Chapter Text
Hyrule’s pretty sure his morning could have started better. But, on the bright side, it could have started a whole lot worse.
Warriors’ era is never fun. Too many people, too much noise, and far too cramped on a battlefield to use spells the way he likes. Hyrule manages, though. Instead of having to search, the black-blooded monsters had come straight to them, and having Warriors’ army by their side made the battle blessedly easy.
Except for Wild. He took a nasty blow to the head within an hour or so. But, this morning he’d just gotten out of the infirmary.
It started with everyone fucking around in Warriors’ Castletown, Wind running off with Four to probably commit minor crimes and Sky disappearing with Wild and Twilight to look around. Legend and Warriors, though, took the spare time to look through stores. Something about Legend being tired of having to go everywhere and do everything and Warriors breaking his hairbrush.
Hyrule ended up tagging along because he was bored.
Entering a small shop for enchanted charms and jewelry, Legend’s constant irritated expression finally made way for a more thoughtful one while he looked through the magic trinkets. He picked up a small medallion to look at it closer, and while Hyrule made his way over to see what it was enchanted with, said something about how they could never get a goddess damned break from anything ever.
So of course, this was the time for a portal to open up directly under Hyrule’s feet.
Which he was notified of first by the feeling of his foot going through the floor, second by Legend’s alarmed shout, and then third by the nauseating feeling of literally being thrown into another time period.
Like he said: it could have started better, and it could have started worse.
First things first: this was not Hyrule’s time period.
He stood, brushing dirt off his hands and dusting off his tunic while Legend stumbled through the portal after him. He managed to land a bit more gracefully. Still cursing, though.
“By Hylia’s right tit, I swear to fuck she has the worst timing fucking ever, when we get to Sky’s era I’m going to have so many words with his girlfriend, just you wait...”
They’d been dropped into fairly sparse woods. A town was visible in the distance; maybe a quarter hours’ walk away. But these trees weren’t any Hyrule had ever seen before. Nearly all were short, with fan-shaped leaves that had a small cleft down the middle. The bushes here weren’t native to his world, either. Also, now that he looked around: rabbits? There were at least two or three huddled together at the other end of the space they landed in.
A large, cracked stone with a faded Triforce symbol laid discarded a few meters away.
His ear twitched and he turned as the sound of another portal opening fizzled in. Out stepped the rest of their group.
Wind glanced at their surroundings for the impressive span of half a second before saying, “So, Vet, where are we?”
Everyone looked expectantly at the veteran.
Legend made an offended noise. “First of all, I don’t always know where we are because we are literally always dropped in some fuck-all time period in fuck-all nowhere.” He fixed Wind with an irritated look, then cast a glance at the Triforce rock. “This is Labrynna, though.”
Hyrule snorted. “Knew you’d do it, Ledge.”
He narrowly dodged Legend’s swat at him.
“Anyways, that looks like Lynna City. I’ve got friends who live there, so unless anyone has better ideas that’s where we’re headed.”
No one had better ideas. So, with Hyrule at the back by Sky and Four, they all set off on the short walk.
Lynna City was… pretty charming, he supposed.
A few shops lined the streets. A cobbled path led from building to building, the shops to the bunches of houses grouped by each other. A fountain in the center of the town had a very familiar face on it, but Hyrule didn’t have enough time to identify it before—
Exactly one second’s worth of footsteps in warning before a man’s voice rang out with, “Anyone named Link here?”
He startled a little. These postmen need to stop being so quiet.
Sky, as usual, raised his hand and accepted the letters, handing them out based on writing and eventually keeping just one for himself. Hyrule, as usual, got nothing— after all, who’s waiting for him back home except his Zeldas, and they’re usually busy with queenly business— but Warriors got his letter and moved all the way to the edge of their group to read it, turning away from Wind when the kid tried to peek.
And then, after they all decided to get inn arrangements sorted before going anywhere else for the day, he pulled Hyrule aside.
So that’s where he is now.
The rest of them continue walking ahead, with a few confused looks sent their way. Warriors clears his throat to get Hyrule’s attention again, then starts talking in a hushed voice.
“Listen, Time’s birthday is coming up soon.”
Hyrule didn’t expect that. He frowns.
“How do you know?”
“What?”
The traveler repeats. “How do you know? We’ve been all over eras, and I’m pretty sure nobody’s keeping track of how long we’ve been out for. How do you know it’s his birthday?”
“Oh.” Instead of a response, Warriors brandishes the letter. Hyrule takes it from him and squints at the text, trying to decipher it. He shoots the captain an unimpressed look after a few moments.
“It’s from Malon.”
“Oh.”
“She said it’s about one week from now, her era, so I figured why not hurry up and get the old man something already?”
The traveler blinks at him. “Sure…?” But why is he asking Hyrule? You’d think Wind or Wild would be a better pick for this sort of thing. Or Twilight. He and Time still have their whole pretending-they-don’t-know-they’re-related thing going on, don’t they?
Warriors smiles widely. “Perfect. Let’s get back to the others then.”
Oh, and speaking of the others, they stopped walking at some point to wait for them, so the two lagging heroes hurry to catch up. They’re already having some conversation.
“...so our best bet is finding the oracles,” Legend is saying. Warriors and Hyrule’s arrivals give them the signal to keep going, and they all do. “Last I was here, Nayru and—”
“Wait, who?” Warriors interjects, confused.
The veteran gives a long-suffering groan. “Her name is Nayru. Not the goddess. She’s the oracle of time. Like I was saying, Nayru still lived in Labrynna last I was here, and it doesn’t seem like it’s been too long since then. But, with her future sight and all, she probably knows we’re coming. So she’ll probably have Din— shut up, Warriors— and Farore with her, and she’s also probably going to find us.”
“So…?” Hyrule prompts.
“We have time to kill. Go on. The inn is over there and one of you sort out arrangements, because I am not dealing with that again.”
There’s a commotion of good-natured boos and teasing while Legend fishes through his bag for a little satchel and pulls out a large seed, shaped a little like a funnel. He taps it sharply twice, cracks it open, drops it to the ground. He flashes a peace sign at the rest of them.
Because from that seed, there’s a howl of wind that makes them all yelp in shock while Legend is whisked away by a miniature tornado. The things Hyrule’s only heard of in, well, legends.
For a moment, everyone stares after him, hair mussed and squinting.
“...I’m not paying,” Four says.
This restarts the clamor while they all call “not-it’s.” The honor of paying ends up going to Twilight, with a little help from Wild because he felt bad.
Wind gets distracted by something on the short way to the inn. The sailor wanders off the path and Hyrule follows, finding Wind hunched over a swirling, gnarled set of ridges in the ground. It isn’t wooden, but the indents between the raised parts are stained an odd dusty color. The swirl is nearly geometrical; the grass around the patch tapers off as it gets close, and when Hyrule reaches out to poke it, there’s a zing of an unpleasant sensation in his arm. He draws it back. Some type of spell, then.
Warriors shows up within a moment or two. It seems to take the captain only half the time to notice the feeling, though, because he grimaces immediately and takes a step back. Hyrule and Wind look at him questioningly, and they get an unhappy “time magic.” in response.
“I spend too much time around that stuff,” he complains, rubbing at his temples.
Seeing as there’s quite a few more of the things littered around here and there, Warriors is probably going to be dealing with quite a few more headaches. Hyrule and Wind each give him a sympathetic pat on the back while they walk back.
“So… what now?” Wild asks once they’ve settled down.
Twilight readjusts his pelt. “Explore, I guess?” The champion’s eyes light up, and he adds a stern “not alone.”
“You guys do whatever you want,” Four interjects. “I’m taking a nap.”
Ah, yeah. His portal headaches are pretty bad. Time and Sky, the resident old men, also stay back. Which leaves Wind, Warriors, Twilight, Hyrule, and Wild standing around.
The captain and traveler make eye contact. Something for Time?
Warriors nods.
The two of them are off to a store before the others can so much as offer to come along.
Lynna City is a pretty sparse one, as cities go in others’ Hyrules. (The traveler’s opinion of what counts as bustling and what doesn’t turned out to be pretty different from everyone else’s.) Several of the people turn around to stare at both of them and mutter.
By Hyrule’s guess, it’s a side effect of looking like Legend. All nine of them looking like they’re related does earn them a lot of glances.
They pass another swirled imprint in the ground. Warriors grimaces.
Aiming to distract him, Hyrule offers a question. “Why bring me along? And not someone else? Seems Sailor or Champion would like this sort of thing more.”
The captain’s pained expression softens and he shrugs. “Well, sure, but how often do just the two of us spend time together?”
“...That’s true,” Hyrule acknowledges.
They look through the few stores lining the streets, and then come across one that seems to sell everything. The old man is sure to find use for something here.
Time’s not very attached to sentimental items, preferring gifts that have some functionality. Something enchanted and small, then?
Warriors leaves in a minute or so at some point to inspect items on the other side, leaving Hyrule to look through the pendants and trinkets in a raised stand nearby.
He doesn’t sense magic coming off the pendants; must be purely for decoration. The figurines and brooches beside them have faint protection spells on them, but not nearly enough to be useful. They’re marked up for quite a price.
Yeah, he figures with a wry smile, if Time gave Malon a wedding ring that had a protection spell strong enough for Legend to identify it from a distance, this would be worthless to him.
Somewhere behind him, Warriors is absorbed in a conversation with the shopkeeper.
He heads to another part of the shop, discarding fancy fragrances and weak magic rings as he finds them. He comes across a shelf with hooks embedded in the backboard, lined with pocket watches on chains, from gilded copper to plain bronze.
Time probably has no use for these. The man is practically a clock all his own.
But, Hyrule’s never had one of these all his own...
His gaze catches on one. All the watches have a bit of maintenance magic on them, likely to stop them from lagging or falling out of time, but this one seems a little off. He picks it up to look at it closer.
It’s plain metal, glossy silvery-blue, with a thicker chain than the others’. The glass inside it is a little cracked, but not that badly. Something is engraved on the ba—
“What’re those?” Warriors asks.
Hyrule nearly jumps out of his skin.
“Don’t do that,” he huffs, giving the captain a half-hearted shove.
Warriors ignores him. “Oh, pocket watches. You don’t have those in your era, right?”
Normally, Hyrule would bristle at a question like that. He doesn’t need pity, and his world isn’t a wasteland no matter what others think. But there’s nothing but genuine curiosity in Warriors’ tone, so he answers honestly. “Not really… I just tell time by the sun.”
“Do you want that one?”
“It might break soon.” No maintenance magic on it, after all. “No point in carrying it if I can’t fix it.”
“No, trust me. Seems like a good one. We can even get it enchanted if you’d like.”
Hyrule turns and gives him a strange look. “What’s with this niceness all of a sudden?”
Warriors rolls his eyes. “Well, clearly someone needs to steal you away from Legend. You’re getting all cynical like him already. A captain always looks after his men, so if that means spending a little on pocket watches here and th—”
Alright, Hyrule gets it. “Oh, my hero,” the traveler cuts him off with a grin. Truthfully, he doesn’t really want it. But if Warriors is going to be this generous, who’s he to turn it down?
A flash of blue in the edge of his vision. A girl with long blue hair ducks out of the door.
“Find anything for Time?” he asks curiously, meeting the captain’s gaze again.
A shake of the head. “Unless armor polish counts.”
The shopkeeper tilts his head and makes an expression at the pocket watch when they go to pay for it, but sells it nonetheless. As they’re walking back, Hyrule’s fingers brush over the back of it again. Oh, that’s right. The engraving. It’s… Nayru’s symbol? The goddess, not the oracle. It’s upside down, but there nonetheless.
Maybe it was printed incorrectly. Odd.
Well, it’s later evening by now, so the two of them ought to head back to the others.
They don’t talk much on the street. Hyrule pays no mind to the silence, fiddling with his new item. The city’s lanterns aren’t lit yet. And that’s a little odd; even New Kasuto and Mido Town light up their streets for the night.
He mentions this offhand to Warriors, and to his surprise the captain has an answer.
“The shopkeep mentioned that it’d be midnight when the lights turned on. Said it was because of the sorceress Veran.
“Hundreds of years ago, the sorceress took control of the old queen and created an eternal day, something about breaking the peoples’ spirits to build a tower…? The guy didn’t really know. But a certain hero happened to save the day and brought back the night. It’s a tradition to preserve the dark, as I understand it.”
“Oh. Interesting,” Hyrule muses.
Across the path from the inn, they spot Legend.
The veteran’s a few meters away and walking in the same direction as them, his hair frizzy and tangled from the magic seed travel he’s probably been doing for the past few hours.
Warriors’ expression lights up. Hyrule can already see the mischief he’s planning. “Hey, Ledge—”
“No. I can’t hear you.”
“Oh, come on,” Warriors says breezily, walking faster until he’s by Legend’s side and hanging off his shoulder. Hyrule snorts and catches up. “What’s got you all ruffled?” Legend rolls his eyes.
“Not that it’s anything to you, but the Gorons didn’t recognize me and the Zora didn’t have any news on monster sightings.”
“Tough luck,” Hyrule offers, but Legend suddenly stops in his tracks.
On instinct, the two of them mirror his action. He’s looking at a man about their age with bright red hair and a short, frilled blue cape, passing by.
The man turns to look at them once he notices they’ve frozen. He stops as well, clearly trying to identify their faces.
His eyebrows rise once he figures it out.
“Link,” he greets, moving forward to meet them. His voice is clipped, a little grumpy, but Legend doesn’t react. Takes one to know one, Wind would say. “How long has it been?”
Legend shrugs, meeting him halfway as well. “You tell me, Ralph. I haven’t been keeping track.”
Ralph gives him a strange look.
Oh.
That’s an innocuous response, if a little strange, but Hyrule sees it for what it is. Legend’s trying to place their exact year. Clever.
Ralph shrugs. “Five years, just about. Why?”
“Just asking.”
“Mm. You’ve changed, I nearly didn't recognize you. I see you dyed your hair?”
Oh, is that a question Legend clearly regrets hearing. Because he groans loudly and turns around, tossing his hands up once Warriors immediately lights up, speaking for the first time in this conversation. “He dyed his hair! What color did it used to be?”
Ralph takes one look at Legend, still in a state of pain and regret, and grins. “Pink.”
“Pink!” the captain repeats, delighted. He elbows Legend, bringing his attention back. “You didn’t tell us you had pink hair before!”
“Because it wasn’t that pink.”
“It was,” the man interjects.
“Fuck you.”
“I’m Ralph, by the way,” the man says more formally, addressing Warriors and Hyrule properly now. He dips his head and bows a little. And that’s a formal greeting… he’s probably a noble of some kind, Hyrule guesses. No one but his princesses and the court talk like that. “Link here helped me out on my quest—”
Legend scoffs. “You got your ass beat and needed me to save you.”
“—and if I may ask, who are you?”
Hyrule makes eye contact with Warriors.
Every man is out for himself in this lawless land. It’s either the traveler has to introduce himself as being named after a literal country, or the captain has to say his name is Warriors. And Hyrule’s sacrifices for his friends only go so far.
“Funny story, I’m Link too,” Hyrule says quickly before Warriors can speak. “Common name where we’re from, I know.”
“I see. And your friend here is a knight…?”
Warriors glares at the traveler before nodding. “Nice to meet you.”
Legend steps in again.
“By the way, we’re looking for Nayru. Where is she?”
Ralph blinks. “How would I know?”
“...What?”
“I don’t know where she is.” His voice takes a more accusive edge. “Why the hell would I?”
This clearly was not what Legend expected. He just stares after him for a moment, and Ralph sighs, angry.
“Was that all you wanted me for?”
“Well, no, but…” Hyrule begins, but Ralph huffs again and... walks off.
“That was… strange,” Warriors says.
Legend frowns.
When the three of them return to the inn, they set up their items along with everyone else’s. They only managed to get two rooms since Twilight was, in Wind’s affectionate words, “a broke ass bitch,” but that was manageable. One bed in each room, so Four takes one and Legend takes the other.
Hyrule is staying in the room with Wind, Warriors, Legend, and Time. Dinner is a quiet affair, but throughout it Warriors is rubbing at his temples with a pained look on his face.
“You alright?” Four asks, a little concerned.
“Yeah,” the captain grits out. “I think I’m getting a migraine.”
“Ouch,” Sky offers sympathetically. “Need potion? Or something for the pain?”
“No, but thank you. I’ll be alright tomorrow. The magic here is just… annoying.”
They lay out their bedrolls after dinner and go to sleep. The pocket watch rests atop Hyrule’s bag.
The traveler is up early the next morning.
Their rooms are sparse; plain white walls and wooden flooring, a small bed with white sheets, and a drawer beside it each. A dresser on the other side of the room, and beside the right-side one, a washroom. Legend is curled up on the bed, asleep, and around the room are the rest of his friends. Hyrule rubs at his eyes, blinks the sleep out of them, then gets up carefully, trying not to make too much noise.
Both Warriors and Legend have been looking tired lately, he thinks. He hopes they can get at least a little rest. Fortunately, neither stir when he heads to clean his teeth and wash his face.
Neither does Time, actually. Lucky, he supposes.
Hyrule rummages through his items once he returns for something to do while the rest of them are still asleep. Oh, there— his sewing kit. His red tunic got a tear in it a few weeks ago.
Before long, he’s set to work patching it up. His needle dips in and out of the cloth, the quiet sound being the only one accompanying him for the next hour or so.
Wind is up first. The sailor yawns and props himself up on his elbows as he looks around, makes eye contact with Hyrule for a moment, and then flops back down. He tosses an arm over his eyes.
“...Are you actually sleeping?” Hyrule whispers after a moment.
“No.”
The traveler chuckles quietly. “Thought so.”
This sound is enough to rouse Warriors, who groans when he’s awake. “What day is it?” he mumbles.
“Tuesday,” Wind says.
Another great sigh. Warriors hauls himself up. The dark circles under his eyes are darker, which isn’t a good sign.
The two of them head in to get cleaned up as well, Warriors grabbing his scarf and the pins he uses to fasten it to his tunic once he returns. The door leading into the hallway creaks open soon after. Four whispers, “I left my bag in here,” and tiptoes over to get it and leave.
Time still doesn’t wake up. Poor guy must be really tired.
There’s more rustling and shuffling as people set up, getting their proper clothes and light armor out. Twilight gets out of his bedroll as well, showing up to check on the rest of them. His face twists into a sympathetic expression when he sees the veteran and Time sleeping in.
Hyrule lets the quiet bustle around him continue uninterrupted while he continues fixing up his tunic.
Wind wanders past him and idly picks up the pocket watch atop his bag.
“Huh, that’s strange…” he wonders aloud, then looks questioningly at Warriors. “Hyrule’s watch isn’t working.”
Warriors tilts his head. “That is strange. We just wound it.”
Legend wakes up all of a sudden, sitting up in bed, sparing a look at Time’s bedroll on the ground beside him, and scowling at the three of them. “Talk quieter,” he grumbles at regular volume. Time snores on.
The veteran gets up, though, and stretches. His bones crack one after another. Wind would probably make some old man joints comment, but before he can, Sky gently opens the door.
The morning continues, with the old man getting up a few minutes later and everyone talking to each other again. Hyrule puts away his kit and gets ready as well.
“Are you alright?” Hyrule asks once Time is washed up. Time blinks at him. “You seemed tired today.”
“Oh.” His look softens. “Thank you, but I’m not injured. I’d tell you if I was. There’s…” His gaze drifts over to Warriors, chatting with Wind. “...a project I’ve been working on as of late.”
Hyrule raises his eyebrow.
“I’d tell you if I was injured, don’t worry,” Time assures him.
Hyrule nods, but keeps his scrutinizing gaze on Time to really drive home his I’m-watching-you point.
But that is true, Hyrule supposes a few minutes later while he rearranges some of his items. Out of them all, Time, Warriors, and Four are the most upfront about whenever they need healing. Sky as well since he knows how his Zelda would react to him getting himself hurt without doing anything about it, then Wind soon followed suit because he heard that hiding injuries is childish. And that leaves just Legend with his independence complex, Twilight with his big-brother complex, and Wild with his guilt complex as the three drama queens.
The captain moves closer to the center of their group and clears his throat. “We should go out and start looking for signs of monster attacks as soon as we can,” he says matter-of-factly.
O...kay.
It seems a bit early for that, especially since there’s been no signs of unrest just yet, but if Warriors thinks it’s for the best, Hyrule doesn’t see any issue with it. From the looks of it, Wind is a bit confused too.
From there, they get fully packed up.
No monster reports in Lynna City, although…
“...Hey, Legend?” Wild asks, voice a little too cheerful to mean anything but trouble.
“...What.”
“Who’s the person in that statue?” he says sweetly, in the tone of someone who knows exactly who the person in that statue is.
Everyone looks towards it. It’s the one on the fountain Hyrule had seen earlier, of a young hero in a simple tunic, long cap, and holding a very familiar sword and shield. Surely enough—
“Is that you?” Hyrule gasps. Legend makes a loud noise of denial, groaning about how he told Ambi not to set those up, he was not this important, but that doesn’t stop everyone from clamoring around him in cheer. The odd funk of this morning has all but dissipated.
“You didn’t tell me they made statues of you!” Warriors says, delight lighting up his features.
“Yeah, they don’t even have statues of you in Hyrule,” Wind interjects.
Hyrule grins. “Not in the future, either.”
The other eight walk over to try and get a look at the inscription on the base of the fountain while Legend vehemently refuses to look at it.
Twilight seems to recognize the text, surprisingly. “Says ‘Dedicated to the Hero of Time.’”
This sends a lot of confused looks Time's way, who shrugs. When they bring it up to Legend they get another eye roll as though he’s explained this before. They start walking back to the people of the city.
“I’m the Hero of Legend in Hyrule. Ambi knows how I used the Harp of Ages, and I used that to travel through time, so that’s what they call me here. It’s different everywhere. Holodrum called me the Hero of the Seasons.”
“Hytopia?” Hyrule questions.
Legend blinks. “...the Triforce Hero. But that entire adventure was like a fever dream, so don’t count it.”
It’s a little shocking to hear the veteran being so candid about his adventures. Usually he keeps them under wraps so tightly. Not like Hyrule needs any refreshers, seeing as he’s heard all six stories from the old women in his world dozens of times each.
Emboldened by Legend’s willingness to talk this time, though, he tries the fourth.
“And Koholint?”
Legend stills.
And then he snorts, walking forward again. “Funny that you ask. They called me Thief.”
Another few hours filled with good-natured jabs yields no signs of attack in Lynna or anywhere near… but one person says that they got mail from Symmetry City mentioning something similar. Legend offers to Gale Seed them all there, but Time quickly denies. Fair. That plate armor seems like it would be more than a hassle to lug around in a magical tornado.
Twilight asks, “Would it be faster if we split up? Some of us go to Symmetry, the others head off in another direction.”
Time purses his lips. He looks at Legend, who looks at him and then looks at Warriors, who looks at Sky in confusion, who then also looks at Legend. What the hell…
“We’ve only got this one lead,” the veteran finally determines. “Labrynna is… more than a hassle to navigate. You won’t even get lost, just stuck somewhere you can’t get out of. And who’s to say we’d be able to find you?”
“Fair.” Twilight says. Hyrule doesn’t need to be a mind reader to see what he’s thinking, they’ve split up with the Sheikah Slate and Wind’s stone before… Why not do it again? Or hand out a Gale seed apiece? But he doesn’t bring it up.
After a moment’s hesitation, Sky speaks. A glimmer of mischief sparkles in his eye. “Vet, you mentioned that a certain Queen Ambi shouldn’t have—”
“No, shut up.”
“You didn’t even let me finish!”
Wind boos.
They all soon find out that Legend wasn’t wrong about Labrynna being a nightmare to navigate. By Hylia, all the Sages, and the Golden Three, who decided that the world would be riddled with this many holes in the ground. Legend ends up handing out some of his extra Roc’s feathers and capes for the bigger gaps. Thick bushes block pathways at every other turn, at points there are boulders wedged in the ground for no reason, and to top it all off Legend’s grumbling about how it wasn’t like this four hundred years ago.
“Four hundred?” Wild questions at some point.
Legend gives him a look as though he’s already explained this whole adventure before. It only stays for a brief moment, though. Probably because he remembered he hasn’t. The veteran huffs and launches into his dramatic retelling.
Hyrule tunes him out. As much as Legend’s theatrics are entertaining, they’re less entertaining when you’ve heard them dozens of times from the old women who offer to replenish your magic while you sit and wait for them to finish brewing the potion. It is a rare occasion for the veteran to be talking about his adventures, but for now Hyrule wants to get a lay of his surroundings. He can always pester Legend into telling him later, after all.
The land isn’t all bad. There are paths, precarious as they are, cobbled into place to bridge gaps. The trees are a bright spring-green, hints of flowers in them and distant clouds. It’s a lovely day. Residues of darker magic— or maybe traces from more recent tampering? Somehow they feel both hundreds of years and just days old— stain the signature of the area with a distant-recent melancholy.
“...and then Veran went and possessed Ralph. Such a pain. Honestly, goddessdamned wonder we didn’t pick up on it earlier, he’s normally so whiny about Nayru this, Nayru that. Veran’s whole possession thing wasn’t even new. Her gross magic trail stuck around for months after—”
“Wait, you said it’s gone now?” the traveler interjects, broken from his thoughts by the mention of the sorceress.
Legend blinks, then narrows his eyes at him. “It should be.”
Hyrule’s suddenly aware of nearly all the eyes on him. He shrugs the attention off. “Could swear I’ve been sensing some dark magic around here. It’s gotta be the portals.”
Four, normally a passive listener— he’s always so introspective— leans in. “Magic sensing? How does that work?”
The rest of the day dissolves into theorizing and arguing about how exactly magic sense works while Time and Legend fuss over the direction they’re supposed to go in. At some point, Wild figured it was lunchtime and offered out meat skewers.
Later in the evening, Sky pulls Four aside. Hyrule overhears something about remote bombs.
Symmetry City is… true to its name. Everything is mirrored perfectly, even the civilians; the group is asked to split up with half on one side and half on the other as they look for monster-related news. Four and Wind, being the two lightest, get counted as one person. Much to Wind’s indignation.
Well, it took them a long while to reach on foot and daylight is waning, so there’s nothing better to do than hurry up and get asking.
One of the women perks up when she hears what they’re looking for.
“Yes, we have. By the Talus Peaks. My husband went there to pick up some seeds, and he came back with an awful gash in his arm, no sword. Said something about a Lizalfos with dark blood chasing him down. He…” she purses her lips. “He said that he stabbed it and it didn’t die.”
A wince from around the group. Those damn things are tricky for even seasoned heroes to fight.
“Is he alright?” Hyrule asks.
She nods. “His arm was badly damaged, but potions fixed him up. Maple— she’s Syrup’s girl, you’ve likely seen her around— even brought us an extra blue potion for free.”
“Kind of her.”
“Yes… are you detectives of some sort? You don’t seem to be associated with the king.”
“Ah, no,” Hyrule denies, holding his hands up in a harmless gesture. “We’re just a few travelers. Er… it’s late now, do you know an inn where we could rest the night?”
The woman blinks. “There’s two in this city. Afraid you’ll likely have to split up, but you know how it is here.”
It’s another full day’s travel to the Talus Peaks, and this time, they’re nearly all ready to take a Gale Seed to reach there faster. But Legend denies them.
Something about there probably being clues along the way.
Whatever that means.
Hyrule decides to let it go. It’s a long walk, and a long time to think.
That thing about Time’s birthday hasn’t been looked after in a little bit. Really, what would Time want? He’s not about sentimental objects that aren’t too small to carry easily, he has almost all the things he’d need on a daily basis, and he never talks about what he wants. If Warriors still looked like a person who had gotten any reasonable amount of sleep in the past month, Hyrule would ask. But as it stands, Hyrule’s not mean enough or oblivious enough to bother him as he is.
Really. Last night, he tossed and turned, and when he finally fell asleep, he woke up in less than an hour. Which Hyrule was unfortunately aware of because he was the lightest sleeper and by Hylia herself, by dawn he was convinced that if the captain rolled over in bed one more time, Hyrule would consider just knocking him out to keep the quiet. The mood dimmed by his clear exhaustion, they trek on.
At that, the weather isn’t usually this turbulent, either. Sunny skies at noon and clouds on the verge of a downpour within just an hour? And he swears he can hear something happening behind them every time nobody’s looking back. The oppressive magic curls around their group, giving him goosebumps. Legend must not have been kidding about that sorceress’s residue being everywhere.
Warriors drifts to the end of the group and Hyrule follows.
Wild passes out rice balls. They eat. Wind is telling a story, but there isn’t as much heart in it. Warriors isn’t quite listening, and Hyrule’s idly gauging whether the captain needs stamina potion or one of those energy fruits Sky eats whenever he’s exhausted. Time probably has a—
Wait. “You think he’d want another mask?” Hyrule asks suddenly.
Warriors blinks at him. It takes a moment before he connects the dots to Time’s birthday.
“..Maybe,” the captain hums eventually. “He’s still got a lot of his with him. Would we need to enchant it, is the question...”
They’ve got to set up camp for the night.
“How long until we get there?” Twilight asks.
Time rubs at his sternum, clearing his throat. “Likely tomorrow. Morning, if we keep up this pace. There’s a town nearby.”
Hyrule wakes up at midnight to the sound of someone rummaging through a bag.
...It’s Sky who’s on watch, right? He’s a bit of an airhead, and tired a lot, but he wouldn’t let a monster get to their items.
Something tells him, though— perhaps a gut instinct— to keep his eyes shut and feign sleep. The noise is from behind him, maybe a good several feet away from Hyrule’s back. The traveler strains his ears, trying to get a hint as to who it is, and can’t get much other than the continued sound of items being sifted through. There are no footsteps to determine who it is, and their breathing is normal as breathing goes.
He keeps his eyes closed and turns in his bedroll, shifting a little to sell the sleeping act.
The sounds freeze.
Not a monster then. Those things aren’t smart enough to freeze.
After a few moments, they resume. The traveler cracks an eye open.
A long cloak of some kind trails over their shoulders. It takes a moment for Hyrule’s eyes to adjust better and figure out that it’s...
Sky?
And that is not Sky’s bag that he’s looking through.
Which Hyrule knows because Sky always keeps his bag wherever he’s sitting for watch. The one he’s looking through belongs to Four.
The chosen hero pulls something out of it and tucks it to his left side, out of Hyrule’s view. Gently closes the bag, and stands still. He draws himself up and looks over his shoulder, as though to ensure no monsters are looking at him. Doesn’t he know their group is over here?
The traveler closes his eyes. A few more moments pass.
“...Hyrule?” Sky whispers.
He says nothing.
A brief exhale. Sky tiptoes off.
After a few moments, there are three taps of a Gale seed and the quiet whoosh of the subsequent wind. Sky has returned to his post.
From his position, Hyrule can’t tell who left.
“Change of plans,” Legend announces. “We’re not going to Talus Peaks. Last night I heard news that there’s nothing there.”
News…? No, no he didn’t. “From who?” Twilight challenges, suspicious.
“Maple,” the veteran fires back. “You remember. The woman from Symmetry mentioned her. She flies around, and she just happened to come by last night. She’s an old friend of mine.”
“An old friend,” Wild repeats.
Legend scoffs. “Yes. I gave her a weird cucco egg once and then she started giving me discounts.”
A moment of silence passes.
Warriors elbows the old man. “Did Malon ever give you discounts?”
Time rolls his eyes. “I don’t see why that’s important.”
“She didn’t, did she?”
The uneasy atmosphere is broken. Wild and Wind want to know what Time meant, how he and Malon met, and that leaves the rest back while Legend herds them in a different direction.
Hyrule would normally join in their antics, but he didn’t buy that excuse for a minute. And, from the looks of it, neither do Twilight and Four. Still, no one complains. They walk.
An hour later, the traveler’s a little antsy. And Four seems to be none the wiser about Sky stealing something of his. Well... it’s his items. Surely he deserves to know if his stuff is missing.
Hyrule drifts to the back of the group where Four is usually walking, but just before he can open his mouth to speak, Sky straightens all of a sudden. From the corner of his eye, Hyrule can barely see him rush over.
“Traveler,” he says. He fiddles with his sailcloth. “I wanted to ask you something.”
Hyrule narrows his eyes. “Why?”
Four gives them a weird look.
“Er… can I not ask you questions?” Sky says awkwardly with a chuckle. He rubs at the back of his neck. Hyrule gives him another scrutinizing look, then nods. The chosen hero beckons him even further back.
“Are you alright?” the chosen hero asks once they’re far enough away. “You’ve been a little quiet.”
And, well, the absurdity of that question catches him off guard.
“Why do you ask?” Hyrule returns.
“I’d… like to check on my friend? Because that’s what friends do?”
His hand comes up to rub nervously at the back of his neck again. He bites his lip.
Liar.
“Well, thanks. I’m alright.”
“Ah. I’m glad.”
An idea comes to Hyrule. “Any idea why we’re changing directions all of a sudden?” he asks suddenly, watching the chosen hero for his reaction.
A blink. He shrugs before his hand comes up to fiddle with the brooch of his sailcloth. “Well, you heard Legend, about Maple. It must have been before or after I woke up for my shift, since I didn’t hear anything.”
Bullshit.
He’s in on it.
The two of them catch up to the rest. Sky keeps shooting him nervous looks, as though he doesn’t quite believe that he was asleep. But the chosen hero doesn’t say anything.
For once, Time is telling a story.
“...she was quite the fan of pranks. It was only children who lived there, you have to remember…”
Is… is he talking about his childhood? Time? Wind waves at Hyrule when he notices him, and mirrors the traveler’s confused expression.
The sound of unsettled leaves reaches his ears from behind.
When Hyrule turns, he swears the grass was greener a moment ago.
They pass a huge tree, its leaves dotted with large orange fruits in a distinct flame shape. They’re seeds, Legend corrects. Not fruits. Ember Seeds. It’s just another twenty minutes until he decides it’s time to set up for the night.
It’s getting darker, Hyrule supposes. But that’s probably more because of the rain clouds passing over the horizon. There’s a cave a little ways off, and they set up inside before it rains.
It doesn’t rain.
That night, the traveler hears Gale seeds again. Legend, on watch, makes no move to investigate.
It makes him wonder.
What happens when we get to the Peaks?
The next morning’s packing and preparing is tense. Warriors hadn’t slept last night, clearly, since he’s sluggish and keeps trying to blink sleep out of his eyes. And the fact that he didn’t stop shifting around in his bedroll once.
Legend chats with Wild and Hyrule along the way once they start moving. Something-or-other about his magic lantern.
“Traveler,” Warriors says, “Come back here.”
Legend stops talking abruptly. He gives them a wary look, but doesn’t stop Hyrule from moving away.
“What’s wrong?” Hyrule asks once they’re out of earshot.
“Time left last night,” Warriors says quietly. “He took two Gale seeds, used one to leave and one to return. I’m sure of it. Last night, remember we stopped last night some ways off from an Ember Seed tree? When the old man came back, he came back from that direction. I checked this morning”
That’s… that’s more than strange.
“Did he have anything with him?”
The captain shakes his head. “I couldn’t see in the dark. Probably, though. Did you see anything?”
“No…” Hyrule sighs. “But I heard him leave. Legend was on watch. He didn’t do anything to figure out who it was.”
“Have you asked him what’s going on?”
“Not yet. Have you?”
“Yes, two days ago. And then Legend stayed away from me for a few hours.”
“Mmm… have we been here before?” the traveler asks suddenly.
He could swear this trail looks familiar. The trees look like the ones by Symmetry City again, and though they’re losing their leaves and the grass is yellowing, he could swear they’re the same ones.
Warriors blinks. “I don’t follow.”
“This area. It looks like it’s by Symmetry, I swear we were here a few days ago.”
“The trees are going brown, though,” the captain points out. “As far as I can tell, it’s not anywhere close to winter. And they wouldn’t die in that short of a timespan. Just three days?”
But there’s something happening, he swears it. There’s some magic in the air, something dark and uneasy and disturbed that’s warping the air. The grass under their feet is dying unnaturally fast… and the sky is roiling through clouds and sun far too many times for just one day.
Warriors gives Wind his scarf once the kid starts to shiver. Four pulls his hood over his head.
And yet, that night the weather is hot. Hot and rainy. The world is filled with the downpour as they all try to rest.
Warriors passes into a fitful sleep. No one leaves tonight.
The next morning, they wake to a shout. Hyrule jackknifes in his bedroll, turning to find the noise and seeing Warriors heaving for breath in the same position, clutching at the front of his tunic. His eyes are wild, and fists nearly white from how tightly they’re clenched. Legend and Four, already standing, are frozen in place watching him gasp for air like a drowning man.
A moment passes and the spell is broken. Hyrule shoves his covers off and rushes over to the captain. In his periphery, he notices Wind and Twilight doing the same. They crowd around him, but not too close— he doesn’t quite look like he’s alright yet.
His breathing finally slows and he slumps where he sits.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight chances.
Warriors notices he has an audience. The tips of his ears redden. He draws his knees closer to his chest and shakes his head, disconcerted.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“Nasty dream, I bet,” Wind offers. The end of his sentence rises in pitch a little, a question.
Warriors hesitates, and nods.
“I can’t remember it, though.”
Another moment passes, and the captain takes one final deep breath before pushing his thin blanket off and standing. He rubs at his eye with the base of his palm and returns to his usual gallant voice.
“Well, no matter dwelling on it,” he says confidently. It almost sounds believable. “We’re off again this morning, aren’t we?”
Legend gives him a doubtful look. “...Yeah. We get to the Peaks today.”
“You’re sure you don’t want a bit of a break, Captain?” Hyrule inputs. He levels a sharp look at Legend, a subtle challenge.
Warriors shakes his head, though. “I’m alright. Let’s just get moving.”
And move they do. In less than an hour, everyone is packed and ready to go. There’s one thing stopping them.
Which is that Legend and Time are stubbornly stationed at the front of the group… arguing? They’re arguing over where to go.
“We’re taking the long route,” Time says.
“No, we’re going through the forest. I’m not adding another two hours to our travel time just because you felt like it.”
“This is not the time to argue, Veteran.”
“Well, then stop arguing. Which one of us knows this area again?”
A flash of irritation sparks in Time’s eye, and he opens his mouth to say something again. Legend crosses his arms and tilts his chin up defiantly. It’s a scene humorously similar to a father scolding his disobedient son. Before he speaks, though, he seems to catch himself and look around.
The other seven are staring owlishly at the encounter, exchanging wary looks between each other.
“Fine.” Time grits out.
Legend looks as though he wants to make an acidic remark back, but before he can, Twilight is ushering him forward, speaking to him in low tones. The veteran steers them all in the right direction. Time lingers in the back with Four, irritated expression dissolving in a few minutes. The smithy doesn’t speak to him. Giving him time to cool off.
“Time, are you alright?” Hyrule asks eventually.
“I’m fine. Thank you, Traveler,” he responds in a tone that brooks no further questions.
Well, alright then.
The sky rumbles. No rain falls.
At that, Hyrule could swear there’s something else wrong with the land. The warped magic is growing even more potent, faster than he can block it out and get used to it. It’s spiking. They’ve passed this area before, he’s sure of it. But hadn’t Legend said that they weren’t going this way…?
Wind and Wild are uneasy. The younger approaches everyone separately at some point to discuss in quieter tones.
“Hey, Hyrule,” Wind says, twisting his hands together. “Are you going to ask them what’s wrong?”
“I thought someone else would. Wars said he asked the Vet, got the cold shoulder for it.”
“Sky’s being cagey, too.”
“Figures.”
A warm breeze ruffles their tunics. They enter sparse woods, the trees taller and more foreboding than the ones they’d seen before. The path isn’t well kept— clearly, people don’t come this way much.
A beat of silence. Then, clearly just to break it,
“Ledge, could I use your ice rod for a minute?” the captain calls.
Legend shakes his head immediately. “Out of magic.”
“The rod is out of magic?”
His patience clearly stretched thinner today, Legend rolls his eyes. He turns back to the path. “Yes, Link. That happens when you use magical items,” he says as though he’s speaking to a child. “They run out of magic.”
“...Just a question.”
The sparse forest becomes denser as they travel, the trees in varying shades of orange and red and green. Sunlight— sunlight that hadn’t been there an hour ago— filters through the leaves.
Day wanes into evening in tense silence.
“...We’re almost there,” Legend says. There is no fanfare. The veteran straightens his shoulders, hand drifting towards his sword, before catching himself and bringing it back.
As promised, the forest thins out again.
A rocky outcropping makes itself visible, a jagged cliffside, filled with precarious trails and paths through the area. There are caves all over the damn thing.
Hyrule gives the others a wary glance, letting it linger on Legend for a moment. The veteran is squinting at the cliffs, searching for something.
The snapping of branches, an awful creaking tear, reaches his ears and he whirls around. The rest of their group does the same, and—
Well.
That answers his doubts about the land being fucked up, doesn’t it.
The gaps in the trees are sewn shut by branches themselves, They form a mesh wall, blocking them in. Each hero is no stranger to arenas. They’re standard dungeon fare, after all. But never in an area so big, or with a silence so oppressive. The clicking of swords and shields being unstrapped and readied fills the air as they all brace themselves.
A shrill whistle shatters the air.
And the cliffs are swarming.
Wind shouts in alarm as a keese swoops down out of nowhere at his hair. Wild is able to stab it out of the air, but those things are never alone— advancing towards them are hordes of monsters, some gruesome and familiar, some Hyrule’s never seen before.
Before he knows it, he’s in motion.
Hyrule darts forward to stab a Lizalfos while it’s unprepared. He whirls to catch a blow flying at his head from another. It curls its lips in a snarl as he knocks away its blade with his own and kills it.
A moment to look around; good, the rest of them are fighting monsters on their own, and they’re doing alright. Sky’s in the middle of a group of Daira, while Wild is dealing with the keese from a distance. No one in Hyrule’s immediate vicinity needs help; Wind is fending for himself, and Legend’s got his Mirror Shield out to block all the blows sent his way.
Before he can decide who to go to, a stab of magic hits him in the gut and he turns his head to make eye contact with a Goriya that’s picked him to mimic. Those damn things— he backs away, watching it mirror his motions perfectly, and once he’s far enough away raises his shield to stop the strike of some worm-like beast that’s still half-burrowed in the ground, its monstrous head raised above him. He braces himself, rolling to dodge a blow, and charges his sword with Fire. He swings it in a burning arc, letting the flame take care of the creature.
And then he feels claws on his shoulder.
An involuntary shout is ripped from his throat at the sudden feeling. He shakes the beast off, staring down a Goriya from his own world. His burning blade finds its way into its chest, and suddenly he’s surrounded by them.
Well, he’s no Warriors, but he knows a few crowd-controllers. Angling his sword, he lunges forward with a long slash that knocks down more than a few of them. He fends off the rest, letting instinct guide his movements.
They all attack him from the front and he steadies himself backwards, holding his shield up to block the attacks aimed at his face and torso.
Take it slow, Link.
There— he dispatches them one at a time, readjusting the grip on his sword and stabbing each, backing up a safe distance while he fends them off.
There’s one more and he lets his shield down, stepping backwards again to dodge a swipe of its claws, and he shouts in frustration as it skips to his left. He swings his arm in a wide arc, pivoting as he does so,
and barely muffles a shriek when another blade embeds itself in his side.
He yanks his sword inward and the sword in his gut is pulled out; he’s bleeding, heavily, but he turns to see nothing but the Goriya from before, which mocks his expression with an evil grin. He readies his sword again, watching it perfectly repeat the action, and fills it with another charge of Fire.
He makes a short jab at it, letting the spell’s burning projectile do the work for him in piercing the monster through the heart. Its magic on him gives a short, nauseous heave before shattering when it dies.
There’s a Lizalfos running at him, and he curses, drawing on his magic again for a cast of Life. He gasps at the sudden pain of a wound being stitched together in less than an instant, the awful snap of skin and muscles and organs replacing themselves as though they’d never been hurt.
He meets the monster with a parry, then kicks it in the chest.
It tumbles to the ground.
He gets just a moment to catch his breath before another round of monsters is running for him.
Hyrule hefts his shield again, flipping his grip on the sword in his palm to get rid of the sweat sticking to it.
An iron knuckle is approaching behind the creatures. Its armor shines blue in the light.
And belatedly he realizes how far away he is from the rest of his comrades. The closest now is Sky, battling an armed Stalfos. He’s doing fine, but of course he is; his speed with the Master Sword is impossible to match.
He retreats back closer to the cliffs, within eyesight of Twilight. He’s being covered by Time, the two of them back to back in the middle of the fray. But that’s no matter right now, since there’s—
An arrow whistles as it just barely misses Hyrule’s head. He refocuses his attention on the monsters before him, running his blade through a few with some well-timed slashes. There’s something behind him, a boulder of some kind, and he doesn’t want to risk running into it and being cornered, so he squares his feet and starts to push forward while he dispatches a Lizalfos.
Another three meet their end on his blade. A Bokoblin too.
He is not gaining ground fast enough.
He is made aware of this because a Keese flies straight for his face and he shouts as he backs up again on instinct, trying to get its talons off him. It tears at his cheeks and narrowly misses his eyes, but now there’s a cut on his brow that’s dripping into his eyes and by Hylia the iron knuckle, a blue iron knuckle coming at him—
He stumbles to the right, one eye tightly shut, and swings his sword in a wide arc to stop a monster from taking off his arm. It’s caught by the base of his blade, dangerously close to the hilt, and as its body drops the back of his hand is spattered with black blood.
The moment spent identifying it is too long.
The iron knuckle, suddenly upon him, is swinging its mace down, and his feet aren’t moving and his shield can’t block that and something in him, instinctual and as fundamental as the Triforce branded on his hand, makes his magic rush to his aid without his will.
It morphs into a familiar spell, spilling over him right as the end of the mace is about to hit.
His sword and shield drop like stones to the ground and the world slows as he shrinks, delicate wings snapping out of his back behind him. He can see everything in perfect clarity for just a moment— he tumbles out of the way of the weapon, and, energy renewed, darts past the iron knuckle as his perception of time jumpstarts once more.
He scans the ground briefly and— yes, there, that works. The knuckle is confused, looking around, but it reaches for his shield.
And Hyrule is not fucking letting that thing take his shield.
He plunges through the air towards the club of a dead moblin, transforming back in midair as he reaches for it. Wings fold out of existence as he switches forms, and—
His perception of the world slows to a crawl again, long enough for him to register that that’s… frost?
Shards of frost and ice cling to the gash in the dead moblin’s chest, and when he looks around in this time-slowed state, there’s monsters all around him with similar marks. But there’s no way that Legend’s using his ice rod. It’s out of magic.
Did he lie about that…?
And as he looks towards the cave he swears he catches sight of dismembered parts. Those are signs of bombing. Wouldn’t he have heard bombs if someone detonated them?
No matter for now; his limbs morph in size once more as he ducks and rolls onto the ground in full size, picking up the club and bashing the knuckle in the back of the head. He takes back his sword and his shield, and gets back to fighting.
There’s no fanfare for the end of the battle. Just a skittering noise as the last monsters run away, and the heaving as the heroes stand again.
Now that they have time to look around, the battlefield is gruesome. Hyrule checks himself first; his cuts have mostly sealed up, his items are accounted for. All that’s left to do now is to check on everyone else.
A brief headcount shows five of the others, not including himself.
That’s wrong.
They’re missing three.
Warriors, Wild, Wind, Twilight, Four. That leaves… Sky. Sky, Time, and Legend.
A bad feeling is roiling in his stomach. But he can’t focus on that now.
The six heroes gather together at the edge of the battlefield, as far away from the carnage as they can get. The captain is checking on everyone already by the time Hyrule’s there, and he fills in a report of the injuries. Nothing potion can’t fix. Which is good, because Life is an awfully painful spell when you’re not distracted by being in the middle of a fight.
“How’s your magic?” Warriors asks him.
Hyrule blinks. Now that he thinks about it… not great. He’s depleted. Repeated casts of Fire aren’t so taxing on their own, but that Fairy spell was overdoing it.
He accepts a magic potion and a red potion, going through and checking on everyone as well while he drinks.
The red one goes down in a few gulps. Magic ones aren’t nearly as easy, though. He keeps the bottle on him as he searches the area.
There.
Footprints in the mud.
Hyrule turns sharply towards the five others, wrapping up minor injuries and trying to figure out where their most experienced heroes have gone. Twilight makes eye contact with the traveler, and Hyrule points at the direction of the footsteps.
Twilight looks at Wild, and nods.
It’s three sets of bootprints, and Hyrule knows what the soles of Pegasus Boots are like. Four’s Castletown had a shoemaker who explained it to them, the way they were smoother to increase speed. These are Legend’s boots, and by the looks of the other two footprints, Time’s and Sky’s as well.
Potion still clasped in his hand, he sets his jaw and walks.
The path is winding and precarious, and something is wrong.
It leads into the woods again, somewhere in an off direction from where they all came from, and the trees are so dense that it’s near suffocating. Bushes scrape at his legs and he has to duck out of the way of branches and—
A loud creak from behind him.
He turns around to face the noise.
...The trail behind him is gone.
Not so much gone as blocked entirely by one of the trees leaning over, trunk ripped as though it had been shoved, and blocking the path. Its leaves are bright orange.
That confirms it. The world around them is ripping itself up and leading them somewhere. There’s another loud snap of branches, the scrape of rocks moving. He swears there’s something moving in the corner of his vision.
Hyrule whirls around to try and pinpoint what he saw.
He downs the magic potion and readies the bottle, the neck in his grip, to throw it if need be.
All he catches is the tail end of the movement. It’s too human, though. That’s not a tree branch.
He drops the bottle and hefts his shield firmly before moving faster. Behind him he can hear more noises, but he doesn’t look after the first few. The clouds roil and curdle, rain on the brink of falling but not a drop reaching the ground.
There’s a particularly loud snapping of branches and he freezes.
He was not here before. No one is behind him, but the trail is completely different, winding in a direction he’s never traveled in. The rumble of storm clouds overhead is a signal to go, go faster, keep moving.
He does.
There’s a ticking sound of the pocket watch in his bag, one he hasn’t heard in days.
The footprints continue and he keeps on as the foliage thins and the trees start to space out. The rocky outcroppings make a return as space curls itself around him once more, the stone growing tall and imposing again. And, further in, Hyrule hears voices.
Angry and middle-pitched. Legend. “We keep getting fucking dropped here, at this stupid fucking wall, and for what?! Is there something we need to do? I swear, if that blasted Goddess would just give us a clear message—”
A low voice. Time. “Any luck?” Legend’s rambling is cut off.
A quieter tone. Sky. “No. Hookshot doesn’t even go into it. Maybe it’s one of yours?”
Legend curses again. “We can throw seeds on it till the world ends. It doesn’t work.”
Hyrule frowns. He creeps forward, straining his ears to hear more.
Time sighs. “I’ve been through my masks.”
“Your tools?”
“...No.”
“We need to keep trying, then,” Sky insists.
A loud bang.
“...Magic hammer doesn’t work,” Legend sighs.
With a start, Hyrule realizes that while he was focused on listening to the voices, he’s already somewhere near unrecognizable. And that’s disturbing. He’s somehow in the middle of a narrow, rock-surrounded path, imposing cliffs on his right side and a declining wall of rock on his left. It wanes into larger boulders, ones Hyrule can hide behind. Before him, perpendicular to the path he's on, is a wall, strata of dull-colored minerals painting it in faint tones. As the boulders taper off, more of it is visible. And around the corner of the last large stone, he can see them.
Time, Sky, and Legend are messing with the wall. It’s really plain, as cliffsides go. There’s dozens in Hyrule’s world, dozens more in Wild’s— there’s nothing special about it at all. Hyrule ducks behind the rock again, paying close attention to what he hears.
“...Vet?” Time murmurs, an idea clearly dawning on him. Hyrule narrows his eyes. “You have your magic mirror, don’t you?”
Legend catches on immediately. “You think there’s a message on it.”
A sailcloth rustles. “There must be. Why else would we be here again? Whoever’s controlling this forest wants us here.”
“I don’t have enough magic for my lens,” the old man reasons. “Your mirror is our best shot.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m looking…”
The pocket watch’s ticking feels too loud.
Hyrule’s mind is buzzing. He’s tired, he’s hungry, and this is a whole lot of obfuscating information that he needs to organize right now.
The three of them have been to this rock wall more than once. They’ve tried to destroy it and move past it. It didn’t work. The Goddess is involved…? Though Legend blames the Goddess for everything and it could be him misattributing the situation. The forest twisting around them isn’t just something happening to Hyrule. Something was steering them all right here. But why are they…
Sky gasps.
Hyrule’s attention is snapped back to the present. He peeks around the boulder at where Legend is holding the mirror at an awkward angle to the wall. Sky is staring into it, and whatever’s reflected must be fascinating, because he grabs Time and hauls him up to look at it.
“It’s… it’s from Farore. Oracle Farore. Come read this.”
Legend shifts around to a place where he can read too.
Hyrule makes up his mind.
He sets down his sword and shield as gently as he can manage on the dusty-stone ground, and his newly replenished magic coils around him as he casts the spell. He transforms.
Miniature wings stretch out of his back as he shrinks to a size that makes those wings dwarf him.
Trying to tone down his glow as best he can, Hyrule flits over his hiding place and hovers over where the three of them are poring over something in the rock face. Absorbed in what they’re reading, they don’t see him.
“‘...a secret per hero and you will be free?’” Legend repeats. “The hell does that mean?”
“That’s our condition.”
There’s a strange feeling as Hyrule thinks about this. A growing, pounding headache of sudden magic is scraping its way through the air.
“But why? If they’re under the Dark’s control, how are they trying to help us?”
“Look there. There’s another line at the bottom.”
Time leans in to read it. “‘Don’t let them figure out what you’re doing.’”
Sky frowns. “That must be what caused the reset last time, then, right? We told Warriors.”
Reset…?
A place they were supposedly repeatedly sent to. Leaving at nights and changing direction randomly. Time arguing with Legend over where to go despite never having set foot out of his home country before.
...As though they’d done these things before.
The faint roar of magic in his ears gets stronger as he flies closer to the mirror, trying to see what it says, and he doesn’t quite process what Legend curses, “If she’d just let us out of this fucking loop—”
The veteran’s eyes, caught by the motion of Hyrule’s flight, dart to him and then back to the mirror. The mirror his true reflection is visible in—
“Hyrule?!” Legend gasps, and just then the information that those three are in a time loop hits Hyrule, and the roaring of unfamiliar, stained magic both ancient and new overtakes them all.
The world does not go black. It undoes itself, and the traveler's consciousness is reversed with it.
“Huh, that’s strange…” Wind muses. “Hyrule’s watch isn’t working.”
"That is strange," Warriors says. "We just wound it.”
Legend wakes up.