deemed mentally ill people as cursed by the gods (which is true. In Link’s experience, at least).

The sailors safely delivered Link to Hyrule. As he had feared, Zelda was stressed out of her mind about him. She gave him a lecture that could rival his grandfather’s before finally letting him go home.

Link returned home to an empty, dusty house. 

He felt bad for how badly the house and the attached orchard had suffered in the years he was gone. He decided he was done running.

Despite being a Hero of Courage, his rabbit heart made him a coward.

Link deep cleaned the house. Of course, it was immediately dirtied as Link tried to find a place for all his magical shit that he’d collected overseas. But he didn’t mind. He knew where everything was.

In the orchard, Link cut back kudzu that threatened to suffocate his trees. He cut away weeds, cared for the dirt, and made sure his uncle’s orchard was as well taken care of as the house. 

When Link was fourteen, a few months after he returned home, he applied for an apprenticeship under a local blacksmith. Link’s own childhood hero, the Hero of Minish, had apparently once been a blacksmith as well. The idea of following in his hero’s footsteps made Link smile.

The only problem? The apprenticeship started early in the morning. At first, this wasn’t a problem. But as time went on, nightmares began to visit Link in increasing frequency. They caused Link to sleep in. He tried explaining to his master what was going on, but he didn’t seem to care.

One seemingly mundane day, after a dream about a hulking darkness with red eyes, Link’s new normal fucking collapsed around him. Again. What’s this one? Has anyone been counting? It’s five, right?

And Link was fourteen years old when a maniacal artist decided to kidnap the descendants of the Seven Sages. By turning them into paintings. 

As if the poor maidens haven’t been through enough after Link’s first adventure! Now they had to either be kidnapped again or watch their younger family members get kidnapped? Link felt bad for them, as he felt for everyone.

Link…might’ve been a bit too brash when he first faced Yuga, getting knocked out in the process after running into a wall. But in his defense! He didn’t know Yuga could turn into a painting at will! That’s not something normal people can do!

Link wakes up in his own house to meet his savior; a strange man wearing purple robes with a hood in the likeness of a rabbit, and a blue and white bird. The man’s name was Ravio. The bird was Sheerow.

After Link agreed to let Ravio stay in his house, Ravio gave Link a quite frankly smelly bracelet. Just for that bracelet to later be a key item. 

The second time he faces Yuga, Link gets turned into a painting. But the bracelet was somehow able to save him. It absorbed Yuga’s power and replicated it. Making it so Link now had the ability to turn into a painting at will.

This adventure took on an alarmingly similar plot to his first one. He collected sacred pendants, once again drew the Master Sword (Link apologized to her for not allowing her to rest, and thanked her for her help again), and then saved the descendants of the Seven Sages who sealed away Ganon in the time of the Fallen Hero.

Yuga fused with Ganon (which is funny because Yuga was all obsessed with beauty, and ended up turning into the ugliest fucking monster Link’s ever seen). Hilda, the princess of Lorule (a dark mirror version of Hyrule), who Link had thought was on his side was apparently evil and just wanted the Triforce for herself (in her defense, her kingdom didn’t have a Triforce, and it had really fallen to shit without one). And apparently Ravio was Link’s dark world self.

Link killed Ganon for a third time, he and Zelda made a wish on the Triforce to bring back Lorule’s Triforce, and Link went back home. Even more traumatized than before.

He’ll never admit it to Ravio’s face, but… He sort of missed having the merchant around whenever Link visited his house. Not having him around just made Link feel that much more alone.

So, after a few more months, Link broke his promise and left once again.

This time, he traveled to the opposite side of Hyrule, the border that didn’t have an ocean up against it. Link traveled through many different countries, never staying for too long in one before moving on again. He eventually found his way to Hytopia. Right in the middle of the country’s greatest crisis.

Yay.

Adventure number 6.

Link’s fifteen now.

This time, Link wasn’t alone. 

After dying his hair green (at Madame Couture's insistence), Link met two other heroes. Who also dyed their hair to match their tunics. One was blue, the other was red.

Their real names were Rik and Kissan, but Kissan (the blue one) insisted that their names were boring. He’s the one who came up with the idea of having fun nicknames instead.

Rik had suggested Green, Blue, and Red, but was quickly shut down. Those names were stupid. Who would nickname each other based on the color of their clothes/hair?

Link was Speedy (because of his Pegasus Boots), Rik was Strong, and Kissan was Brash. 

It was stupid, but funny. Just like Brash had argued, the names brought them closer together.

They worked together, becoming a well-oiled machine. One would yell ‘Totem Time!’ and the others would spring into action immediately, either picking up that person, or jumping on top of them.

It had taken quite a while to master Totem Time. Strong was the first to suggest it. They had spent an awful lot of time in town square just getting a hang of it. 

Brash and Strong were Speedy’s best friends. Speedy didn’t even notice before he was smiling and laughing a lot more.

And then it ended.

Like it always did.

They had people they cared about. And those people lived in different countries. 

Before he knew it, Speedy was once again just Link.

And Link had nowhere to go but home.

Good news; a few weeks later, Ravio found a way to come back to Hyrule! Link had missed the greedy merchant who almost sold all his shit more than he thought he had. 

It took a while for him to realize that feeling was love.

It took a lot longer for him to admit it.

He almost collapsed with relief when Ravio admitted that he liked Link too.

Link was fifteen when a minstrel cast a music curse on Hyrule and put him and Zelda in a magic sleep.

It was only because of a dimension traveling shovel-armed lady named Cadance that he was able to wake up. 

The curse on Hyrule was…unusual, to say the least. But Link had to admit that it was really fun.

Whenever he was in the same area as monsters, music would play from some otherworldly source. Link had to move on beat or else he couldn’t move at all. 

Link and Zelda had to work together to defeat Octavo’s four Champions. Then Cadance helped them defeat Ganon (for a fourth fucking time!!!), seeing as she could wield the Triforce of Power in Ganon’s place. 

Link and Zelda made yet another wish on the Triforce. This time, to send Cadance back to where she came from.

After his seventh quest, Link experienced the longest period of peace ever. He just got to live. For once in his life… He got to wake up every day, work in his orchard. Ravio by his side.

Link allowed himself to believe that he could finally retire. Could hang up the sword and shield and claim the life of a commoner. He was even able to ignore how he was the prince of Hyrule. For the first time since he was ten, Link got to be Link.

Link should’ve known it wasn’t going to last.

But the giant purple rip in the fabric of time in his front yard made sure to remind him that he could never have peace.

Link sighed. Grabbed his bag–always packed just in case this happened. He said goodbye to Ravio and Sheerow, and stepped through the portal.

On the other side, Link was met with either other men and boys. All named Link. All heroes of Hyrule.

He was quickly recognized by one of them as the Hero of Legend; the greatest hero Hyrule’s ever known. Though by the gleam in his eyes, Link wondered if that was true, or if the teen was just stretching the truth after meeting his childhood hero.

Link just sighed. He knew the drill by now; Find the problem, fix the problem. Most importantly; don’t get attached.

Link had thought he was retired. But as he straightened his hat and prepared for adventure number eight at age seventeen, something told Link that he was never going to find peace. 

It was glaringly true when he saw what Hyrule became after his death. How much further the kingdom fell into decline. A dying kingdom that not even ‘the greatest hero to have ever lived’ could save. Link would never know peace.

Not even in death.

Goddesses, he hated his job.

His joints ached with arthritis, and he had a bit of a limp in his right leg, all caused by old wounds that never healed properly. Where he had been bubbly and happy, Link was now angry and pushed away everyone around him. He was a far cry from the ten year old boy who had set out on that first quest so long ago.

Link sometimes wonders what would’ve happened if he had just rolled over and gone back to sleep that night. He wouldn’t be here, that’s for sure. But no one else would be here either.

So he’ll continue to do his job anyway. Because if he didn’t, then who would? He may not want to be the hero, but the idea of someone else–anyone else having to do what he does was somehow even worse than the nightmares that haunted Link every damn night.

Legend squared his shoulders.

Let’s do this.