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Warriors leans back against the stump of a tree, watching Legend methodically removing various weapons and tools from his pack and laying them out in front of him at his place across the fire. One by one, Legend carefully cleans and maintains each item. The schink of the whetstone as it sharpens the blade of his sword fills the silence in the night air, but none of the other Links stir in their sleep. Legend delicately sets aside the sword and turns his attention to the fletching on his arrows, muttering quietly under his breath about the difficulty of finding good feathers. Warriors grins slightly and rummages around in his pack a moment before pulling out a small bundle of feathers wrapped carefully in a strip of leather to keep them safe. He holds the packet out towards Legend, who glances down at it, looks around at the other Links, and then takes it. Warriors sits back again and watches Legend select feathers and gingerly start to replace the damaged fletching on several arrows.
A blood-curdling scream rips through the night. Both Legend and Warriors are instantly up on their feet, swords drawn, as many of the other Links startle awake and grab frantically around them for their swords. Warriors eases and sheaths his sword.
“Stand down. It’s just Wild,” he says calmly. The other Links glance over and see that Wild is sitting up, eyes wide and breathing hard, with Twilight already beside him trying to calm him down. War grabs a canteen and picks his way through the now awake field of Links to reach the spot where Wild had been sleeping. Wordlessly, he holds the canteen out and Wild takes it with a shaking hand. War kneels and glances at Twi, who shrugs subtly.
“Everything okay over here?” Time asks as he comes over, a touch of concern evident in his voice.
“Yeah,” Wild says shakily. “I’m...just dreams...it’s fine.” He pours a little water into his cupped hand and rubs it over his face before shaking his head vigorously.
“Why don’t we go sit by the fire? Maybe you can make us a midnight snack to help clear your head,” Twi offers in a way that very much is a command instead of a suggestion. Wild doesn’t resist as Twi and Warriors get him to his feet. At this point, the other Links were fully awake and gathered around the fire in their usual order. They wait patiently for Wild to seat himself and start making polite small talk with Legend about the various items still spread out before him and the maintenance work he’s doing on them, though Four seems to be the only one genuinely interested in this process.
After a little while, Wild begins to take some ingredients out of his pack and sets about making some sort of drink. No one questions him about it and the light conversation that had been going on starts to peeter into silence.
“What did we have this time, Wild?” Time asks gently as Wild concentrates ferociously on the pot on the fire. Warriors can feel the younger Links all tense up while the older Links try to appear nonchalant about this question.
“I...can’t really decide if it was a dream or a memory or both,” Wild says after a moment, still staring intently into the pot as he stirs it slowly. He breaks his gaze long enough to look and point at Hyrule. “You were there.”
“Me?” Hyrule asks.
“Yeah. You were yelling at me.”
“Then that definitely was a dream,” Sky says with a grin. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hyrule get angry enough to shout at someone.” A gentle chuckle ripples through the group and Wild smiles half-heartedly at Sky.
“Why was I yelling at you?” Hyrule asks, causing Wild to grin hugely.
“Now you’ll never believe this, but I fell off the cliff I was climbing and got hurt.” This time, everyone lets out genuine laughter.
“You’re right. That would never happen in real life,” Hyrule manages to spit out in response. Wild chuckles lightly and focuses back on the drink.
“So what made you wake up screaming? Was Hyrule less than gentle with his healing?” Legend asks. There’s a moment of silence and the smiles on the Links’ faces slip a little at the lack of response.
“The dream changed,” Wild replies quietly.
“Changed how?” Twilight asks gently. There’s another moment of silence.
“It wasn’t Hyrule yelling at me anymore. It was Mipha.” The silence stretches on and only the sound of Wild’s absent stirring is heard over the crackle of the fire. Wind sits up a little and opens his mouth, but Twi holds up a hand and Wind immediately shuts it again. “First she was yelling at me about falling off the cliff like you were,” Wild finally continues, “then she...she was surrounded by blight and screaming for my help.” He stops stirring and simply stares into the liquid in the pot. “I...I think it was how she died…” Wild finishes quietly.
“I’m very sorry you had to relive that,” Time responds after a moment. “Losing a loved one under any circumstances is difficult, but I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you in that instance.” The Links all awkwardly try to focus on other things, uncertain about what to do in this situation. Warriors glowers at his scarf and starts gently picking at loose threads and bits of grass that are stuck to it.
“You aren’t the only person to have suffered a big loss like that, either, if it’s any consolation,” Twilight offers. “Midna’s not dead, but I’m never going to see her again. Not to mention my parents. And I know those aren’t really the same thing, but...I can at least...get it a little.” All but Warriors and Time nod darkly at this comment.
“It just becomes difficult because I don’t know if it was real or not,” Wild adds frustratedly. “I mean, I know she’s dead, but is that how she died? Or did my brain make it up? And what am I supposed to do with that? How am I supposed to deal with this memory if it even is one?”
“That’s not really something any of us can answer, unfortunately, since it’ll be different for you than it was for me,” Time says gently. “We may technically be the same spirit, but we are still vastly different people.”
“I know for most of us it was a parent, but who was it for you? I didn’t think you had anyone but Malon in your life,” Four says. A touch of worry appears on Twilight’s face and he glances slightly anxiously at Time, who, as usual, is unreadable.
“My parents did die before I could possibly know them and Malon is the only real person in my life outside of you lot.” He pauses. “But for a few months, she counted double.” War stops fidgeting with his scarf and stares at the ground in front of him a second before looking at Time in slight disbelief. He opens his mouth to speak, but Sky beats him to it.
“She was pregnant once?” he asks in equal disbelief to Warriors.
“Yes. About a year after we got married, she realized she was pregnant, but she miscarried at 4 months. It was...a difficult situation for both of us.”
“Time, I’m so sorry. I didn’t--” Wild starts, but Time holds up his hand, silencing him.
“To each their own grief and recovery.” He pauses again before turning to look at Twi. “I found Twilight a few months later, and shortly after that we found the rest of you.” Time smiles gently at them and they can’t help but smile back.
“Every time I think I have you figured, old man, you bring out something else to catch me off guard,” Legend says, shaking his head. The others laugh and Time’s smile changes into a grin.
“You have a certain weight on your shoulders as do we all,” Time replies.
“I hardly compare my losing Marin to your losing a child, though,” Legend retorts.
“Loss is loss,” Twi chimes in. “I had to deal with losing Midna even though she’s still alive, so Marin definitely counts for you.”
“Marin?” Wind whispers to Hyrule, who shrugs his shoulders.
“We can all at least understand each other’s grief a bit from having lost our parents, though, even if we didn’t have a significant other die,” Sky says. The other Links nod in agreement as Warriors resumes his precise cleaning of his scarf. “And besides, despite all these griefs, we still have the blessing of the goddess.”
“Goddess grant me patience with this shit again,” Warriors mutters to himself.
“Yeah!” Hyrule chimes in, not having heard War. “We do! And we’ll always come out on top because of it!” Warriors scoffs loudly, making all the Links turn to look at him. Hyrule mock frowns at him. “I know you’re not exactly an optimist, but we all can agree on that much at least. As long as we have the blessing of the goddess, then there’s no way we’ll lose.” Warriors's grasp on his scarf has noticeably tightened and he stands up stiffly.
“It seems that I’m not an appropriate subject to participate in this conversation,” he says shortly as he starts to leave the fireside.
Legend sits back and crosses his arms. “I would have thought you’d be all over the ‘chosen hero of the goddess’ fanfare with your lady killer instincts,” he teases. Warriors whirls around, fury all over his face.
“Just because we are the hero doesn’t mean we’re always the hero!” he shouts back. Legend instinctively puts his hands up as his eyes widen.
“Whoa, dude. Chill out here.”
“Chill out? Chill OUT?!” Warriors steps back towards the fire and Twilight and Time subconsciously stand up. “You don’t have any idea what it feels like to NOT be the hero of the goddess. Yeah sure fine! I didn’t lose a loved one! Just loose friends and my own subordinates. Whatever! But don’t you come at me about the hero of the goddess because you have no FUCKING idea what you’re talking about!”
“Dude, I’m sorry, okay? I know you had a rough go of it on your own adventure, but you still won,” Legend says defensively.
“I still wo--is that all that matters to you? Who died and who won? What the hell kind of outlook is that? You have no idea what I did to win! I fucking LOST the blessing. TWICE! So don’t you sit there on your high horse, Mr. Koholint, and preach to me about always winning.”
“War!” Time says sharply. Legend’s face has darkened considerably and he glowers at War’s feet. War takes a few deep breaths, avoiding looking at Legend as well. No one moves. After a few moments, War sits down.
“Legend, I want to apologize. That was a low blow and I shouldn’t have said it,” War says cautiously. “I let my temper get away from me and I should have just kept leaving.”
“I accept your apology,” Legend says formally. “I didn’t know it was such a touchy subject for you. I’m sorry, too.”
“Thank you,” War says quietly, staring at the fire as Wild awkwardly starts distributing the drink he had been making. War accepts his cup and shifts his gaze to stare into its depths instead.
“Um…” Wind chimes in. Everyone but War looks at him. “I didn’t know you lost your blessing. You mean like the triforce, yeah?”
“Yeah. Twice. The first time because I thought I was invincible, the second because Ganon caught our forces off guard. Not my happiest memories.”
“That must have been rough,” Sky says awkwardly.
“I know we didn’t all have our triforces in us the whole time, but I did and it really is a huge part of the spirit of the hero to have it. Losing it that first time...it felt like my soul had ripped out of my body. I was empty and cold and...and dying actually,” he adds as an afterthought. “Everything felt like it was the end for me and everything was scary. Thank the goddess for Impa’s agility in getting me back to the princess so she could heal my broken spirit.”
“But you did get it back,” Four says softly.
“Yeah only to lose it to Ganon himself once Cia was defeated. That one was...much worse. Cia was at least in love with me and wanted me alive so she could keep me her prisoner for all eternity with it. Ganon just straight up wanted to kill me. It was...a much harder recovery when he took it from me.” The silence sat heavily among the Links and they quietly drank. “Zelda helped me through it again of course, and we did win.” He spoke Zelda’s name softly, fondly. Suddenly, he looks at Hyrule with a grin. “So I guess you’re still right after all.” Relief washes over Hyrule’s face and he smiles back at War.
“You described that really well,” Wind says. “I never really knew how to explain it to Aryll when she asked. I mean, I didn’t have my triforce as long as you did yours, so I don’t think it hurt quite that much, but yeah.” Wind nods firmly.
“I’m sorry, what?” Legend asks, looking at Wind incredulously.
“I collected all the pieces of my triforce, put it back together, and it became a part of me just long enough to get back to Hyrule and have Ganondorf take it from me right before I had to fight him. I don’t think I could have won had it not been for Tetra’s help with the light arrows since I felt kind of like how War said,” Wind states.
“Wind, I didn’t know you’d fought Ganondorf without your triforce piece,” Twilight says with a frown.
“I mean...no one ever asked. No one ever talks about their fight with Ganondorf or whatever he was called,” Wind says innocently, looking at Sky.
“Demise. Mine was called Demise.” Wind nods once and looks back at War.
“We good now, War?” he asks.
“Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me that magic wind man you defeated Ganon WITHOUT any aid from the goddess? Like ANY?” War asks, slightly stunned.
“I said I had Tetra. She helped with--”
“Nah nah nah. That’s not what I mean. You have some of the worst swordsmanship I have ever seen in a recruit -- no offense -- and THAT won your battle against Ganon?!?”
Wind puffs up slightly. “Just because I’m the youngest doesn’t mean I can’t hold my own you know.”
“Of course it doesn’t! You just proved that! I must say that I am wildly impressed. You have to give me a play-by-play of that fight,” War replies with genuine curiosity. A smile starts on Wind’s face.
“Wait, really? You wanna hear about it?” he asks.
“Hell yeah! Come on. Sit here. Twi smells like dogs again,” War says, lightly shoving Twilight away enough to make space for Wind to sit by him. Wild laughs, earning himself a sharp look from Twilight that quickly turns into the slightest grin.
“Wild, I’ll need another drink to keep up with what will surely be a gripping tale knowing how good a storyteller Wind is,” Time says, holding up his empty cup. Wild hurriedly refills everyone’s cups as Wind takes his new place by Warriors’s side. He smiles at Warriors and breaks off a piece of bark from the stump War had been leaning against.
“Okay. Well first, we were fighting on top of Hyrule Castle and we only had like this much space,” Wind starts, drawing in the dirt in front of him and War as he speaks. Everyone huddles closer and listens, impressed, as Wind tells the battle in great detail.