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“Hey, Four? Can we ask you a couple questions?”
Looking up from where he had been unpacking his stuff for the night, Four saw Wind and Hyrule standing a few feet away, the two of them seemingly finished with setting up their own things.
“Depends on what exactly the questions are, but sure,” he answered. He was almost done anyways, so he could spare a few minutes to humor them by answering whatever it was they had on their minds.
“How come your eyes always change color?” asked Wind.
“And how come you only sometimes have a shadow?” added Hyrule.
Well. He had not been expecting that. For starters, Four had never noticed either of the things that were being pointed out. And why were they just now asking him this? You’d think that something as big as changing eye color and an inconsistent shadow would be seen as something that needed to be addressed right away, and not after they’d all been traveling together for who knows how long.
As if sensing his confusion, Hyrule spoke up once more. “We wanted to ask you sooner, but we weren’t sure how you’d react to being asked.”
“I must say,” Four jumped at the sudden voice that came from behind him, “I’m curious, too.” Turning around, the smith saw that Time had come to stand by the three of them. It was then that he noticed that all the other heroes had become interested in the conversation. They’d all put a pause on what they had been doing in order to listen in on what his answer would be.
Speaking of which, he had yet to actually answer Sailor and Traveler.
“Uh, well,” he started, unsure as to how he’d go about answering this without giving away too much. “I hadn’t really noticed that those things happened, so I haven’t really got an answer,” he said, only partially lying.
Legend looked at Four skeptically. Clearly he didn’t believe a word coming out of his mouth.
“Are you sure you don’t know?” Turning to his left, Four noticed Twilight was the one to speak up. The Rancher was eyeing him the same way Legend was, although a bit more subtly, and it made Four nervous. If the others could easily pick up on his lie, maybe it just wasn’t worth keeping his secret.
The only problem was that this was a secret he had promised himself that he’d keep no matter what happened, unless in an emergency situation. And while being stared down by the eight other members of the Chain felt downright terrifying at the moment, it didn’t quite classify as an emergency.
Although, it would be nice to finally tell them. It’d been far too long since he’d been able to sneak away from everyone and split. They’d been traveling for almost a whole week, and after a number of incidents, no one was allowed to be alone, not even during watches, so they’d been doubling up on them. Until they got to a town or someone’s home, these rules would remain in place. Maybe telling the rest would benefit them, and Four would be able to be apart much more often.
“Four?”
“Huh?” He looked around. Clearly he’d spaced out for a moment there, if the looks he was receiving were anything to go by. “What’d I miss?”
“Nothing much,” answered Warriors. “Although we’re starting to get a bit worried. That’s another thing that we’ve all noticed about you. You tend to get lost in thought most days and don’t really react to anything for a scary amount of time.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. ‘Oh.’”
“What’s really going on here, Smithy? You’re not possessed or anything, are you?” asked Legend.
“No,” he shook his head. “Nothing of the sort, I can promise you that.”
“Then what is it?” The look was back, although this time there was a hint of concern in the Vet’s eyes. “If you really don’t want to tell us, we won’t make you, but at least show us that you’re okay.”
He went silent again. The others could wait a moment longer anyways while Four thought about the best way to go about revealing one of his biggest secrets.
“Fine, I’ll tell,” he finally said. “But you have to promise not to freak out.” Once he received confirmation from everyone, Four reached behind him to draw the Four Sword, not missing the way a few of them tensed up. Well, that’s to be expected with him drawing his sword with no explanation, so he couldn’t blame them.
In a flash of bright light, Four quite literally became four. In his place, there were now nearly identical copies of him, the only real difference being the colors of their tunics.
The one wearing a red tunic was the first to speak up. “Hey, guys!” he said excitedly. “It’s so nice to finally get to properly meet you all. I’m Red, obviously, and this is Green, Blue, and Vio.” The newly dubbed Red explained, pointing to each person as he introduced them, including himself.
Sky was the first to speak up, seeing how the rest of the Chain had fallen completely silent upon witnessing their friend split apart, assuming that’s what had just happened. Even Wind was left shell-shocked and rendered speechless.
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” their resident sleepyhead said. “I’d introduce myself and everyone else, but I assume you already know who we are?” Upon receiving a nod from all four Colors, Sky continued. “Well, this definitely explains some things, that’s for sure.”
“Such as?” questioned Blue, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms.
“Four’s always muttering to himself, for one,” Hyrule piped up. “And his personality always seems to be changing, so it’s hard to pinpoint what type of mood it is that he’ll be in on any given day because it’s subject to drastic changes.”
“That’s certainly very interesting. I’m surprised none of us ever realized that before,” said Vio.
“Hey, Vio, was it?” asked Wild from his spot across from the Colors. Vio nodded. “Is there a reason why you’re the only one with a shadow? Is that why Four only has one when his eyes are purple?” Everyone turned to look at the ground by Vio’s feet, as well as the spots where the other three parts of the Smithy were standing. True to Wild’s words, only Vio seemed to cast a shadow.
“Well, what do you know,” said Green. “Another thing we hadn’t ever noticed before, although that could be because we haven’t had the chance to split as often as we used to, and we’re not really focused on stuff like that when we do.”
“Does that mean what I think it means, Vio?” asked Red, looking at his brother rather hopefully. “Does it mean that he can still come back?”
“It might. At least, I really do hope that’s what it means,” Vio replied, which got the two of them some odd looks from the rest of the Chain. “But that’s not something we need to worry about right now. We’ve answered your questions, I assume, and while there’s more to some of the answers, we’ve already shared a big secret, so I think the rest can wait.”
Everyone seemed to agree with Vio’s reasoning, refraining from asking anything else that may have been on their minds. Wind excitedly went up to the Colors, trying to get to know each of them better individually while the rest occasionally made their own inputs to the conversation. Eventually, Wild spoke up about one thing in particular that managed to catch everyone’s attention.
“Does this mean that Four’s a ‘they’?”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Hyrule.
“Well, there’s four people that make up Four, right? So, wouldn’t it make sense for Four to be ‘they’ instead of just ‘he’? That way, everyone gets included whenever we’re talking to Four.” Wild directed the next part to the people in question. “Unless you guys don’t want that, of course. Whatever makes you comfortable.”
Red, Blue, Green, and Vio all looked at each other before forming a sort of huddle, likely discussing what they thought about what the Champion had said before turning back to face the others.
“We like that, actually,” said Green. "Individually, we’d each probably still be referred to as just ‘he’, but the idea of Four being ‘they’ does sound nice since we’re often overlooked or told we’re broken for being more than just one person in one body.”
“Screw those who say you’re broken,” Legend snapped, angry with those who even dared call someone close to him such a thing. “You’re not, and they should mind their own business. If anything, they’re the broken ones for thinking such a thing.”
“It’s settled, then,” declared Twilight with a clap of his hands before things escalated too much, and based on how tightly Legend was gripping his sword, it seemed like a good idea to change topics. “Four is ‘they’ so that no one continues to be excluded, and everyone in this fine group here is perfectly put together.”
The Colors smiled, grateful that their fears of being treated as freaks for simply existing didn’t come true. In fact, it felt as though they were only beginning to get to know everyone better, and they couldn't wait to see what adventures were to come.