Chapter Text
None of them realized it was possible. That’s the worst part.
They’ve been trekking across various Hyrules for months now, meeting each others’ friends and allies, fighting monsters, getting into trouble. It’s fun, in a way their individual adventures rarely were; it’s nice to have people around that get it. They are, after all, sort of the same person, deep down. It’s nice to feel seen and understood, even though they all inevitably butt heads.
But the point stands - they’ve been traveling for a while and things have been relatively good, given how injured they get on a regular basis.
So, naturally, no one gives it a second thought when Wild gets hurt in a particularly severe scuffle.
Wild grits his teeth, adjusting his grip on the hilt of his borrowed sword. The lizalfo with his blood dripping from its fangs hisses at him, its tail lashing.
His sword arm is out of commission, what with the several large puncture marks in it, so he’s having to use his non-dominant hand. It will have to do. He lunges forward, slashing at the overgrown lizard, then ducking and changing the angle of his strike to slash up and out. Wild’s sword cuts right through the lizalfo’s gut, which drenches him in black blood, but it does the trick. The lizalfo screeches and crumples, beginning to dissolve into ash in the way all dead monsters do.
Wild stands, a little shakily, and turns to the others. They’re cutting down the last of their own monsters, and one by one they begin the process of looting the bodies and cleaning their swords.
Hyrule hurries over, his brow furrowed. “You alright, Wild? It sounded like you were hurt pretty badly.”
Wild shrugs, holding out his injured arm for Hyrule to look at. “It was my arm or my face.”
Their designated healer makes a face at that, but he puts a hand on Wild’s arm and concentrates. Wisps of energy begin to seep off of his hand and into Wild’s skin, and the wound slowly begins to repair itself.
When the process is over, Wild shakes out his hand with a grin, then brings the other hand up to sign “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” Hyrule gives him a smile in return, then wipes his hand on a clean patch of Wild’s sleeve. “Goddess, you’re covered in blood, you need a bath.”
Wild’s grin widens, and he very slowly starts inching closer to Hyrule, his arms opening.
Hyrule’s eyes widen and he backs away. Wild can see the laugh hiding under the exaggerated fear. “Ohhh no you don’t -”
Wild lunges.
He doesn’t quite manage to give Hyrule a full bear hug, not before his friend gets distracted by another injury that needs his attention, but he does manage to get a few bloody handprints on Hyrule’s sleeves. And, as a bonus, he slumps against Twilight and gets a hand carded worriedly through his hair before Twilight realizes exactly what he’s doing. Twilight yelping and shoving him off with a disgusted expression counts as a win in Wild’s book.
“Alright, alright, let’s set up camp,” Time says with a poorly hidden smile at their antics. “It’s getting pretty late, and we’re by a river, so I don’t think we’ll find anywhere better. Wild, wash that blood off before you start dinner, alright?”
Wild sighs loudly, but he doesn’t mind, really. The blood is starting to dry and flake off and it’s getting uncomfortable. He can’t let Time know that, though, so he plays up his reluctance as he signs “Fine.”
It’s nice, actually, all of them going to splash around in the river. They try to wash off most of the black monster blood away from the riverbank, just to keep it from getting into the water supply, but it’s been ages since Wild was able to properly swim. As soon as he’s mostly clean of blood, he cannonballs into the water with a whoop, soaking several of his friends, and he happily swims laps around them while they all try to splash him back. That leads to crossfire, which of course leads to an all-out water war.
Wild eventually swims to the bank and reluctantly pulls himself out of the water with a wince. His arm is still bothering him, just a little. That’s to be expected, though, it had been a pretty nasty bite. Hyrule’s magic is good, but it isn’t perfect. Luckily, no one had seen his reaction, so he’s able to head back to their little campsite and start dinner without fuss.
The rest of the Chain drifts into camp in ones and twos, bickering and chatting as Wild adds ingredients to his cooking pot. He had decided on stew for tonight; stew is easy, there will probably be leftovers, and it’s tasty and filling. Perfect for a day like this.
(And if it lets him rest his arm, for the most part, without arousing suspicion, that just makes it even better.)
(It isn’t that he wants to hide that he’s in pain, but he doesn’t want them to waste potions and energy on him when it’s just a little ache that will be gone after he has a good meal and a full night’s sleep. Besides, Hyrule will feel guilty if he knows Wild’s arm still hurts.)
Wild had timed it perfectly - the sun is just starting to dip below the trees when he declares the stew finished. A quick clap to get everyone’s attention and a sign of “It’s done, come eat!” is enough to spur the usual buzz of dinnertime activity in their little campsite. Food is an easy way to motivate all nine of them, including Wild.
Usually.
The others eat their stew with typical eagerness, giving Wild occasional compliments as they dig in or go back for seconds.
And Wild… isn’t really hungry.
He picks at his stew, eating all the chunks of meat he can find in his bowl to make sure he’s getting some kind of fuel, but he doesn’t have his normal appetite. After a while he just… dumps out his bowl when the others aren’t looking and hopes they won’t worry about it.
“We’d better get to bed,” Twilight notes, glancing up at the sky. The stars have started to come out. “I’ll take first watch.”
“I’ve got second,” Time volunteers.
Wind waves his hand. “I can take third!”
Wild makes a small face and signs “Morning person” to Legend with as much disdain as he can muster.
Legend snorts and signs back “Wind and Sky both, and Warriors, sometimes. It’s awful.”
“How do they stand it?”
“No idea. I refuse to move until the sun is up.”
Wild nods in agreement. He can be functional before the sun rises, if it’s necessary, but usually it isn’t. Assuming he actually sleeps through the night - which, over the course of his adventure, he rarely had the chance to - he likes to have the sun up to guide him and keep some of the monsters away.
With watches decided, the Chain quickly falls into their usual routine. Twilight drifts to the outskirts of the camp while Wild puts away their leftovers and the others roll out their blankets, leaving a spot open for their two occupied members.
Wild unrolls his own blanket as soon as dinner is cleaned up, and he curls up on his left side to keep his weight off of his still faintly aching arm.
It will be better in the morning, he’s sure of it. His body just needs to catch up to the fact that Hyrule had healed it. That’s all.
When Wild wakes up the next morning, it’s as the sky is just starting to lighten, and it’s to a spike of pain.
He stifles a gasp, curling in on himself as his groggy brain struggles to figure out what’s going on.
His arm aches. He slowly pieces together that he had rolled onto it, which is what woke him up, and he feels a little too warm.
“Wild?”
Wild twitches, startled, then looks up at Wind, who’s looking worriedly over at him from across the campsite.
“You okay?” Wind murmurs, his brow furrowed.
“Yeah,” Wild signs, biting back another wince as he moves his arm. “Just slept on my arm funny, I have pins and needles.”
Wind nods in understanding. “Okay. If you want to go back to sleep, you probably can, I’ve got an hour or two of my watch left.”
Wild shakes his head, sitting up slowly and shaking out his right hand. The spike of pain that lances up his arm quickly persuades him that that’s a bad idea, though, and he moves to look through the storage on his sheikah slate instead.
Why is it so warm today?
He decides on fruit for breakfast. Simple, light on a warm day, and most importantly doesn’t require any stirring.
Wind had been right - the rest of the Chain starts to stir about an hour later, as the sun is starting to peek through the trees. Sky is the first awake, followed quickly by Warriors, then everyone else. As he’d said yesterday, Legend is the last up.
“How are you feeling?” Hyrule asks quietly as Wild hands him a bowl of fruit.
Wild shrugs and replies as soon as his hands are free. “I’m fine. A little stiff, still, but nothing too bad.”
Hyrule hums thoughtfully. “It should be better by now. Let me take a look?”
Reluctantly, Wild holds out his arm for inspection.
It looks fairly normal. A little red, maybe, but no cause for concern. Hyrule pats him with a glowing hand anyway, and Wild has to hold back a sigh of relief as the ache eases.
“Let me know if it’s still stiff in an hour,” Hyrule instructs with a raised eyebrow.
Wild snorts and signs “You look like the old man when you do that.”
“Wild.”
“Fine, fine, I will.”
Four appears next to Hyrule, then, stealing a piece of apple from his bowl. “Twilight’s gone to scout ahead, we’ll probably be leaving soon. You two should eat.”
Wild nods and holds up his own bowl, which he’s been picking at as he serves the others. He still isn’t incredibly hungry.
Breakfast passes without any other issues, and Wild is feeling better with the extra boost of magic. Maybe Hyrule just hadn’t gotten all of it, and the second try fixed what hadn’t been fixed yesterday.
Unfortunately, though, the pain very slowly starts seeping back in as the day goes on. By the time they stop for lunch, Wild’s arm is aching as much as it had that morning, and he still feels warm.
“Hey,” Twilight says quietly, coming to sit next to him as he makes lunch. (Sandwiches, another light and simple meal.) “You doing okay?”
“Fine,” Wild murmurs, wincing at how rough it sounds. He switches to sign. “I’m fine. I just feel a little off today.”
Twilight shifts to lightly bump his shoulder against Wild’s. “Anything I can do?”
Wild hesitates, glancing at lunch. The sandwiches are only half-finished, and his arm hurts, and he isn’t hungry, and he’s starting to get tired.
Twilight follows his gaze and smiles. “Want me to take over? Even I can’t mess up making sandwiches.”
“Are you sure?” Wild means it teasingly, but his expression makes it a little more of a genuine question than he’d intended.
“I’ve got it,” Twilight assures him, gently ruffling his hair. “Take a break, Cub.”
Wild nods, a bit reluctantly, and moves over to give Twilight room. He signs “Off” and glances meaningfully at the wolf pelt.
Twilight sighs, but he does take the pelt off without fuss.
Wild happily steals it, signing “I’ll keep an eye on it!” and moving over to a nearby tree. He curls up against the trunk, using the pelt as a pillow. He’s out in a matter of minutes.
When he wakes up again, Time has a hand on his shoulder, and he feels hot.
Wild makes a face, sitting up and trying to bite back a wince at the ache in his arm.
“We’re about done with lunch, but we saved you some,” Time tells him with a fond little smile. “We thought it would be a good idea to let you sleep. How was your nap?”
“Good,” Wild mumbles, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. It wasn’t. He feels more exhausted than he had before he fell asleep, and sitting up had made his head start to hurt.
Time chuckles. “You’ve got a fur pattern on your cheek.”
Wild hums and rubs his cheek; yeah, he can feel the texture from his face being pressed into the pelt. He blinks a few times to clear his vision, then signs “Not that hungry right now, we can get going.”
“… Are you sure?” Time’s voice sharpens with sudden concern.
Wild nods quickly. “Don’t worry, I’ll eat later, I’m not always hungry right after I wake up.”
“Alright.” Time doesn’t look entirely convinced, but he hands Wild a sandwich to store in his slate for later. It’s a bit lopsided, but that’s okay, it makes Wild smile. Twilight had obviously tried very hard to do a good job.
Sky drifts over to Wild as they pack up to go, and offers him a smile and a hand up.
Wild takes it, because he doesn’t feel like moving, and he needs the boost.
“Are you doing alright?” Sky asks, a bit carefully.
“Everyone keeps asking that,” Wild signs with a huff. “I’m fine, Sky. Just tired.”
“You’re never tired, though,” Legend objects, leaning over to frown at him.
Wild gives him a flat stare.
Legend holds up his hands and walks off again, choosing not to press the issue.
“You do tend to have a lot of energy,” Sky points out. “But if you say you’re okay, I’ll believe you. Just… let us know if there’s anything you need, okay?”
Wild nods and gives him what he hopes was a reassuring smile.
Things keep getting worse. A few hours later, he’s trying very hard not to let his arm touch anything to keep the pain down, and the heat is starting to make it hard to focus. It feels like a fire is building under his skin.
Sky hasn’t left his side since lunch, and he keeps shooting glances over at Wild. Wild stubbornly focuses on his feet to make sure he won’t trip. Stumbling would definitely make everyone worry.
He sort of loses time, a bit. Everything blurs together into a mess of heat and the ache and the mantra of don’t trip don’t trip don’t trip -
Something brushes his arm and he flinches back, gasping at the spike of agony.
“Champ?” someone asks, and their voice sounds very, very far away.
Wild murmurs something that might not make sense and opens his eyes. He hadn’t realized they were closed.
“Cub, hey, talk to me -” Wild can make out a familiar blur of grey, kneeling in front of him, and he knows it’s a friend, but he can’t quite latch onto a name.
Oh, wait, no - he signs, a little clumsily, “Wolfie?”
Someone hisses a curse.
“Wolfie isn’t here right now, Wild,” someone else says gently, and that doesn’t make sense, Wolfie’s right there, but everything hurts so much. Wild can’t make himself think.
“Hot,” he signs, and feels himself starting to sway. “It hurts.”
“What hurts?” Wolfie asks, and he sounds more intent now. He has Wild’s hand in his. “Cub, I need you to tell me where you’re hurt.”
He can’t. Everything is so hot and it hurts so much now that he just sort of… drops. He lands on his knees, and the spike of pain from the collision isn’t any worse than his arm so he doesn’t pay attention to it.
There are voices. Lots of them, loud, and he curls into himself, pressing his hands to his ears in a vain attempt to block out the noise.
A hand rests on his shoulder and he flinches away from it, a keen of pain finally tearing out of his mouth.
“Goddesses above,” someone murmurs, and they sound scared.
Wild chokes on a sob, because it hurts and he feels like he’s back on Death Mountain, burning alive. Haltingly, he lowers his hands so he can sign “Hurts it hurts it hurts.”
“I know,” Wolfie murmurs, and Wild isn’t even sure it is Wolfie anymore, but he wants it to be. He wants it to be so badly. “I know, Cub. It’ll be okay, we’ll figure it out.”
“Hot,” he signs again, and if he were speaking he’d be slurring. “It’s hot.”
Suddenly, something brushes his arm, putting pressure on it just wrong, and Wild screams.
There are more voices, there’s more shouting, but Wild can’t even process it because he’s too busy trying not to throw up from how much it hurts. It feels like he just jostled a broken bone.
And all of a sudden, the pain and the heat are a little too much.
Wild droops like someone cut him loose from a net, and he’s unconscious before he hits the ground.
Twilight has been afraid many times in his life. It sort of comes with the territory of being a hero. He’s been afraid for his own life, he’s been afraid for the people he cares about, he’s been afraid for Hyrule. More recently, he’s been afraid for his friends.
But those fears have nothing on the heart stopping terror of watching Wild crumple to the ground in front of him.
“ Wild! ” Twilight barely manages to catch him in time to keep his head from smacking into the ground, and he curses vehemently under his breath at the temperature of Wild’s skin. “He’s burning up!”
“Let me see, let me see -” Hyrule pushes to the front of the group, who have all gathered around worriedly. There’s something in his eyes that worries Twilight in a way he can’t really put his finger on.
Their healer puts a glowing hand on Wild’s head and concentrates. There are a few seconds of tense silence, and it almost feels like the Chain is holding their breath.
Then Hyrule looks up, and it looks like he’s in almost as much pain as Wild is. “… I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t think I can fix it.”
“What do you mean you can’t fix it?” Twilight demands, sharper than he means to. The fear feels like a living thing, almost, winding tightly around his lungs and settling in the pit of his stomach. Wild feels much heavier than he has any right to.
“This isn’t an injury, it’s some sort of sickness, and those are a lot more difficult!” Hyrule says defensively, and it almost looks like he’s trying to convince himself rather than Twilight. “If he’d told me about it earlier, maybe -”
He cuts off. There’s a brief flicker of utter horror across his face, and then he lunges forward and yanks up Wild’s arm guard.
Wild twitches and a soft whine escapes him, even unconscious, but Twilight can’t even worry about that because of what Hyrule has just revealed.
“Sweet Hylia,” someone breathes.
Black lines are radiating out from Wild’s forearm, tracing up his veins like an infection. That’s probably what it is; it would certainly explain Wild’s sloppy signs that he was hot. And the pain.
Twilight suddenly thinks about how tired Wild had been earlier, the low effort meals, and his stomach drops. He should have realized something was wrong immediately, he should have -
“He hasn’t been eating,” Time murmurs from behind him, in the tone of someone who just had a number of horrifying puzzle pieces fall into place. “He said he was just tired, but - has anyone actually seen him eat anything recently?”
Wind looks pale. “He woke up early and said he slept on his arm weird, but - but he wasn’t sleeping on that side, was he? I didn’t even think about it.”
“I should have said something,” Sky whispers, kneeling on the other side of Wild, staring at the infection. “He’s been struggling since lunch, but I thought he’d say something if it was too much.”
Hyrule takes a deep, deep breath, and through his own guilt, Twilight realizes their healer looks like he’s about to be sick. “You all know where this is from, don’t you?”
There’s a moment of silence as they all glance at each other.
“He was covered in black blood when I healed him,” Hyrule says in a calm, measured tone of voice. Twilight can see his hands shaking, just slightly. “It was all over those puncture marks in his arm. I think some of it got trapped under his skin.”
Now Twilight feels like he’s about to be sick.
“Can that happen? ” Four asks, and he’s worrying his knuckles the way he always does when he’s stressed.
Hyrule makes a helpless sort of gesture. “I don’t know, Four, but that’s all I can think of. The timing and placement line up.”
Wild shifts with another whine that’s barely louder than a breath.
Twilight wants to whine back, but his throat isn’t built for it, at the moment. He just cards a hand through Wild’s hair and prays the comfort gets across.
“What do we do?” Warriors asks, sounding uncharacteristically small.
Time sighs. “We make camp. Let’s find a good spot to stay for a while and let Wild’s fever break. We’ll do what we can for him with magic and potions, keep him hydrated, and brainstorm other ideas to fix this.”
It isn’t much, but it’s something. They all nod and scatter to find a good campsite, leaving Time and Twilight to watch their feverish friend.
“Hang in there, Cub,” Twilight murmurs, brushing hair back out of Wild’s eyes. “Just hang on.”