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“COLLLLLLLIN!” The family of four looked up as they heard the yell, the voice rapidly getting louder as the owner of that voice approached. With a bang that rattled their picture frames, the front door flew open. Beth stood in the doorframe, her face flushed from the run but with an excited grin in place. “Colin! And your parents too. Have you heard? Have you have you?”
Beth rushed inside, bouncing on the soles of her feet next to the dinner table where the family just sat down to eat dinner.
“Heard what, Beth?” Uli asked patiently, sharing a bewildered look with her son. Colin and Beth were close, but even he looked confused.
“Link!!” She all but screamed.
“What? What about Link?!” Colin sat up straighter.
“He’s back! Malo heard Fado tell Sera that he was coming back from the woods, and you know how the path passes Link’s house, and he heard a bunch of noises inside! And at first he thought oh no someone must have broken in but it wouldn’t be someone from around here because you know none of use would do that but then he thinks he heard Link insidetellingtheothervoiceswheretoputstuffandthenhestartedcomingoutsidebutFadohadalreadyhurriedbacktotellpeoplebecauseyouknowhoweveryonelovesLinkandeveryone’ssuperexcitedandspreadingthenewssoareyoucomingorwhat?”
“...what?” Colin was surprised Beth was still standing, she said her whole spiel without breathing. “Can you slow down? He’s really back?”
“YES that’s what I’m saying! So Malo went to double check and he saw him and he’s coming to town so let’s go let’s go let’s go!” She grabbed Colin’s arm, starting to tug him out of his seat.
Once the news started to sink in, the three stood up quickly. Rusl picked their small daughter, Clare, up out of her baby seat and the four rushed to follow Beth out of the house.
It seemed that word had spread throughout the village by now. Talo joined their little group as they hurried up the path, first passing Sera, and then Jaggle and his family.
Colin had pulled in front by the time they had rounded a bend in the path, and took off at a sprint as soon as he recognised the person leading the group into the village.
Link clearly wasn’t expecting to be bowled over, because he did very little to counteract the speed at which Colin collided with him. They tumbled backwards, and once Link realised just what had happened he laughed and hugged Colin back just as tight.
“Beth said you’re back and I almost didn’t believe her! I can’t believe it!” Colin was breathless as he stepped away enough to let the two of them stand up. “Are you staying? Please tell me you’re staying?”
Link ruffled the boy’s hair and shrugged ruefully. “We don’t know how long we’ll be here,” he answered simply. “But we’re here now. I missed you too,”
As soon as they saw Colin let go, Rusl and Uli ran to hug him too. For all intents and purposes, Link was their oldest kid. The rest of the town, while excited, allowed the family to have their reunion first. Little Clare squealed excitedly when she recognised him through all the hubbub.
“Rancher, you never said you had siblings!” Warriors said delightedly. Apart from the two that seemed really close to their Twilight, it looked like the rest of the children thought he hung the stars in the sky based on how wide their eyes were as they looked at him.
It was Beth who answered him, rather matter-of-factly. “Link doesn’t have siblings. Or parents. So Rusl and Uli-”
“Quiet, you,” Twilight huffed, reaching out to hug her too. Beth easily hugged him back. “They don’t need the whole backstory.”
“Um, no. Continue, we do need the whole backstory,” Warriors tried to get Beth to keep talking, but Twilight just waved him off and made his rounds through the rest of the village children, and then the adults.
Once most of the reunions were over and the novelty wore off a bit, people started to split off and go about their evenings.
“-throughout time. Seems like we’ve been dropped into your town for the time being. We don’t know how long we’ll be here.” As Twilight returned to where Rusl and Uli were standing with the rest of his travelling companions, he could hear the tail end of Time’s explanation of the whole situation.
“Link, do you all really have the same name?” Beth asked as he rejoined the group.
“Yes ma’am,” Twilight answered, “which is why we go by nicknames. They call me Twilight. But since we’re here you can keep calling me Link. They’ll know to ignore it,” He added with a wink.
“Like the Twilight realm!” Colin said excitedly as he put it together. “Princess Zelda called you the Hero of Twilight!”
“Exactly,” Twilight nodded.
“Do we finally get to hear more about this Twilight realm?” Warriors once again tried to goad answers out of him.
“Maybe later,” Twilight said with a laugh.
“But you’ve been promising to tell us more for ages!” Talo piped up.
“Yeah, you promised we’d do a campfire like you used to!” Malo added, crossing his arms.
Twilight furrowed his brows, crossing his arms as well, “I’m surprised you remember that, I don’t even remember promising that.”
“You said you’d never break a promise,” Beth added, throwing in a pout to try and guilt trip him into complying with their wishes.
“Okay okay, maybe later tonight. Maybe I want to know what everyone’s been up to here while I’ve been gone? You’ve all grown so much!”
“Nice try,” Warriors muttered behind him. “I don’t think you can distract them from this,”
It seemed that the children were not impressed, all four of them wearing matching unimpressed expressions.
“Y’all’re really not going to let this go,” Twilight sighed. “Fine. We can have a campfire. IF!” He interrupted the excited cheers from the children and the rest of the heroes alike. “IF you all go home first and help out with whatever night time chores I know you’re supposed to be doing tonight,” when the four kids groaned and started to complain, he shook his head. “You forget I live here too. Look, we need time to settle in and set up the fire pit outside of Colin’s house, okay? As soon as everyone gets back, we can do that.”
“Fine,” Malo and Talo grumbled, but they turned off together to head home.
“You promise?” Beth said sternly, and Twilight nodded solemnly, as if this was the most important promise he’s made before.
Colin stayed, since both his parents were already there. That is, until Rusl handed him his baby sister. “Why don’t you take Clare home and get her ready for bed? We’ll be right behind you.”
Now it was Colin’s turn to grumble, but he listened and carried Clare around the bend.
“Damn, Rancher, didn’t think they’d listen to that!” Legend whistled, actually impressed.
“Link has always been the town’s older brother,” Uli smiled proudly. “You should have seen it when the kids were younger, they’d follow him around like little ducklings! And ever since Link rescued them, it’s only gotten worse!”
“Wait, rescued them??” Wind pushed to the front to be a part of the conversation. “You never said anything about that! What do you mean?”
“I’m only explaining it once, so you will also have to wait for the campfire,” Twilight said, and smirked when he could hear a few groans from his fellow heroes. “Rusl, Uli, can we help with anything while we’re here?”
“Nonesense!” Rusl boomed. “You’re guests! Come home and we’ll get y’all fed, then you can use the fire pit out back.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the heroes filed into Rusl and Uli’s house, they couldn’t help but look around in wonder. The whole house had a comfortable, lived in feel that made them feel right at home immediately.
Wild volunteered to help Rusl and Uli put together enough food, since the amount of people they were feeding that night basically tripled with the groups arrival. They tried to tell him it was fine, but Wild insisted, saying he wanted to learn more about their recipes since he enjoyed cooking and that his friend back at home would be really upset if he didn’t come back with information about every place and time they visited. They finally relented.
Twilight enlisted volunteers, which ended up being Sky, Warriors, and Time, to go outside with him and set up the fire pit. It wasn’t used very often if he wasn’t around, since the kids said they enjoyed it more when he was around. All they had to do was a little cleaning and adding new wood, before they went inside to eat the quick hodge podge meal that was put together.
It turns out, Wild had done some recipe sharing of his own, and using the Ordonian ingredients and the rice he had in his slate, they were able to come up with a really good stew fairly quickly. This was gobbled down quickly, most of the heroes going back for seconds, with minimal talking. Wild at his as he rapidly tapped away at his slate, presumably writing down notes or taking pictures to take home to his Zelda, who he had told the rest was an avid researcher and scientist.
As they were finishing up their meal, the children started to return. Beth dragged Colin outside, shouting they had to do one more thing first and they’d meet them at the campfire.
Twilight shrugged, and led the group outside. Rusl and Uli joined, knowing Clare was peacefully asleep in their room with a window cracked so they could hear her easily.
The group sat around the campfire that Wild quickly started with a piece of flint from his slate, and the children finally returned. The four of them were grinning, some giggled mischievously, but before anyone could wonder what they schemed up, another figure came and sat down next to Twilight on a log surrounding the fire.
Twilight didn’t react at first, but when he finally turned his head to see who sat down next to him, he grinned and practically picked the girl up. “Ilia! Mayor Bo said you were visiting Kakariko, I didn’t think you’d be back before we left!”
“I was actually on my way back already,” His best friend answered, her voice muffled by the way she was smushed into his shoulder. “I was told we were finally promised a story time, after asking for forever,”
At the jibe, Twilight groaned and jokingly pushed her away. “Nevermind, you can leave,” He said, dramatically sitting back down on the log. This seemed to signal to the kids that it was time, and they hurriedly sat as close to him as they could so they could hear him better.
Wind, deciding he could embrace being younger too, decided to join in on the crowding. Wild passed out apples that they could bake on a stick if they wanted, a sweet treat he would enjoy when camping in his Hyrule.
“Come on, Link, please?? How many times do we have to ask?” Beth begged one more time.
“Okay okay I get it, fine. I’ll tell you some things about my adventure across Hyrule. Surely you didn’t forget how it even started?”
The four kids stayed suspiciously quiet at the question, and Twilight raised a brow and grinned at each of them as they ducked their head to avoid eye contact.
“So NOW they stop talking,” Legend huffed, getting a laugh out of his fellow heroes.
“Fine, I’ll tell you how it started then! A few of you were being little pests-”
“NOT TRUE!”
“-and begged and begged til I got you the slingshot from Sera’s store-”
“We just needed a big kid!”
“-and then tried to make me to give you the slingshot-”
“We sent you in there to get it for us!!”
“-and then you all follow a monkey-”
“Not all of us,” Colin grumbled.
“-then one of you gets locked in the cage with the monkey-”
“YOU SAID YOU WOULDN’T TELL!”
“-and I had to rescue you and the monkey, bring you back to town, and go back to work. Does that sound right?”
Colin raised his hand. “Did Talo really get locked in the cage?”
“Hey! How do you know it wasn’t Malo, you didn’t come with us!” Talo said defensively.
“Because Malo and Beth said that they both waited outside the cave, and that you and Link came back from the cave later. So it had to be you,” Colin answered easily. “How did a monkey get the jump on you?”
“Hey! In my defense, I was trapped WITH the monkey, okay? It was a bulbin who got us.”
Beth snorted. “Why, in Ordona’s name, would a bulbin want you and a monkey?”
“Easy targets, probably.” Malo said, always wanting to snark at his older brother.
Talo groaned and tried to push him over, and Malo reacted by pushing him back, before Ilia and Twilight both grabbed an arm and pulled them apart again.
“And now we all know. Y’all should’ve spoken up when I asked if you remembered,” Twilight tutted with a shake of his head. “Anyways!”
“Pause!” Legend piped up incredulously. “You’re really telling us that your whole journey started because some kid got kidnapped by a monkey?”
“WITH a monkey,” Talo griped.
“Well, no. But those were the events right before it,” Twilight shrugged. “Besides, getting kidnapped by- sorry, Talo. With a monkey didn’t even humble them out.”
“You can just skip this part,” Talo tried weakly, but Twilight shook his head.
“This is a very important part of the story! After Ilia gets mad at me for supposedly mistreating my own beloved horse-”
“You pushed her too hard and you know it!”
“Take that up with the goats.” Twilight shrugged. “I had just come from work, I hadn’t had the chance to brush her yet! Anyways, Ilia stole my horse-”
“I did not-”
“And wouldn’t let me into the spring but let Colin into the spring. And then these two knuckleheads thought they could make me give them my sword in exchange for letting me close to the spring.”
“Well, why not?” Malo grumbled.
“I literally just saved both your behinds from a monkey,”
“Exactly! We wanted to be cool too!” Malo threw up his arms.
“Again, the monkey wasn’t the problem!” Talo once again tried to defend himself, but it wasn’t working too well.
“Questions so far?”
“Did you give them the sword?” Time asked, a single brow raised. He looked more relaxed than Twilight had seen him since they visited Lon Lon Ranch.
With a grimace and a scratch to the back of his head, Twilight nodded.
Malo and Talo looked incredibly smug at the burst of noise coming from the heroes this time.
“If your story is true, they proved the whole day that they had no self-preservation skills! Why would you give them a sword?” Legend looked genuinely baffled.
“In my defense, it was a wood sword, and I wanted to get my horse back.”
“Your horse was fine, Link.” Ilia sighed.
“Only barely! If you weren’t blaming me for non-existent abuse maybe you and the kids wouldn’t have gotten grabbed. Again.”
“How much kidnapping does this story have?” Time asked, now growing a bit concerned.
“You’d be surprised.” Twilight said, with Ilia, Talo, Malo, Beth, and Colin nodding along.
Wind, Hyrule, Sky, and Wild were leaning forward where they sat, watching Twilight and listening to every word he said. Wild would occasionally bring his baked apple away from the fire and take a bite out of it, nearly singing his eyebrow off at one point because he didn’t realise it had caught fire. Fortunately Warriors noticed and reacted quickly, swatting the apple away from his face and making sure the burning apple was put out before Wild tried to take another bite.
“Well, anyways. That’s about it for the fun stuff. I followed them, fought through…” Twilight trailed off and counted on his fingers quickly, “three temples and six dungeons, rescued the kids somewhere between them, finally defeated Zant, freed the Princess from Ganondorf’s control, and purged Hyrule of the corrupted Twilight magic. That about sums it up!”
“Oh come on, that’s cheating!” Wind cried out. “Anyone can summarize a story.”
“I mean, technically I covered the whole thing,” Twilight tried weakly. When he tried to stand back up, a signal that he was done talking, Ilia very quickly threw an arm around his shoulder and dragged him right back into his seat on the log.
“Link,” Ilia started, deceptively sweet. “You forget that five of us were on parts of this adventure with you,” she gestured to the kids sitting in front of them. “So we know you’re severely underselling it.”
“Yeah, Link!” Beth agreed quickly. “We were all in Kakariko! We remember more than you seem to think we do.”
“Like when you escorted me, Telma, and Prince Ralis to Kakariko,” Ilia said, looking at him pointedly.
“Or when the king bulbin attacked and almost trampled Beth, but I got caught instead and you came to save me!” Colin added.
“Or when you and that weird researcher guy started talking about cities in the sky in Renado’s cellar!” Talo said.
“See?” Ilia grinned, triumphantly. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“I know, it’s just…” Twilight sighed. “There are a few things that are pretty integral to the story that… I’ve never really talked about before.”
The group stayed quiet at the admission. No one knew if now was a good time to jump in, or if Twilight would continue speaking on his own.
Hesitantly, Wind leaned forward a bit. “Twi, if this is about Wolfie…”
Twilight shook his head. “Only partially. You lot know about that now. I think that’s the easier part to explain.”
“Then start there,” Ilia bumped his shoulder gently with her own.
Twilight sighed one more time, staring at the ground between his feet as if to brace himself for something, then stood up to move behind the log where there was a bit more space (and so he didn’t risk toppling the kids into the fire on accident). He reached up, fiddling with a string around his neck, and finally pulled an acorn-like object out from beneath his shirt and let it hang against his chest.
“I tried to follow the bulbins after y’all were grabbed,” Twilight started. But there was a wall of magic blocking the path. I didn’t know what it was at the time, only that when I reached out to touch it, something grabbed me and pulled me past the wall. Everything was muted, and there were strange sounds, and then I blacked out.”
Once again, all eyes were on Twilight as he continued to speak. This time, there was no interrupting. Even the rest of the Heroes were listening closely, despite knowing what the charm did.
“When I came to, I was chained up in the dungeons of Hyrule Castle. However, I didn’t look like this,” He gestured to himself. “But like this,” With a deep breath,Twilight’s form was surrounded by a dark cloud with jagged, geometric shapes. It shrunk with him, and the next thing the group saw was a wolf standing where Twilight just was.
“...Link?” Ilia asked, the first one to respond after the display. The wolf had the same markings on his forehead as Link did, the same ones he’s had ever since he came back to Ordon and said it was all over. The wolf huffed and nodded in a very human-like fashion, before the black cloud was back and growing, leaving Link standing there again.
“That will still be cool no matter how many times I see it,” Hyrule said, breaking some of the quiet, nervous tension that was building around the fire.
“That was twilight magic,” Twilight explained. “The twilight magic, or a corrupted version of it anyways, had taken over Hyrule. So by being pulled in, and because I was marked as a Hero of the Goddess,” He held up his hand at the mention, “instead of being turned into a spirit like everyone else, I was turned into a wolf.”
Colin raised his hand as if he was in class. “Can you speak to animals then?”
“Only as a wolf,” Twilight said, relaxing at the question. No one was freaking out. He didn’t think his family would, seeing as once he found the children they were mostly out of the way of all the drama and weren’t affected by the twilight directly.
“Which…brings me to the next point. The reason I was even able to get out of the cell, since I don’t actually have my own magic in that sense, is…well. Most of us had some sort of companion on our journeys. This is when I met Midna, who ended up being the princess of the Twilight realm.”
“Wait a minute,” Warriors said, leaning forward. “You said Midna? And not to go back, but you said Zant?”
Twilight frowned, but nodded slowly. “Yes…but I’ve never mentioned them before.”
“No, no. It wouldn’t have been you. I met them!”
Twilight just stared at Warriors, looking like he had just been slapped.
“What do you mean, you met them?”
“On my journey I ended up fighting along with people from all over Hyrule’s history and future,” He shrugged. “It’s why I wasn’t surprised when I first landed with the rest of you, I’ve been through that before. But Cia used that same magic to bring allies, so we fought Zant at one point. And Midna helped us defeat him.”
Twilight sat down heavily as he listened to Warriors talk.
“Midna mentioned fighting alongside a hero before, but never elaborated. I had some guesses when I met you, what with you being called the Hero of Twilight, but I was never fully sure.”
Warriors wasn’t sure if Twilight was even fully listening to him speak anymore. “Did she come from the Twilight realm?” He asked suddenly.
“Uh…yeah, I think so? We fought Zant in the Twilight palace, so I have to assume yes.”
“So there is a way…”
“A way to what?” Warriors asked, concerned for his friend and the near manic look he was getting in his eyes.
“To get to the Twilight realm! From here, you need a mirror. But she shattered it when she left, and I’ve been looking everywhere for a way to either fix it or another way in. But this just tells me it’s not completely sealed off like I thought!”
Ilia suddenly sat up straighter, inhaling sharply. “So that’s why…” She glanced over at her friend.
But Twilight wasn’t full listening to her either. “Did she say anything to you?”
Warriors shrugged. “Not really. Only that she had fought by a hero before, and that he helped her save her kingdom and get her power back.”
Twilight deflated against the log more, clearly hoping for a different answer.
“Anyone want another apple?” Wild asked, somewhat hesitantly, sensing that Twilight was a bit in his head right now. It seemed like story time would have to be over for the night.
Uli, who had been quietly listening alongside Rusl this whole time, shook her head with a smile. “I think it’s time to send the kids off to bed, yes?”
This was met by immediate groans from Colin, Beth, Talo, and Malo. But it was hard to argue when their story teller was just staring at the fire, and the rest of the adults were starting to stand up.
As the kids slowly filed out of the campsite, and the heroes stood and gathered what few belongings they brought with them from Twilight’s house, Ilia stood and patted Twilight on the shoulder before leaning down to give him a hug.
“See you tomorrow,” She whispered, before letting go and heading home.
Time started directing the concerned heroes back to Twilight’s house, trying to usher them off and out of the way. Rusl muttered a quiet goodnight, and Uli bent to kiss Twilight on the top of the head as she passed.
Once Time had made sure the heroes were actually heading back to Twilight’s home and not lingering just out of sight, he turned to sit next to the younger man. He sat there in silence for a few moments, two sets of eyes trained on the slowly burning campfire.
“Talk to me,” Time finally said, soft over the crackle of the flames. He didn’t turn to look at Twilight, instead focusing on just being there. “You look almost like the Champion when he remembers something,”
The joke got a huff of a laugh out of Twilight, who sighed and hung his head. “What do you want me to say?”
“Whatever you’d like,” Time said.
When Twilight didn’t answer, he continued. “You know… I don’t think Warriors has put this together yet, but I was there too.”
Twilight finally looked up, turning his head just enough to be facing Time but not enough to see his face.
“I was much younger, sometime shortly after my second adventure. Before this,” Time gestured to the markings on his face. “Was permanent. So he probably doesn’t recognise me.”
“Why didn’t you say anything before?” Twilight finally asked.
“I wasn’t sure how much he was ready to share,” Time said simply. “A lot happened, and I’m not sure how much time has passed for him. For me, it’s been a long time,” Time met Twilight’s gaze. “I remember Midna, though. And she remembers you.”
Twilight looked back down at the ground between his feet. “She was going to tell me something.”
Time didn’t say anything, letting the silence stretch and giving Twilight time to gather his thoughts.
“Right before she left and destroyed the mirror, I mean. She started to say something, and then changed her mind and left. I wonder every day, what she might have said. If…if she would’ve said the same thing I wanted to.”
“Link,” Time said softly, finally getting Twilight to look all the way up at him. “I didn’t get to know her the way you did. But from the conversations I did have and the ones I overheard, she misses you too,” Time reached out, wrapping an arm around Twilight’s shoulder and pulling him into a side hug. “I’m not saying this to bring up old pain or to make you regret past actions. I can see how much she means to you just by hearing you talk about her.”
Twilight squeezed his eyes shut, leaning more fully into Time’s side. “I wish I knew why she broke the mirror.”
“I know,” Time said. “And I’m sure she wished she could explain. But call it an old man’s intuition, I think you’ll see her again.”
“It’s been years, Time, and I’ve tried everything. Looked everywhere. I don’t know how to open a door into the Twilight realm.”
“Like I said,” Time smiled. “I don’t know how to explain it. I wouldn’t give up hope quite yet.”
Twilight stared at the fire again, unsure if he could share in Time’s conviction. He had hoped for so long… he wasn’t sure how long he could take it.
“I like to think I know you pretty well at this point, Link.” Time stood, resting a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “You have a good head on your shoulders. But it’s your heart that makes you stand out. Your whole journey stemmed from rescuing the kids from your village. You feel things deeply, and while I know that’s hard, that is a strength.” Time squeezed his shoulder once. “So don’t give up on that heart of yours yet.”
“I don’t know how to do that,” Twilight muttered, standing as well.
“That’s not something anyone can teach you, unfortunately. You’ll have to figure that one out on your own.”
As Twilight mulled over his words, Time efficiently put out the fire. “Malon is always telling me that big feelings feel even bigger at night. Don’t doubt that heart of yours.” With the slightest of nudges, Time gets Twilight moving again. He keeps his arm around his shoulders, guiding him gently back through the town towards his home.
It was comforting to see how much this town and its people cared for Link. Time was glad he had somewhere good to come home to once their newest journey was over, even if he was sure Twilight had more he had to do.
In the meantime, Time would do his best to help Twilight see that he knew what he was doing, and that there was hope yet. Time didn’t know why, but he really did believe that it would work out for Twilight, and for Midna.