Chapter Text
The abundance of wildlife was something completely alien to the young traveler. Back home he traveled constantly to avoid the cult that was trying to kill him- it was a necessity, not something born out of a desire to see the world. He had no reason to believe the world was anything but dead and/or contaminated. When he sought shelter the previous night in a cave, he assumed it would be the same in the morning. But this? There was no way he could have anticipated this.
When he stepped out of the cave in the morning, he knew right away he was anywhere but home. Trees grew straight and proud, wearing crowns of green that glinted like gems in the sunlight. *Leaves,* he thought to himself, his hazel eyes bright with wonder. He heard the trill of birds around him for the first time, the wind gently rustling the leaves above him. He could hear the grass shift beneath his feet as he walked forward, breathing in the refreshing air. He looked through the trees and made eye contact with a large buck, which froze where it was, staring back at him.
A strange sound steadily grew louder above them, which seemed to knock both of them out of their surprise. The buck took off with a few does that the wanderer hadn’t seen. The sound of something crashing into the trees above him drew the traveler’s eyes upward, just in time to see someone falling out of the sky, slamming his side into a branch. He must’ve gotten stunned, because he fell from that branch and hit another, and another, and another, before he finally faceplanted into the ground, limbs splayed.
The wanderer thought he heard the man groaning, but before he could run over to try and help- or at least be there to hear his last words- when he realized the sound was coming from *above* him. He looked up in time to see another, larger man draped over a branch, wheezing as he tried to fill his lungs back up with air.
“What the *fuck*, Nightshade,” the man gasped out, just as the one on the ground pushed himself up.
“Oh, you’re fine!” the other laughed, as if he shouldn’t be dead after the fall he took.
“U-um… Are you… Okay…?” the wanderer asked, blinking slowly in confusion and concern as he looked between the two.
The one on the ground jumped back, looking in the wanderer’s direction for the first time. He was wearing a golden brown mask in a material the wanderer didn’t recognize. It had red-rimmed teal-green eyes with small holes to see through, a bird’s beak, and odd green-blue gems dangling from it. After a moment of surprise, the man lifted the mask, showing tan, freckled skin and two braids of blond-streaked-white hair. His large blue eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled.
“Yeah, I’m fine. No need to worry about me!” he said brightly.
“That dumbass is basically invincible,” said the other, finally letting himself drop from the branch to the ground, bending his knees as his feet made impact.
“Wait, what about you? Are you alright??” the Wanderer asked, stepping over to the man, clearly looking concerned. “I have a healing potion if you need it,” he offered. Supplies were scarce in his homeland, but maybe in this land he’d be able to refresh his stock.
“Oh, no I’m okay,” he said with a grin, knocking his fist into his stomach, where he had a thick, blue fabric wrap around his stomach, tied around his waist by an orange belt. His shirt was just a simple, cotton shirt with a separate green spaulder-like sleeve buckled around his chest. The man stepped forward and offered his hand. “My name’s Grey. Sorry for startling you like that,” he said with a faint drawl and a friendly smile.
“And you can call me Nightshade,” said the other man, walking up and draping his arm around the taller man’s shoulders. “I don’t think we’ve seen you around before.”
“Oh, I’m just a bit of a nomad,” he said, chuckling and rubbing the back of his neck. “You can call me Wanderer,” he added, smiling back and shaking Grey’s hand. He hoped they wouldn’t think too much about his non-name. It was against his protocol to give his real name to anybody- let alone strangers. Normally he wouldn’t even interact with strangers, but he was already so caught off guard by how much wildlife and nature surrounding him he was perhaps less cautious than he usually would be.
“A nomad, huh? Where from?” Nightshade asked, his head tilting curious.
“Oh, I’m from Hyrule,” Wanderer answered, which drew a curious and confused look from the two men in front of him.
“Whereabouts? We’ve been all over Hyrule, I thought we knew everyone already,” Nightshade asked, his smile disarming, though there was a glint in his eye that Wanderer couldn’t place.
Wanderer looked confused, like he wasn’t sure how to answer. “The North…?”
“Oh, really? Me too! Hebra or Faron?” Nightshade asked, dropping his arm from Grey’s shoulder, leaning against the taller man and crossing his arms over his chest.
“Oh, uh, I’m from Faron,” Wanderer answered with a smile, trying to make himself look more confident in his answer than he was. He just had to hope the man in front of him was from Hebra and couldn’t press him for more information.
The slender man was in front of him with a broadsword at his neck before the nomad could even react. Wanderer gasped, taking a half step back in surprise. He didn’t even notice Nightshade was armed. He certainly didn’t think someone who had just fallen out of the sky and hit every branch on the way down would be able to move that fast.
“Who are you and where are you *actually* from? If you’re Yiga, let’s get this over with,” Nightshade growled, his blue eyes sharp and narrow.
Wanderer looked up at him, unable to help but feel like he was staring into the eyes of a predator. “I’m not- I don’t even know what a Yiga is! I told you, I’m from Faron,” he said, trying to shrink back from the sword but finding his back pressing into a tree.
“Faron is in the Southeast. The complete opposite side of Hebra,” he growled, stepping forward to match the distance Wanderer had moved back.
“Wait, wait, okay! Okay I’m not from Faron! But I am from Hyrule! I don’t know where I am though because the Hyrule where I’m from is mostly dead. I went to sleep in a cave last night and woke up in this forest I promise you I’m telling the truth,” the man said, speaking quickly as he panicked about the sword pressing into his neck.
“Well, why didn’t you say so,” Nightshade said with a grin, stepping back and sheathing his sword.
Wanderer gasped for breath, not even realizing he’d been holding it. He brought his hand up to his neck, feeling for blood. He let out a breath of relief when he felt none. “What the hell was that for?!” he shouted, narrowing his eyes up at the man in front of him.
“I had to make sure you weren’t here to kill me,” Nightshade with an exaggerated shrug, turning on his heel to walk back to Grey’s side.
“Why would I want to kill you?? I don’t even know you!”
“Right, but there’s a cult that *does* want to kill me and they might as well be shapeshifters so any stranger is suspect. Like I said, I know everyone in this kingdom,” Grey said, looking back at the wanderer.
“So me not trying to kill you was all it took for you to believe me?” Wanderer asked, looking at him incredulously.
“Yeah, you got it,” he said with a wink.
Grey rolled his eyes and elbowed Nightshade in the ribs. “Different Hyrules or timelines or what-have-you aren’t as unknown to us as you might think,” he said, pulling Nightshade into a headlock.
“Yeah, your story is shockingly believable,” Nightside said, trying to break out of Grey’s grip.
Wanderer sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, I’m glad someone believes it. I don’t quite believe it myself,” he said, looking around at the forest around them. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said, wonder filling his voice again.
The two locals looked at each other- Nightshade still in a headlock. “Uh.. You mean a forest?” he asked, looking over at the Wanderer.
“Ah.. Yeah. Where I’m from is a bit of wasteland,” he said sheepishly, looking back at the men.
Nightshade took advantage of Grey’s surprise to twist out of the headlock. He loped over to Wanderer and threw his arm around his neck. “Oh, I’m going to blow your mind.”
Wanderer wasn’t sure he liked the smile Nightshade flashed him.