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The lead-up to dinner fit in a certain routine. Everyone would settle down in camp, maybe one or two heroes would go out to scout the perimeter, while the others went and did whatever it was they liked doing whenever they had plenty of free time. Some would maintain their gear, some would strike conversations with others, some would (if particularly bored) horse around. Personally, Sky liked to take the time to rest up, though it was also a prime opportunity to surreptitiously start some trouble.
After all, no one seemed to suspect him. They hadn’t realized the error of their ways quite yet.
All this time sitting together in one place was a necessity of the logistics of cooking. It was hard to prepare and cook food while on the go. Wild was almost always the one on cooking duty.
The problem was that he had gotten injured in a fight earlier that day. It so happened that his right hand was now completely wrapped in bandages. Maybe it was possible for him to make dinner with only one hand if he had the time to figure out how, but nobody was going to wait that long.
“I’ll do it, then,” Twilight said.
Twilight was probably one of the better cooks in the group, as evidenced by him not getting immediately vetoed by at least five other Links.
“Alright,” Wild said. He gave Twilight his adventuring pouch with his good hand. “Take whatever ingredients you need. Don’t worry about taking too much—I always try to keep the bag well-stocked.”
“I’ve seen how many apples are in there. I’m not worried at all.”
“Great. Let me know if you need help.” Wild left Twilight with his cooking supplies and sat down next to Hyrule. No doubt those two were going to plot something that Time was going to heavily disapprove of. That wasn’t Sky’s problem, though, at least as long as Hyrule stayed far away from any cooking.
What did catch his eyes were Twilight’s choice of ingredients. He was pulling a few pumpkins out of the bag. It reminded him of the pumpkin soup of his own era.
A memory of destroying the Lumpy Pumpkin’s chandelier to get a Heart Piece flashed through Sky’s mind. He smiled to himself. Good times.
He decided that it might be worthwhile to see what was on Twilight’s mind, if only to see what he was going to cook.
He sidled over to the rancher. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I was going to make a pumpkin soup.” Twilight paused. “Do you want to give me a hand?”
“Sure.”
“Alright.” Twilight handed him a knife. “Can you get these pumpkins cut up? I need to go prepare the broth.”
“Yeah.” Sky certainly knew how to do that. “You’re going to hold the bee larvae, I hope?”
The other Links kind of had a field day when they found out that he was willing to eat them. Sky supposed that it was just a plain weird opinion to be held by someone with such a reputation for being straightlaced. Though again, Sky also didn’t have that menacing a reputation, which suited him just fine.
Twilight sighed. “I still don’t get what’s the big deal with that. They’re a good source of protein in a pinch!”
“Even the Champion won’t eat it.”
“We both know that’s because they’re uncooked.”
“That’s not saying much.”
Twilight harumphed a bit more but had to attend to the broth. It seemed like that little conversation had taken its course, so Sky went back to chopping up pumpkins.
“Why pumpkins?” Sky asked, after a while.
“I’m trying to recreate a meal that someone made for me during my adventure,” Twilight said. “While it was at a distant corner of Hyrule, strangely, a lot of the ingredients were ones that came from my hometown. It was a surreal experience, really, though it made me feel really homesick.” He opened his own satchel and pulled out a toroidal wheel of cheese. “Like this goat cheese.”
“You brought cheese with you?”
Twilight shrugged. “I picked it up the last time we visited Ordon Village. Thought I’d bring something from home with me.”
It had never really occurred to Sky that Twilight would do such a thing, but now that he thought about it, it did feel like the exact kind of thing he would do.
He set the cheese down and went back to Wild’s bag, pulling out a couple salmon. “The original soup had this rare fish in it that we obviously don’t have, but I think salmon should be a decent substitute. It looks pretty similar, anyway.”
Twilight took to cutting and deboning the fish while Sky finished up with the pumpkins. Soon they were simmering away in the soup.
“Pumpkins do remind me of home as well, in a way,” Sky said while the soup cooked.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I think they’re probably the main vegetable we grow in Skyloft. They just go well with all sorts of things. We have this restaurant out some way from the main islands, the Lumpy Pumpkin, that’s well-known for its pumpkin soup. It’s probably a little akin to what we’re making now, actually.”
“Ah.” Twilight paused. “You’ve had trouble being away from home for a while, right?”
Sky nodded. “When I first went down to the surface, there was always this reassuring fact that if things got tough, well, Skyloft was always above. I could leave what I was doing on the surface behind and go back home to rest and resupply and everything.” He paused. He knew he was leaving a massive part of it out. He decided to talk about that too. “It’s also the longest I’ve been away from Zelda since… well, since I fought Demise. Back then, well, reuniting with her required me to fight the evil that still lingered on the surface. Now, I have to part with her so I can pursue this shadow. It’s been tough.”
“I see. Well, I’m not particularly qualified to advise you on matters of the heart, though I can think of one person who might be.”
“I asked the Old Man how he dealt with it. He just asked me big questions about what I was outside being a Hero and said that it would get more bearable with age.”
“Oh. Well, I guess he would say that.”
“Does he do that to you?”
Twilight shrugged. “I’d like to think that he thinks that I know what I’m doing.”
“Lucky you.”
“It’s still a lot to live up to.” Twilight paused. “When Zant’s forces attacked, I ended up separated from Ilia and the children of Ordon. They ended up in various parts of Hyrule. When I returned to Ordon Village in the aftermath of the attack, well…” He trailed off. “You can imagine how I felt, as this older brother figure to the children. The thing that drove me forwards during the early stages of my adventure, as I restored light to the land, was to find them and make sure they were safe.”
“Skyloft has definitely not been affected nearly as much,” Sky said. “Beyond Zelda’s disappearance, and Groose eventually also going to the Surface, I don’t think anyone there as much as noticed that anything was up until I revealed the Sky Keep and then used the Triforce to bring it and the Isle of the Goddess down from the sky.”
“Well, you were still doing it all for someone you cared deeply for.”
Sky nodded.
“I also do think some parts of being away from home were likely easier for me than it was for you,” Twilight said. “When I found the children, and later when I helped Ilia… recover, their presence helped make Kakariko feel like a home away from home.”
“I guess the closest thing I had to that was Groose being in the Sealed Temple later on? His presence was certainly a familiar one.” In a way a certain Veteran could also be considered one by proxy. It was probably why Sky seemingly spent so much time around him.
“Mm. With all of that in mind, I guess if I had to give you any advice about homesickness, it’s to remember that we’re all on this quest to protect those we care for, even if that requires us to be far away from them. Most of us would probably rather be at home if all our eras weren’t threatened.”
“You can just say that Veteran’s a freak of nature.”
“Hey, I didn’t say it. Though more power to him for having as little qualms about traveling as he does.” Twilight paused. “That’s probably not great advice by itself, honestly. But hey, hopefully it’ll help at least a little. If there’s any other upside, it’s that you’re definitely not alone in missing home. It might be worthwhile for you to get some more perspectives. Maybe someone has something more enlightening to say.”
“Or maybe the Old Man is holding out on us.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him.” Twilight shifted to stir the soup and look at it. “Looks like it’s nearly ready.” He sampled a small amount with the ladle he was using. “It tastes pretty good, too.”
As Sky watched Twilight fuss over the soup, he suddenly remembered something he had been working on. “Actually, Ranchhand, I wanted to show you something.”
“Oh?”
Sly nodded and pulled a small wooden figure out of his bag. “I’ve been carving this since we were in Ordon. I want you to have it.”
Twilight took it and looked at it. “It’s a little goat!” A smile crept onto his face. “Thank you so much!”
Twilight and his animals.
“Some of the details were definitely a little tricky for me, like how its horns join together at the ends. But I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out.”
“I’ll definitely treasure it. It’s another one of those reminders of home while we’re out on the road, like that pumpkin soup I had way back then. Though I don’t think I could look at this thing and feel anything other than joy. Maybe the soup we’ve made will be sort of a piece of home for you too tonight.” Twilight took one last look at the soup. “It looks ready. Since you’ve been so kind, I’ll let you have first pickings.”
“Thanks.” Sky got himself some of the soup. It definitely looked good, and his bowl felt nice and warm in his hands.
Twilight served himself his own portion and set his bowl down. He then pulled the ladle and struck it against the side of the pot a few times, making a somewhat loud clunking sound.
Seven other heads were suddenly facing him. He took a deep breath before shouting.
“Dinner’s ready!”