Chapter Text
It had never really occured to Link that he might do anything different with his life after the Calamity.
Yes, Ganon had been sealed, and that was great! But there was still so much work to be done. He was still the appointed knight to the Princess, after all, and the oath he'd taken meant something. He still had duties to perform, still was dedicated to maintaining her safety. There were still bands of monsters roaming the land that, now that the blood moons had ceased, needed to be put down for once and for all.
And then there was work aside from the fighting. There was restoration that needed done across the land. Towns to be rebuilt from the ground up, farms cleared and the soils once drowned in blood and flame re-tilled and made ready for planting. Zelda took a special interest in this work, touring the country to visit the places hit hardest by the destruction, and Link would never have dreamed of questioning that he would go with her.
He was her Knight. He had sworn an oath. Where she went, so would he, no matter what fate threw at them.
And it did good, he thought, for the people across the country to see them. The Princess and her Hero, caring about and invested in each town's rebuilding, in the lives of the people around them. Zelda had made the restoration her personal cause and spent hours at a time talking with architects and master masons, and it was only a matter of time before Link found himself setting to work, too.
It had only started off as small things. Visiting a town and helping move heavy stone from one place to another — he was stronger than most after all, and the Princess always laughed and asked if he was going to eat that rock. Holding lumbar steady while someone more skilled hammered it in place, which wasn't that much different to helping steady a canon as someone prepared to fire. Link just found himself doing whatever small things he could to help out here and there at the places that they visited.
He… wasn't sure when things changed. Building homes for farmers, it turned out, was not so very different to setting up camps for soldiers, and more skills than he could have imagined were transferable. Before he knew what he was doing, he was going with the Princess as an active participant in the rebuilding rather than just a silent observer, and after one night with perhaps a little too much ale to loosen his hands, he had found himself proposing a project of his own.
So now they travelled the country with a small army of knights-turned-artisans, people who had been injured in the war, either in body or mind, who needed work now that the fighting was done. They aided the rebuilding with military precision and on top of running drills at the castle, of guarding the Princess and ceremonial duties, Link found was no time left in his life for anything else.
It made sense for him to stay at the castle. His father asked him, when he had the time to come and visit, would he ever consider moving, but he simply did not have the time. His room in the castle let him be close to his work, meant that he never had far to go if he was called to an emergency meeting. He didn't need much, either; as the Hero he had been offered a vast suite in the royal wing, but he was more than content with his own small, simple room in the barracks. It was nothing fancy. A bed, a window, a few shelves, a desk. Just enough to live in and nothing more, and even that was a luxury. Most soldiers lived in shared bunkhouses, and this small room was a mark of Link's senior rank.
To be honest, he was hardly ever in it anymore, anyway. So much of his time was spent travelling from one place to another, staying in builders' camps, working, always working—
A now here he was, standing in his little room, trying to figure out what to do.
Every soldier in the army had an amount of leave they could take in any given year. Link… was less than good at availing of this. He just had too much to do! For the first few years after the Calamity this had all been well and good — everyone had been busy and there had been so much rebuilding going on. Plenty of people had worked over their leave to help put the world back together and no one had bat an eye at the Hero joining in. Link had probably skipped out on more leave than most, but what senior figure hadn't? There was so much to do, and even after the normal working day was done Link often found himself sitting up late with the Princess, with Mipha and Daruk and Urbosa and even Revali, coming up with plans to help undo the damage to everyone's regions, thinking of ways to make sure that the whole continent was supported and restored equally.
But the Calamity had been five years ago, now. The world was not fully healed — rubble still sat in many fields, trenches were overgrown across the countryside, and there were more graves by the roadside than Link could bear. Across the land, scaffolding was up on all manner of buildings and stonemasons had never had so much work on their hands, but even so. They may have had a lot to do, but that had also made so, so much progress.
It was easy these days to imagine, when you saw the artisans, that a lot of the rebuilding was just routine work being carried out. That they were just checking the strengthof the walls, replacing old stone on the steeples and temples. Even Hyrule Castle was nearly back to its full splendour. The turrets had been freshly retiled in bright blue, the spires tipped with gold and the penants of Hyrule streamed proudly against the sky.
It was awe-inspiring to see. It was remarkable, incredible, wonderful.
But it also meant that there was less call for overtime in his job. That it was more obvious when Link did not use up his allocated leave.
Personally, he was not sure what the worry was. After all, it was his leave and his life, and surely it was a good thing if he wanted to do his job well. He took a weekend for each solstice, after all, and if he could not get back to Hateno for his little sister's birthday, he always made sure that the next time he was in the area he took a day to visit.
But work was less urgent now. Rebuilding anything major was largely done and there was no rush to go and battle monsters or defend any keeps. Hyrule was at peace, and the world was prospering.
This was, of course, a good thing. But it also meant that the generals had more time on their hands. Time to notice silly little things like five years' worth of unused leave. Time enough to mention it to the Princess, who had the time to frown and say 'you know, I really have been telling you to rest for quite some time now'.
Time enough for a dedicated Knight and Chosen Hero of the Goddess to be told to take a month off.
…Link had no idea what to do.
Okay, that wasn't true. Not really. He knew what he was going to do: he was going to travel home to Hateno. He was going to spend some weeks with his family before he came back to help the Princess as she prepared for her upcoming festival.
And what was more, he was going to do it the slow way, without any Sheikah teleportation. He was going to get on his horse and ride there, because he had more time on his hands than he ever had before in his life.
Link had never had free time before. Not really. Sure, as a child he had played and explored and fooled about, but with his father being a senior knight in Akkala, he had quickly taken up playing with toy swords around the training yard. When the captains had seen how naturally he handled a sword, even as a boy, he had been taken on to run drills and train with the recruits.
Every day he had gone to school with the other army brats, and every evening he had trained. It had been like a game when he was a child, then had become a duty as he entered his teenage years. There had never been any quesiton that when he came of age, he would enter the army as a knight.
Ha. The youngest knight in a century. His father had advised against it, had urged him to finish his schooling, but when he was fifteen the prophecy had been made that the Calamity might emerge at any moment, so he had left school one day, had walked down to the enrollment office, and been assigned a bunk in the baracks.
There was no rest for the military then, not when there was a Calamity impending and work to be done. Then the Calamity had come and who in the hell would rest then? And then rebuilding and now—
And now Link was standing in his little bedroom, staring at his scant posessions and trying to figure out what to do.
He looked around again and took a breath.
Right. Packing. He had to pack and get ready; he'd be leaving at first light the next morning so he wanted everything to be ready and waiting when he woke. Military efficiency was, after all, the best way to do things. It was the only way that he knew.
He hesitated as he looked at his shelves; he didn't really own any casual clothes. Yes, okay, he had plenty of undershirts and he could swap those about and clean them as he needed, but when it came to actual outerwear, things that people would see? There was one casual tunic that he rarely wore, only now and then on the extremely rare occasions he could be convinced to join his company on a trip to a tavern, usually for a birthday or anniversary. Otherwise it was either the plain cotton thing he usually saved for wearing under plate armour, or one of tunics he'd received as part of his uniform. And something told him that the royal guard's tabard and beret, while popular with the girls of castle town, was not the kind of thing one wore to relax in.
That only left the Champion's Tunic. Honestly, it was his most worn garment and was extremely precious to him, but even that… wasn't really suitable, he supposed, for what was supposed to be a holiday.
He sighed. It would make him incredibly recognisable anywhere that he wore it, and the whole point of this was to not do any work for a few weeks. apparently talking to people not as 'Link' but as 'The Hero' counted as work.
Ugh. He would put it in anyway. After all, there was no telling what he might run into on his travels, or what official business might crop up. He'd put it in tonight. After he finished wearing it today.
And gave it a quick wash. He didn't wear it against his skin, that was what undershirts were for, and there were fewer fights now than there had been once, so it did not get dirty fast. Still, it was probably time to give it a quick clean.
For now, he set out his single casual tunic to air out for the morning and looked again at his bag.
He… didn't know what else to put in. What to pack. Surely there must be something else that he needed. Undershirts and garments. Extra socks. A book, because Rubeo was forever recommending him books that he never got around to picking up. A gift for Aryll; just a small cucco toy that he really hoped she'd like.
…he couldn't think of anything else. He had a bag of food supplies already, and he would be able to forage or hunt anything he could not buy on the road.
Maybe that was what he would spend his time doing. Maybe he'd try and experiment with his cooking while he was on the road. It might get a little lonely, doing it alone, but he was sure that he'd manage.
He looked around the rest of his room. At the old, patterned blanket on his bed that his mother had woven when he was a baby. At the picto of his father and sister on his desk. He could bring his writing set, he supposed. Sending letters was something that people did.
A knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts, though, and saved him from having to worry any more about packing. He turned on his heel, pulling the door open perhaps a little too fast and then blinking in surprise to see one of his sergeants standing there, a little out of breath and with a red flush to their cheeks.
"Major Sir Link," she said, and he held in a grimace. The subject of rank had always been an odd one for him; before the Calamity he had been cautiously hoping for Lieutenant in a few years. Now though, as Hero, technically he outranked the entire army due to his quite literally divine mandate. Functionally, though, he didn't carry out the duties of a field marshal or general. Even a major was a stretch, given that his company was more focused on building these days than fighting, but he knew better than to turn such an honour down.
Still, it seemed needlessly formal to address him with his full title when he was currently standing in his Blupee socks, so whatever had brought Sergeant Mayla here must have been urgent.
"Sorry - I know you're preparing to leave—"
"It's okay." he signed immediately, without thought. "What's up?"
She smiled weakly, leaning against the doorframe, and pulled a face.
"I'm so sorry." she said again. "The— well, there's been some sort of unusual monster activity in the eastern field, near Mabe Prairie. I know you're going on leave, but the King wanted you to take a platoon and investigate—"
"I'm on my way." he said immediately, turning to reach for his sword belt and to find his boots.
"Wait— are you sure? I could tell him you've already gone if you want, I'm pretty sure that's what Her Royal Highness was trying to tell me to do when she was waggling her eyebrows from behind him—"
Link secured his sword over his shoulders and began to pull up his boots. He looked up at her and gave a firm shake of the head.
"No." he said once he had his boots on — they were well made and fit like gloves, but Hylia, if they weren't a pain to pull on. "If the King has requested I go, then I must go."
He was hardly going to throw aside a literal royal command just so that he could go riding through the woods and talk to squirrels. There had not been any monster attacks worthy of army attention for over a year; if there was a report now, then it must have been serious.
Leaving his packing behind, he got together the weapons and bag he would need for a short journey, and headed down to the stables. It would be fine — they had always presumed that there were bound to be more monsters lurking out there, probably somewhere in the many unexplored caves and caverns about the land, so an attack was not wholly unexpected. After all, the monsters were cut off from any kind of food and were no longer fed by malice. Starved of prey, it had only been a matter of time before they showed their faces.
Once he got his horse and rode out to the yard, he was met by the sight of his usual smaller platoon of knights, and the scowling face of Princess Zelda of Hyrule, bedecked in her royal blue travelling gear and leather armour and looking like someone had just pissed in her bed.
"Link." she ground out, and her voice was like ice. "My, what a surprise to find you here. I thought you were in Hateno."
Oh, dear. She was really not happy.
"Not leaving yet." he replied, trying to ignore the heat he could feel building in his cheeks. He could see every eye of his platoon turning towards him, every soldier watching them.
She huffed in annoyance. "You're supposed to be on holiday."
"I'll take it after this." he insisted. "I promise."
Zelda rolled her eyes, turning her horse towards the gate.
"I'll believe that when I see it." she murmured, then gave him a small smile. "I know relaxing doesn't exactly come naturally to you, but you really are going to have to try it sometime. You might even have fun!"
He matched her smile, pleasant and affable, and lifted his hands in return.
"Sounds nice. When are you trying it?"
Zelda made an affronted little noise, but she laughed along weith the rest of the knights. Link liked this platoon, liked the friendship that they all shared. They had all been travelling with each other long enough and camping in each others company often enough that they were less colleagues than they were family. Link felt less anxious around them, more able to speak his mind. More able to joke about, to tease the Princess, that he ever had in the halls of the castle.
She rolled her eyes at him and let him steer his horse to ride alongside her, leading the platoon out of the castle and towards the wilderness of Hyrule Field. He looked around to her as they rode, knowing that she would understand his unspoken question.
"The monsters were sighted about half a day's ride away, around Mabe." She said. "They sent word to the Castle for reinforcements, as the creatures were too numerous for them to take on by themselfs, and as… well." she leaned in. "From what I am told, no one was able to identify what the monsters actually were. Link! Just think; we may have been more correct in our theories than we imagined! Not only are there monsters lurking in caves, but it could be that an entire species we have never yet encountered has emerged! Obviously it is terrible that the settlement is under threat, but what a remarkable discovery this could be! Oh, how thrilling! I have brought a number of supplies and cases to transport any remnants of the creatures back to the labs for identification, and oh! If we get the chance — and I am quite sure that we will — I would love the get some pictos of them, would you help me? And…"
Link smiled as he listened to her. Zelda had a brain the size of Death Mountain and a love for learning like he had never seen anywhere else. Of course the idea of discovering new species of monsters excited her — she had been talking about exploring the caves for years, now, and this could finally be her chance to get started.
Link could only imagine how those trips would go. Her father, doubtless, would be beside himself at the thought of her traipsing around underground, but Link would make sure she was safe. He could forsee quite a bit of cave exxploration in his future.
The ride southeast continued in much the same way. Zelda talked about her theories on what monsters evolved to live in caves might be like, on what methods might be best to fight them, on what they might eat, how they might live, and Link listened along with a smile. He loved listening to her talk like this. It was fascinating to hear and good to see her so animated and happy. There had been a time, once, when she had not been so open and able to talk about her scholarly pursuits. He was glad that those days were behind them.
The monster camp was not hard to find. It was visible from a distance, a dark smudge of creatures of the horizon a few miles beyond the village, with dark, putrid smoke rising from their many fires. Link heard more than one knight curse under their breath at the sight and couldn't help but agree with them when they wondered where quite so many monsters had come from. It was no army, but a camp this size did not just appear from nowhere.
Maybe they should have brought the full company after all.
"Nothing else for it." He signed mildly as he turned to face the platoon. "Weapons ready? Swords sharp? Yes?"
"Aye, mine is!" Private Colbert called. "Just ask Minu's wife!"
"Oi, fuck you!"
"Ah, why not? Your wife sure does!"
"You-"
"Okay, okay," Link smiled, glancing over at where the giggling Princess was pointedly trying to act like she had suddenly gone deaf. "Other than Private Colbert's dick, weapons sharp? Ready to fight?"
A cheer went up from the company, and Zelda miraculously seemed to regain the power of hearing.
"I will stay further back and observe." she said. "This will give me the advantage of providing long-range artillery support, and you all the advantage of Sir Link not having heart failure if I get within ten feet of a moblin." She smiled and the company all laughed. The Princess was an incredibly capable fighter and they all knew it, but still. Link was her sworn protector, and he didn't want her any closer to the action than absolutely necessary.
"I have every hope that we will not need my divine light, but if these creatures do turn out to be more hardy than expected, I will not hesitate to join you." she continued, and Link nodded, gripping the handle of his blade.
It was no Master Sword. That had long since been returned to its place in the protectin of the Great Deku Tree. But it was his, custom made by the Sheikah and with an edge so sharp it could cut through thrown silk.
He nodded.
"If things get rough, fall back. I will take on the monsters while you ensure the perimiter is safe. The last thing we want is these creatures straying to the town."
"And make sure my samples are safe!" Zelda added in. "If I have to fight, I don't want my equipmnent getting damaged!"
"Ensure the town and the crazy portable lab are safe." Another of the knights laughed. "You got it."
Link laughed with her. See, why did he need to take leave when he had camaraderie like this in the field? Was it really so bad to make his job into his life? Wasn't that what vocations — what divine callings — were for?
Whatever. Now was not the time for introspection. That was another good thing about being on the battlefied; there was never time to think deep inside. Same with rebuilding, really. You were too busy focusing on the job at hand, on getting it perfect, to worry about anything else.
That was what happened now, like it always did. The comnpany rode into battle and the adrenaline kicked in. Somewhere behind him someone blew the war horn, the sound of the carnyx booming through the field. He knew that their standards would be streaming behind them, the glint of their weapons shining in the sun. Link stood in his saddle and raised his sword to the sky as they charged towards the camp.
Hylia above, what were those monsters? They were massive, the size of a rhino, red-pelted things, with huge, bulbous bodies and piggish faces. Some of them held shields the size of tables while others wielded clubs that looked like fairly sizable trees, and none of them looked like anything they had faced before.
And to make things worse, as Link rode closer, he could see that each of the creature had shiny gold rings through their nipples.
What the hell?
You know what? Link wasn't going to question it. That was not something that he was even going to acknowledge.
He charged into the camp, horse stampeding across their campfires and scattering their ashes, and he swung his sword. Battle had commenced, and Link could feel the thrill of it pulsing in his veins.
He fought, hacking and slicing at any of the monsters he passed, but the things were so damn big that it was like throwing toothpicks at a lynel. They'd need a different tactic.
He reached low as he rode past the next one, slicing at its ankles. It screeched and stumbled, falling to the ground just long enough for the rest of the platoon to leap on it. Excellent — one down. Just…
He turned to count, and set his jaw. There must have been thirty of these assholes.
Great. It was going to be one of those battles.
Well, no more time for fancy moves. Link steered his horse into the midst of the crowd, slashing as many ankles as he could on his way past, and then flipped off, ready to hack and slash until every last one of the unknown monsters — and their hideous nipple rings — were gone.
It was a rough fight. It was always going to be, but the sheer number of these monsters was overwhelming, and they were too unfamiliar for the platoon to be confident in the best tactics to use against them. If they could separate one out from the rest they could take it down pretty easily, but there were just so many.
It wasn't long before Zelda arrived in the fight. Her arrows of sacred light were great, but with this many enemies they needed something more, so the power of the goddess channeled into hand to hand combat it would be. Even so, they were badly outnumbered. The monsters seemed to be coming from all sides, one after another, and they were so big, and even getting through their walls of shields seemed like an impossible task—
Right as he thought that, someone sprinted past Link. Someone that he did not recognise.
He whipped around to look — was there a civilian in the field?! — just in time to see the flash of a white cape as someone ran up the sheer face of a monster's shield.
Ran up. The vertical shield.
The stranger flipped to the back of the monster and began to slash at its rear, and within a few seconds it was crumpling, dead, to the floor.
What in the—
There was a blur as more people joined the fight, more strangers with strange weapons and bizarre armour. But… they all seemed to know what they were doing, and Link knew better than to stand still on a battlefield.
So the technique here was the run up the shields? Fine then, Link could do that. It was weird, but what about his life wasn't?
The fight went so much faster now that these strangers with their new techniques had arrived. It was still difficult, and they all had to rally together, but within the hour they finally - finally - had claimed victory.
When the battle was over,
it was all they could do to stagger a little away from the gore left behind from the battle to flop down on the grass, exhausted and panting but victorious. Link wanted nothing more than to lie face down on the ground and let the cool grass soothe his body, but there was no time for that. He was the Hero, after all, and the ranking officer of this platoon. It was his responsibility to check over his soldiers, to see if anyone was wounded and to provide any needed attention.
It didn’t look too bad. There were an awful lot of cuts and bruises. One knight had gone over on her ankle and was grimacing as another wrapped it, and to the side, another was bleeding heavily from a slice through their shoulder, but waved him off as Link approached.
“Ravi’s stitching it.” He grunted. “It’s fine, Sir, you’re making me nervous standing there. Gone look after yourself, sure.”
Fair enough. Link turned, surveying the rest. They all looked exhausted, and a few were breathing tightly or clutching different spots across their bodies. Blunt force wounds, no doubt, he’d have to make sure they’re got them seen to when they returned. Link loved his platoon dearly, but Hylia, they had an awful habit of trying to power through when they were injured. He’d told them a million times that it would only see them hurt worse in the long run, but they never seemed to listen.
“Link!” A voice called from behind, and he turned to see Zelda hurrying over to him. “Link!”
He looked her over as she approached. There was a small scrape on her cheek but otherwise she seemed unharmed — they’d done a good job of looking out for her, and her own skill with Hylia’s grace had done the rest. Link nodded in approval. He lived in fear of her being hurt, and was glad of the fairy-blessed leather armour she’d taken to wearing on trips like this.
“Link!” She snapped her fingers in front of his face and he frowned, focusing on her. “Are you listening? You’re hurt!”
Link blinked, shaking his head to try and get the ringing from his ears. Battles always left him in a sort of hazy sort of fugue state, where he was so focused on fighting, on the next target, the next move, that it took a while to get back to norma— wait, what did she mean, 'hurt'?
He looked down, frowning, and heard a soft ‘oh’ leave his lips.
Huh. What do you know. There was indeed a horn — maybe from one of the monsters’ heads? — embedded in his side. He hadn’t even noticed, hadn’t even felt it. He reached to pull it out, and Zelda slapped his hand away.
“Don’t be a fool!” She admonished. “Sit down, let me look.”
Personally, Link didn’t think it was that big a deal. Both his tunic and the leather armour he wore under it were fairy-blessed, so the horn had hardly made it through to his body at all. Yes, there was a small but determined patch of blood blossoming around the puncture, but he didn’t even feel it. It couldn’t possibly be that bad.
Still, he wasn’t going to say no, so he sat obediently and let the Princess carefully prod around the wound, hissing in concern and muttering under her breath?
“Am I dying?” he asked with a smile, and she glared at him.
“That is not funny, Link!” She hissed back, and he promptly dropped his hands. Oops. Zelda did worry terribly about injuries on the battlefields. “It’s gone in deeper than you think— oh, who knows what it’s punctured!”
She prodded again, nudging the horn, and a bolt of pain made Link wince. Ow, okay, he felt that one.
Zelda cursed in an extremely un-princess-like manner, and began rooting around in her pack, pulling out jars of potion and bandages and—
“Can I help?”
They looked around at the soft voice to see one of the strangers standing a few feet away. Right. Yes. Link had forgotten about them. He craned his neck now and counted maybe ten of them, ranging from some of the largest and most heavily armoured men that he had ever seen to what he was fairly certain were literal children. The man in front of him was young and slight, and instead of heavy armour he wore a well worn and mended tunic and had a thick mop of curls that half hid his wide, green eyes.
He looked safe enough. He looked kind. But Link had seen how these strangers fought, could clearly see the ornate, silver and ruby hilt of a sword poking over this one's shoulder.
“I’m a healer.” The stranger elaborated, either not noticing or choosing to ignore Link's hostility as he knelt beside the Princess. He looked at the wound in Link’s side and sucked at his teeth. “Oh dear. May I?”
Link made to lift his hands and refuse, but the Princess got there first.
“Please.” She said. “Oh, please. Thank you.”
Well that was that. Link was hardly going to go against his Princess. Still, he felt his jaw clench and his breath catch in his throat as the stranger prodded at his wound, frowning and sitting far too close for comfort.
He prodded for a moment more, and then without warning he pressed down on the area around the wound, hard. Link could not hold in his shout of shock and pain as his vision went blurry around the edges, but without giving him a moment to recover, the stranger pulled the horn out and pressed his hand over the wound.
For a moment it burned with pain and link's vision went white — maybe the wound hadn't been so minor after all — and then it itched, and then, suddenly, the feeling vanished. It was like someone had poured cool water over his stomach, washing away the pain and leaving behind only that familiar, battle worn tiredness.
The stranger sat back with a satisfied nod.
"You lacerated your spleen." He said, his voice still soft. "But you'll be okay now."
Link blinked. That sounded bad? But this guy seemed to think it was fine so… what kind of magic could do that? Had he used a fairy and Link just hadn't noticed?
"Oh, thank Hylia." Zelda was sighing. "Thank you, friend. That's twice you've saved us."
The stranger smiled as some of his companions approached where they sat. The largest, a huge man in full plate armour and with tattoos across his face despite that face that he didn't look one bit Sheikah, was close enough to hear what she said and he smiled, reaching to help his friend up.
"It's nothing." He said, and his voice was deep and commanding. "We were glad to help."
Link scrambled to his feet, standing straight and upright. He didn't know this man but he had an air of authority about him that was immediately noticeable. He must have been the leader of this strange group of fighters; they all seemed to be following his lead, to be letting him do the talking.
Whoever they were, it was Link's job to meet them as a representative of the Royal Hyrulean Army. It was his job to make sure that his own knights — that the Princess, especially — were safe around them.
"We appreciate your support." He signed, stiff and formal. Any lighthearted familiarity from earlier had now firmly faded in the face of these strangers and his duty.
"Indeed!" The Princess agreed, standing with him. "I've never seen creatures quite like that before! Thank goodness you were here — who knows how long it would have taken without you!"
The big man laughed, the lines around his eyes crinkling and making him immediately softer. One of his eyes was missing, sealed shut with a scar, but the other was a bright, Sky blue. He looked friendly; he looked like any one of the farmers and fathers that Link had met and liked on his travels. But he was not prepared to let his guard down just yet.
"In truth, it wasn't coincidence." The big man said, looking around at his companions, who had gathered in a crowd around him. "I— forgive me, Highness. Sir. My brothers and I have travelled a long way to be here, and our story may seem… odd."
Wild felt his stomach clench as his hand drifted to wards the sword on his hip, making sure it was there. Reassuring himself.
"Odd?" The Princess asked, tone guarded as she furrowed her brow. "How do?"
The man sighed, glancing around at another of his brothers, the one with the white cape who had run up the monster's shield. Cape man nodded and stepped forwards, pushing back his own curls from where they'd blown into his face.
"Hi," he said. "I'm Link. And these are my brothers, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, and Link. We are all the Heroes from throughout time, and we've been travelling across the ages on a divine quest from the goddess."
Link stared at him.
The man was clearly mad.
Well, Link supposed that he shouldn't really be surprised, not after seeing that trick the man pulled with the shield. It was a sad reality of life on the battlefield, unfortunately; sometimes even the boldest soldiers got hit on the head one time too many and lost their faculties. Still, it was nice that his companions still let him travel with them, although perhaps they should have kept a better eye on him when he was talking. It would be awful if he misspoke and got himself into trouble
"You-" the Princess said, frowning as she looked at him, and Link felt the air prickle around her in a way that he felt so rarely these days, the way that meant she was calling on the divine power coursing through her blood, just a little bit. "You're telling the truth, aren't you?"
Wait. What?
The tall man nodded.
"I'm afraid so." He smiled a little, apologetic. "It's where the monsters came from too — we've been fighting them across time, and creatures from each of our eras are ending up in times and places that they shouldn't be." he paused, softening as he looked at them both. "I… know that this is a lot to take in."
A lot to take in? It sounded absolutely insane! If it wasn't for the fact that Link had met people travelling from another timeline before then he wouldn't have even considered taking what they were saying at face value.
But he had met people travelling through timelines before. The New Champions had come from another world, similar to their own but different, a century in the future and where the Calamity had gone differently. It was a world with another Link, a Link who had battled and triumphed and defeated the Calamity without needing help from beyond time. A Link who had conquered death itself to save his world.
…was he here? This better Link? Had he come to see the failure Hero who couldn't do the job on his own?
The Princess was nodding, eyes wide.
"Yes- yes, indeed! The Castle is - oh, well, it'll take longer to get there on foot but we can make camp over by Mabe village and return in the morning. Do you have supplies to camp? You… said there were ten of you?"
"Yes," the massive Link smiled, then looked to Link. The knight felt his skin crawl; he did not want to be the focus of this conversation! He was far more suited to standing in the background, unseen and protective, and letting the Princess do the talking. He didn't want to be seen by these strangers! He didn't want to be spoken to! "Well; I suppose eleven, now. We don't all go by Link — that got confusing fast, haha. We all have nicknames. I'm Time, and you've met Sky and Hyrule," he gestured to White Cape and the healer in turn, then turned to point out the rest of his group. "And that's Legend, Four, Twilight, Warriors, Spirit, Wind, and — wait — where's Wild?"
Link furrowed his brow. The man — time — was right. He could only count nine in their group. But another of the big ones, a man with a dark fur pelt over his shoulders and tattoos on his face, waved and smiled.
"Jus' behind me," the man called Twilight said, and right on cue, another stranger stepped out from behind him.
This man — this Link, Wild — was small and slight, with blond hair braided down to his waist and a loose green tunic that looked three sizes too big. He signed an apology as he stepped out, staying close to Twilight. Link could not see the expression that went with the gesture, though.
The new Link — Wild — 's face was hidden from view, and Link found himself working to school his expression to hide his surprise. The rest of this new group were acting as if this was completely normal, but Link knew that there were bound to be questions from his own platoon. Because this 'Wild' had stepped out with his face covered from forehead to chin, wearing a dark green mask.