Chapter Text
It wasn’t unprecedented to land in a Hyrule none of them recognized. With eight members in their group there was a good chance they would land close enough to someone’s era to navigate easily, and they were usually luckily enough to land in a time one of them actively lived in, but Hyrule had a long history and sometimes they landed somewhere none of them knew.
The Hyrules between eras could be confusing, especially when it took hours to find civilization, but they were adventurers; they could handle themselves in unfamiliar territory. This Hyrule, however, was testing both their skills and their patience.
They had been walking for a full day through a muggy forest full of overgrown palm trees, following the course of a river. It was always a reliable strategy for eventually finding civilization, although their faith in the method was certainly being tested.
“Maybe this Hyrule is just really big? Like really, really, really big,” Wind had posited after the first half day of walking. They had passed some small, scattered ruins, but all of their eras contained places strained and worn by time. It wasn’t until they made camp that night that Hyrule hesitantly broached the topic that they had only passed ruins.
“Even in my era, we would have seen something by now. A village, an outpost, even just another traveler. We haven’t even passed any people.” Hyrule was idly stirring at a cook pot filled with broth and potatoes simmering over the fire as he shared his worries. The food wouldn’t be particularly flavorful, but it would be filling at least. After a full day of walking on rugged terrain they needed something hearty.
“How far down the line must we be? It feels like there’s nothing left,” Legend noted bitterly.
“Except for monsters.” Time was standing at the edge of the small camp, looking out into the fading light. They had passed several small clusters of monsters on the way, vaguely recognizable as bokoblins, and had occasionally been startled by chuchus dropping from trees.
Time was looking out into the woods toward the river about a mile away, where they could see smoke rising lazily above the canopy of trees. Twilight and Warriors had scouted it out before they settled in to make camp, hoping to find people sitting at a fire. Instead, they found a camp with four bokoblins and a lumbering monster with a longer snout. Probably a moblin, they decided based on the size ratio and similarities to the bokoblins. It was not unprecedented, but certainly unusual to see them in a camp, cooking, with their weapons and shields lined up neatly against a fallen log.
“Maybe they’re black blooded? We know the infected monsters are more tactical, maybe the camps are a product of being just a little smarter,” Warriors speculated.
“Maybe, but all of the monsters we fought today except those chuchus had black blood and none of them were in camps,” Four countered. He nudged Hyrule and gestured to the cooking pot, where the steam had started to look suspiciously like smoke. Hyrule scrambled to get the stew off the fire and into bowls before it burned any more.
“Regardless, we have to be a little more cautious with their camp so close to ours. I want two people to a watch tonight, and keep your weapons near your bedrolls,” Time commanded. He and Twilight volunteered to take the first watch, and after everyone had managed to stomach some soup they settled in for the night.
Time and Twilight decided to sit back to back, with Time facing the tendril of smoke that marked the monster camp and Twilight facing out toward the unexplored wilderness, his heightened senses giving him an advantage against the impenetrable darkness.
“Do you think there’s anyone here?” Twilight asked. It was a hesitant question, as though he was more worried that he even had to ask than he was to hear the answer.
Time sighed heavily. “None of us can claim to fully understand the nature of this journey yet, but I don’t think the goddess would send us here if there was nobody left to help.”
Twilight let out a relieved breath. The emptiness around them was overwhelming in many ways, but Time was right. No matter where they had landed, they had always found someone only they could help. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the worst of tragedies had already happened here, and all they could do was pick through the pieces and hope to leave it a little safer.
–
The rain had started a little after midnight, and while the night passed relatively safely nobody slept well. Everyone was irritated and on edge as they packed up camp, grazing on hard tack courtesy of Warriors. They had seen fruit in the area, apples and bananas, but they were hesitant to forage in an unfamiliar era. The area was full of plants and trees none of them recognized, and it was impossible to know if even the familiar fruits were safe to eat in this time.
“Are we going to clear out that monster camp?” Wind asked eagerly. More than anyone else, he seemed unbothered by the tropical climate and damp environs.
Time hesitated, looking to Warriors as their leading strategist. Warriors considered the question seriously before shaking his head.
“We’re all tired, and we don’t know how much further we have to travel. We should send a couple people to make sure they haven’t moved on from their camp, but as long as they’re still holding the same pattern they don’t pose a threat to us, and presumably not to anyone else either.”
Twilight, unsurprisingly, volunteered to scout out the camp. Sky decided to accompany him, hoping the walking would help him shake off his drowsiness before they set out in earnest for the day. They crept as quietly as they could toward the nearby river, but they quickly discovered their stealth was unwarranted.
Someone had cleared out the camp overnight. It was eerily undisturbed. The weapons and shields were still neatly lined up against the fallen log, the fire pit seemed to have been put out by the rain rather than stamped out, and even the piece of roasted meat was still skewered on a spit over the remnants of the fire. The monsters, however, had disappeared completely. The only sign they had ever been there were five distinct pools of black blood.
It wasn’t unusual for monsters to disappear into smoke when they were defeated, so the lack of bodies wasn’t necessarily disturbing, but the clear lack of struggle was something else. The blood stains were tidy and contained, with no smearing or spray. Someone had killed those monsters where they lay, and they hadn’t even put up a fight.
“Twi, do you think Wolfie should check out the site?” Sky asked softly, an anxious tension clear in his tone. He was certainly awake now.
Twilight nodded slowly and grasped his pendant, transforming with a sickening twist and crack into his lupine self. He approached the camp cautiously, his nose high and his ears swiveling. He would investigate the ground in a moment, but if the person was still nearby he would smell them on the wind before he would smell their traces in the camp.
The smell of the wilds around him was almost overwhelming, in an oddly comforting way. The lack of civilization had put them on edge since they got here, but now Twilight was awakened to the sheer amount of life surrounding them. Birds were happily singing in the trees, the soft rush of the river was occasionally interrupted by the splash of a jumping fish, and Twilight could smell all manner of game roaming the forest. Every smell was underscored by the scent of healthy soil after rain, and the whole forest smelled fresh and alive.
The monster camp was the only stain in the sensory landscape. Black blood always had a particularly nasty smell, decay and iron mixed with an acrid scent. Hyrule and Legend always said it felt like dark magic, but Twilight’s sense revealed more. He knew what dark magic felt like, knew what it smelled like, after his time in the Twilight Realm. Midna’s magic, undeniably dark in nature, had always smelled like a mausoleum; cold stone and dust, a decay that was clean and dignified. The black blood was different. There was something caustic about it, like brimstone and poison. There was something evil about it.
The more Twilight investigated, the more frustrated he became. The wilderness and the black blood were all he could smell, along with remnants of the animalistic stink of the discorporated monsters. He shook off his animal form with a growl that carried from wolf to man, to which Sky made an inquiring noise.
“There’s nothing. I mean, there’s plenty, this place is bursting with life and the monsters leave behind a whole host of their own smells, but I can’t pick up on anything human,” Twilight admitted.
“Could it have been another monster?” Sky asked hesitantly, knowing the answer already. Even the smartest monsters they encountered couldn’t have slaughtered a camp without struggle. Predictably, Twilight shook his head.
“We need to report back. Maybe the others will have some more insight, but either way they need to know. Whoever did this could very well pose a bigger threat than the monster themselves.”