Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As the sun slowly appeared over the distant mountains, Link crept further down the wide tree branch beneath him. Each step carefully calculated to bring him closer to that last apple dangling off the farthest branch.

It was a bit too slim to walk on, so instead he had chosen the wider branch above it. As Link reached the edge where the bright leaves sprung out, he sat down with both feet on one side of the branch and let his feet dangle down.

The tree was ridiculously tall and he had neared the top, but it was so worth it for that final fruit. He tipped his chin up as the sunlight hit his face and breathed in the wonderful wild smell of the forest. A few birds landed next to him and chirped hello with their sunrise song.

Link glanced down once more to make sure that he was lined up above the glistening gold apple before leaning back and letting himself fall.

With his knees hooked loosely on the branch, he dangled upside down for a moment. Reaching his good hand forwards as far as it could stretch, he managed to just barely wrap his fingers around the smooth golden skin and pluck it from the branch. Link grinned and went to pull himself back up when something shifted in the air.

The birds next to his legs took off and the sounds of the woods grew quieter, almost like it was waiting for something. He quickly swung himself upright in one fluid motion and tapped his slate, the apple dematerializing as a Forest Dweller’s bow appearing in his hands. Half a breath later he had three arrows nocked on the string and pulled back to his cheek, rough knuckles brushing against his scars.

His eyes were focused between the trees below where he could see the air itself shifting into a slow spiral. It warped the colors around it and began to grow bigger.

Just as it brushed the leaves hanging from above, the weird swirl of magic seemed to solidify and two strange figures stumbled out of it.

A young boy with dark skin and curly brown hair instinctively jumped over the tree root in front of him, but the man with pink in his hair got yanked forwards right into it.

“Ah, shit!”

He hit the ground hard just as several more young men came tumbling out of the floating magic spiral. Each one tripped over the guy with pink hair with various shouts. They all came running through and added to the growing pile, several weapons tumbling out of their hands and into the nearby bushes.

Finally a tall man with heavy looking armor stepped backwards though the oddly shimmering thing, his ridiculously big sword still swinging towards it. A monstrous hand reached through and his blade bit through its wrist just as the magic collapsed in on itself. The hand fell to the ground with a dull thud and he exhaled heavily, the tension in his armored shoulders falling.

He glanced behind him with his left eye, the other closed and bisected by a large scar slicing through his eyebrow and halfway down his cheek. Link blinked at the unusual tattoos covering his face, but didn’t lose any tension on his bow string.

At the sight of the dog pile a step away from him, the tall man pinched the space between his brow and sighed. The only boy still standing, the first one to have fallen through the swirling magic, began to laugh before the man with a long blue scarf grabbed his ankle and pulled him into the chaos too.

They all slowly detangled and stood up, a few of them grumbling as they assessed their injuries. The first boy reached towards the smallest one to emerge from the stack, another young boy with a green headband holding back his bangs. As soon as his hand came in contact with the large cut along his temple, a soft pink glow spread from his touch and the injury disappeared.

Link gasped and his elbow knocked into the branch next to him, sending a few leaves tumbling down onto the group before him. Had that boy just used a champion ability? Who are these people?

The armored man glanced at the falling leaves and held up a hand to the man with the scarf, making him pause his lecture about recklessness to a tan boy with a mop of curly blonde hair. Goddesses above, why were there so many of them? He looked pointedly up at the trees and signed to the man.

Someone is here.

Carefully watching the conversation, Link jolted and brought his bow back up. This time he aimed it towards the one eyed man. An arrow tip lined up with him, the scarf man next to him, and the one with dark skin approaching behind the two.

“You can feel it too, right?” He whispered, the words just barely carrying on the breeze to Link’s ears.

The tallest nodded, “A new era” he agreed, his armor clanking slightly as he shifted to look up into the trees… directly at Link.

“And I might have an idea where the new hero is.”

—▲–▲–▲—

The next few minutes were full of shouting and running as the Chain tried to keep up with the blur of blue in the treetops above them. The chase was quickly becoming tiring and Legend was over it from the second the little demon took off into the branches.

It had been a long, hard day and all he wanted was to make camp and stretch out his aching joints. After fighting a losing battle against a hoard of monsters for far longer than necessary, Hylia must have decided to be less of an ass today and opened up a portal.

Hyrule was the first to sense it as always, so when Legend felt him grab his hand and took off running, he blindly followed. A stupid decision really, considering the fact that he was then face first in the ground mere seconds later. The kid kept forgetting that Legend couldn’t sense things the way he could. They probably should have another talk about that at some point.

Now though, he had to dodge through the trees and try to keep pace with the figure above them. Despite the speed at which the guy in blue was leaping up, between, and over branches, Legend knew he would be faster if he could use his pegasus boots. Unfortunately, without a straight shot ahead of him he would just end up running head first into a tree and he already had enough bruises from his first tumble, thank you very much.

“How the hell is that kid so fast?” Warriors huffed out from behind him. He swore quietly when he tripped on yet another bramble and nearly face planted.

Up ahead Hyrule and Twilight were mostly keeping pace with the tree devil but didn’t have any way to stop him.

“Please, we need to talk to you!” Hyrule shouted up at him, but the blue blur didn’t slow down.

“We need to try something else or he’s gonna get away.” Legend said to Warriors once he had steadied his feet. He tried to roll his eyes but ended up narrowly ducking beneath a branch instead.

“Well now, I wish I would have thought of that. Happen to have any other words of wisdom, Vet?” He said between sharp breaths, the sarcasm nearly dripping from his lips.

“Hang on, I got an idea!” Shouted Wind and Legend turned around just in time to watch a wand slip into his grasp and make a few sharp movements.

“Wind, wait, you're going to-“ Warriors was cut off by a sharp yelp from above the treetops when the man was knocked from his newest perch by an unnaturally strong burst of wind.

Legend skidded to a stop as he watched him tumble down out of the trees, hitting the ground side first with a sharp CRACK that seemed to echo through the forest.

Well, that’s one way to get him down.

Chapter Text

The man with ink on his face and a wolf pelt around his wide shoulders slowly approached. His hands were raised in a show of peace as Link untangled himself from his cloak and shot to his feet. He quickly backed up until he was at the base of another tree, but didn’t jump back up into the branches.

His arm was going numb and his shoulder felt wrong. The sharp pain was subsiding but a bone deep ache told him it was likely dislocated. How the hell was he gonna climb back up like this?

“It’s okay,” the boy with dark skin said softly, like he was trying to convince a skittish cat not to run away. “We just want to talk to you.” Well, Link felt like a wild animal right about now, slowly being backed into a corner. He snarled as loudly as he could to buy time while his left hand tapped across his slate.

The two boys froze for just a second and Link felt a thunderblade materialize in his grasp. Teeth bared, he raised it up in front of himself. The other men were catching up to them now and the odds of this ending without bloodshed was growing slimmer by the second.

Ice cold panic slowly crept up his spine. Link had hoped they would just be simple travelers, if a bit overly equipped for the monsters that roamed this forest.

But then he heard them whispering about the ‘hero’ right before they decided chasing him through the forest would be a fantastic way to spend their day. He hated killing Yiga, but it seemed like that might be his only way out of this.

The younger one kept spouting off pointless platitudes likely meant to trick him into lowering his guard. Link turned to snarl at him again when he noticed the cloudy sheen to the boy’s eyes. They shimmered slightly in the light but clearly couldn’t see him, instead focusing around his general direction. His sword arm faltered for a moment and the wolf pelt guy took that as an invitation to move closer.

He instantly shut that notion down with the lowest growl he could muster, the numb tingles running through his right arm making it a bit hard to focus. He needed a plan and he needed it now.

“Holy Zephos, yer a fast one aren’t ya?” Wheezed out one of the boys leaning with his hands on his knees, a bright blue shirt with what appeared to be a… lobster on it heaving with each breath.

“Wind.” The man with the scarf said in a chiding tone and the kid rolled his eyes before straightening up.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Sorry for knockin ya out of yer tree, swabbie.” The kid, apparently named Wind, said with a surprisingly genuine note of guilt. His freckled face also seemed pretty honest. And what was that about him knocking Link over? How could he have done that? A korok leaf?

Link shook his head but kept his thundersword up, bright sparks flying off the metal edge every few seconds.

He watched as the one of the headband walked up next to the foggy eyed boy and said in a calm but precise voice, “We didn’t mean to harm you, and I promise no one here wants to. In fact,” He gestured next to him with a little grin, “Hyrule here should be able to fix your arm up good as new.”

Suspicion still filled his mind like warm honey with every word they said, but he let his blade drop slightly and looked over at the one named Hyrule. He smiled kindly, and raised his hand in a silly little wave.

“I can heal you if you just let me touch the injury for a moment. All I ask is that you hear my friends out while I do so. Does that sound like a fair exchange?" He asked with a soft voice.

Link dropped his sword down to his side and let his back fall against the tree behind him. The sword vanished into blue strings with a quick tap and was replaced by a bundle of mighty bananas. He looked around at the group, taking note of their reactions, and tossed the fruit into the center of the group.

“Are those… bananas?” asked the one with pink hair incredulously. Most of his hair was obscured by his long blue hat, but it looked like the top half might be blonde and just the ends of it were a soft shade of rosey pink.

The headband kid shrugged and whispered something to him that made the guy snort and elbow him in retaliation.

Another boy with a strange hat and coveralls cautiously poked the bundle of bananas with a stick and then jumped behind Wind when they tipped over. He laughed and smacked the boy's hat off with a lop-sided grin.

“Aw, did the fruit try ta get cha?” Wind teased and was flipped off by a leather gloved hand while the boy grumbled and brushed the dirt of his hat. The two looked frighteningly similar. Were they brothers?

None of the rest were trying to grab the forbidden bananas, so they likely weren’t going to kill him as soon as they got close enough. Probably. Link clicked his tongue once before nodding to the boy that wanted to heal him.

Pink haired guy murmured something quietly to Hyrule. His eyes glittered green for a second before his face brightened and he slowly approached him.

Despite his kind demeanor, Link still eyed the boy warily as he stepped closer. One hand hovered above his slate while Hyrule gently held up the other, poking and prodding at his shoulder to feel the injury.

“May I explain now?” The man with one eye asked. Link raised an eyebrow and then nodded again. The feeling of his arm being moved made him want to grimace, but he kept his face as even as possible. Showing weakness in front of strangers was never a good idea.

“Very well then.” His eyes roamed over the scars covering the left side of Link’s face and the corner of his mouth twisted into a small frown. “We are here to find the hero of this land. A darkness has been spreading through our worlds and the goddess Hylia has gathered us together to fight it”.

He paused to gauge Link’s reaction. He got nothing in return except a slow blink as Hyrule’s hands began to warm against his shoulder. He glanced down to watch his small hands begin to glow a soft green while the warmth melted into his bones.

The boy’s eyes reflected the light strangely, the cloudy color speckled with little green sparks that looked almost like stars in an otherwise stormy sky. He looked away and instead focused on the one speaking.

“The monsters we battle bleed black and are much stronger than they should be. Have you encountered this as well?” Link furrowed his brow but nodded. “Then I believe Hylia wishes for another hero to join our adventure. Would your name happen to be Link?”

He hesitated for a second and then clicked his tongue. The man with ink frowned thoughtfully and then stepped forward just as Hyrule stepped back. Link cautiously rolled his shoulder and was mildly surprised to find it good as new, just as promised.

”Do you prefer not to speak?” The man signed to him, his motions slow and clear. Link tipped his head curiously and raised his hands in return.

”My voice doesn’t work well. Speaking is hard. You use sign too?”

He smiled with unnaturally sharp teeth and knocked his hand in the motion for ”Yes.”

”My name’s Twilight, glad to meet you.” The signs were a little different from the ones he knew, the movements flowing together slowly and seeming to almost drawl a bit, but it was easy enough to figure out.

He could feel the tension slowly slipping from his shoulders but made sure to stay on guard as the others silently watched their conversation. ”You too. My name is-” his thumbs and pointer fingers loop through each other in two loose circles, ”Link”. For a moment he paused, and then continued much slower, ”But I’m not the hero.”