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Thunder shook the deck. Great, heaving waves of water crashed over the bow. Sheets of rain pelted Legend, held to the ship by only a rope lashed to the helm. He fought for control of the ship against the fierce wind, which threatened to capsize him.
Legend’s hands shook as he gripped the slick wood of the wheel. He flinched every time lightning arced across the unforgiving sky.
“Legend!” Warriors screamed from across the deck.
Legend blinked rain out of his eyes, barely able to see the blue of his scarf.
“Legend, you're okay!” Warriors shouted.
Legend yelled something back that was lost immediately in the howling wind.
Another lightning bolt struck the water, allowing him to see the whole chain on the deck of the ship. All of them were wrestling with ropes, trying to tie the ship together under the force of the storm.
A massive wave rocked the vessel, and Legend blinked his eyes open to painful light. Someone was behind him, helping him sit up. Something was pressed to his mouth, forced past his lips, and salt burned his tongue.
He sputtered in the wake of the wave, ice gusts of the blustering wind freezing him to his bones. His teeth were starting to chatter so loud that he could hear it over the storm.
Wind, up in the crow’s nest, shouted something down, and Legend adjusted the direction the ship was headed.
The waves seemed to only be getting taller. Already, they dwarfed their little ship, towering above their heads. Legend felt his stomach lurch every time they went over one, like he’d entered free-fall.
He rolled, heaving into the dirt. Someone rubbed his back, which helped calm his raging stomach. His hair was gently pulled back. He couldn’t help leaning into the warm touch. His stomach lurched again, and Legend heaved over the side of the ship once more. He forced himself away from the railing and moved back to the helm.
Time had been able to take over for him, but Legend needed to be in control of the ship. None of them, apart from maybe Wind, had needed to do this before, so he was unfortunately the best equipped for the job. That didn’t mean his stomach liked it, though.
Time wrapped one of the raincoats they had around Legend’s shoulders, which didn’t do much for keeping him dry, considering he was already soaked, but it did help keep the wind off of him. He pulled the soft blanket higher, covering his chin and almost covering his mouth.
A hand brushed over his forehead, and Legend blinked blearily up into the face of Time. He brushed his hand through Legend’s hair, not unlike how Uncle had done when he was young and sick. It was just as warm and comforting.
Legend closed his eyes again and let Time’s caring hand carry him off to sleep.
---
He opened his eyes to blinding sun. Hot sand beneath him baked him into a Link-shaped flatbread. His mouth tasted like rotting fish.
Legend forced himself upright, looking out over Marin’s favourite beach on Koholint. The sea breeze ran playful hands through his hair.
From beside him, startling him, Twilight’s voice said, “Take her easy, Link.”
Legend’s head shot to look at him, and the image of the beach wavered like a mirage as his head spun. Twilight was crouched next to Legend’s bedroll, near the edge of the camp they’d made earlier- yesterday- three days ago. Concern scrunched his brow.
“Twi?” Legend tried to say, but his tongue didn’t want to unstick from the roof of his mouth. The flavour of rotten fish increased exponentially. Legend found himself hunched over forest floor, heaving his guts out. The hot island sun beat down on him mercilessly. The sand beneath him stuck to his palms and scraped at his soul.
When his stomach was done trying to expel itself and the rest of his guts from his body, Twilight gently pulled him upright by his shoulders. All of Legend’s strength was gone. The shipwreck must have been bad this time.
A waterskin was placed against his lips, and Legend drank deeply. The cool water felt heavenly against the burning sun above. Even the breeze that usually covered Koholint wasn’t enough to keep him cool.
He wondered where Marin was. Was she able to keep cool? Maybe she was hiding from the sun inside? Or perhaps she’d gone down to the cove to swim?
Legend tried to stand to go find her, but he instead found that his limbs wouldn’t work. He looked down to see that he was encircled by a large arm. He followed the arm back to the person, and found Twilight. What was Twilight doing on Koholint? Had he also shipwrecked? Why was he still wearing his pelt in this heat?
Legend tried to reach up to take it off, but his arms wouldn’t cooperate. He looked down again and, oh, right, Twilight was holding him. That was why his arms wouldn’t move.
Someone said something, but Legend couldn’t make out the words. He didn’t care anyway. The burning heat of the sun and the sand had died down slightly, and he was getting tired.
He slumped further into Twilight’s hold. He was so tired. The hold was so comfortable. His eyes closed. He was safe.
---
Legend’s hands slipped off the helm of the ship. He grabbed the wood of the wheel again, tighter this time. He couldn’t lose control. It was his only hope of surviving.
He directed the small vessel over waves three times taller than the boat was long. He had to squint through the downpour to even see the monstrous walls of water. The rain pelted his skin so hard it felt like getting hit by rocks.
The ship crested another wave, and Legend’s stomach dropped as the entire front went into free-fall. He stared at the trough between the waves, at an angle so steep it was almost directly below him.
He tightened his rope belt — the only thing keeping him from being thrown overboard — and firmed his hold on the helm.
The ship slid down the wave, and the bow dipped into the ocean as the ship tilted back to go up the next wave, throwing water across the deck. Legend merely blinked the salt out of his eyes and refocused, as he’d been doing for the past hour. If the ship was thrown even slightly off-course, after all, it would spell his certain death.
Lightning flashed across the sky. In its wake, afterimages lingered, blinding him. Unseen, the boat slid down another wave, throwing yet more water onto the deck. More than Legend would have liked was splashed into his mouth and down his throat. He choked slightly on its salty taste.
He blinked hard, trying to see the pitch-black sea against the pitch-black sky. He somehow managed to make it up the next wave at the right angle to not tip. Just as he crested the next wave, another flash of lightning lit up the world, oh so helpfully blinding him as the ship tipped forward again.
His only way of telling that he made it down the wave again at the correct angle was that he hadn’t yet died. Even more water was thrown onto the deck, which he again choked on.
Thunder rolled, deafeningly loud, across the sky. Legend could feel the sound moving through him. It rumbled the deck beneath his feet and the helm beneath his hands like an earthquake.
The ship crested another wave, just as lightning flashed behind him. For a second, Legend could see across the water, the endless span of wrathful waves and incensed clouds. He was the tallest thing out there. Then he was reminded why being tall was a bad thing.
The mast seemed to almost glow, and Legend had just enough time to think “oh shit!”, before his entire body lit up in fire and pain. His heart stuttered, stopped. His breath came too fast, or not at all. His mouth opened to scream, but the wind tore the sound away before it could even leave his throat.
Vaguely, Legend was aware of the ship sailing down the back side of the wave, uncontrolled. He tried to push past the pain to wrestle control back from the ocean, but the ship hit the bottom of the wave before he could. Instantly, he knew it was the wrong angle.
There was a loud, wooden crack. The deck jolted beneath him. Water seemed to crash into him from every angle. It was hard to think past the pain still racing through his very soul, but hard-earned instincts kicked in. He needed to get away from the ship. ‘If the ship goes down, it takes everything with it’.
Legend pushed away from the deck, fighting against the water pressing into him, but he couldn’t. The rope! Blindly, he scrambled for the knot he’d tied earlier. He couldn’t find it. Worse, with the way his fingers weren’t cooperating, he was sure that he wouldn’t be able to untie himself even if he did find the knot.
A wave hit him directly in the face, and water pushed its way down into his lungs. They spasmed, trying to expel the uninvited liquid, but that only let more in. The rope around his waist dragged him down, down, deep into the unforgiving ocean.
Legend couldn’t fight forever. He was so, so tired. It was calmer down here, beneath the waves, away from the raging storm. He reached once more for the knot pulling him down, but it was useless. His arms would no longer work.
Legend gave in. He went down with the ship.
---
Warriors replaced the cold compress on Legend’s forehead with a frown.
It had been a week since he’d fallen ill, and it was only getting more and more worrying. He’d been completely knocked out by the fever, spending most of the time unconscious. When he was awake, he didn’t seem to know where he was.
Warriors had been trained in field medicine, but that was for things like stitches. He wasn’t equipped to handle major illnesses. Hyrule, the other main medic, was even worse off. He hadn’t received any training, and, as they’d found out, his magic didn’t work on illnesses.
Sky, the only person in the group who had gotten training on illnesses, only knew how to handle the basics — just enough to keep someone alive until a proper doctor could be found.
That last bit was the real source of their trouble. They’d travelled as fast as they could, once they’d realised that Legend wasn’t getting any better, but they’d yet to find even a hint of civilisation. No one recognised the area. Their only hope seemed to be keeping Legend cool enough and hydrated enough to survive, as his fever ratcheted higher and higher.
“How is he?” Twilight asked, sitting next to Warriors.
“No change,” Warriors sighed. He gratefully took the waterskin Twilight handed him, newly filled from the nearby river, and poured some of the water on a second cloth. He pointed Legend’s ice rod — borrowed while he was out — at it, turning it into an ice pack, and gently pressed it to Legend’s flushed cheeks and ran it over his pale neck.
Legend looked small like this. He’d always been short, as Warriors had pointed out numerous times in teases and jokes, but he had such a big and loud personality that you almost didn’t notice. Like this, though, he looked less like a veteran and more like a boy, struggling under the weight of the world.
“I sent Wild and Four ahead. They can move faster than all of us can. They’re looking for a town with a doctor. Wild will radio back to us when they find something.”
Warriors nodded. “Good. Hopefully they’ll call back soon.” ‘Legend might not make it if they don’t,’ he didn’t say, because Twilight didn’t need to hear that. Chances were, he’d guessed that on his own. Warriors didn’t need someone else, like Wind or Hyrule, overhearing his words. Both had cried too much over Legend already.
Underneath his hands, Legend shifted slightly. Warriors watched his face closely, for any hint of a nightmare; they’d had to wake him up — as much as he could be woken — from several already.
Legend’s eyebrows, just barely visible beneath the cold compress, scrunched slightly. Warriors tried to smooth it away lightly, something they’d found helped settle Legend without waking him fully. This time, it didn’t help.
Twilight took one of Legend’s hands in his own, rubbing lightly over the knuckles and starting up an out-of-tune hum. It twanged in off-key notes and odd rhythms, but for some reason it had yet to fail in calming Legend down. Indeed, his brows relaxed.
Twilight’s hum petered off, much to the relief of Warriors’ ears. “‘Fore I go, we should get some more soup in him.”
Warriors nodded and helped Twilight get Legend situated in a half-sit-half-lean against him. Slowly, they coaxed broth into his mouth, rubbing his throat in a bid to make him swallow. It was a bland, fatty broth Wild had made in an attempt to get any nutrients at all into Legend’s body.
Legend swallowed the first few sips easily, but then he began to choke on the broth. Twilight rubbed his back until he stopped. Warriors tried again, but Legend again choked on it.
“We’ll try again later,” he declared, despite the pit in his stomach. If the fever didn’t kill Legend, starvation would. He’d been skinny before he got sick, but now he looked nearly skeletal.
Twilight nodded, eyes downcast, and helped lay Legend back down in his bedroll. Warriors went back to running the iced cloth over his face and arms.
He sat like that for a few minutes, mind wandering, before Legend stiffened. Warriors was already reaching to soothe him like usual when his entire body went ramrod-straight. A noise that was somewhere between a grunt and a whine pulled its way out of Legend’s throat. It sounded like a scream, strangled before it could escape.
“It’s okay,” Warriors went to say, hoping his voice would help, but he was interrupted by Legend beginning to move. Suddenly, Warriors had his hands full of a shaking, seizing Legend.
Twilight was suddenly beside him, helping him hold Legend down so he didn’t hurt himself. Hyrule appeared on his other side, hands already glowing pink with magic.
Legend continued to shake, bubbles forming in his mouth.
After a few seconds, Hyrule looked up at Warriors, tears in his wide, wide eyes, and Warriors knew that the magic still hadn’t helped. Legend’s arm wrested its way out of his grip and he had to fight to re-grab it. His heart felt like it was breaking in two.
“Time!” Twilight yelled. “Fairy!”
It was the one thing they hadn’t yet tried. Time raced over and slid to his knees next to them, glowing bottle in hand. He yanked the cork free.
The fairy spun over Legend’s form, sparkles trailing behind her. The shaking didn't stop. The fairy tried again. The shaking still didn’t stop.
Time stopped the fairy before she tried again, murmuring about overdoing it.
Only a few seconds later, the shaking finally stopped. Warriors felt his heart stop with it.
---
Link awoke slowly. His body felt battered and bruised from getting tossed around in the storm. Lightning still flickered through his veins.
Scent filtered in. The salt in the air confirmed what he'd feared — Koholint again. He’d been brought here by yet another shipwreck. Would he have to wake the Windfish once more, or would there be something different this time?
His ears woke up next. Humming echoed through the room. His first thought was Marin, but the voice was too deep for that. It took him a minute to place the sound.
Uncle brushed his hand through Link’s hair, crooning a familiar song. Link leaned his head further into the hand. It paused, then continued, adding a light scratching near his hairline. It felt nice.
Still, it made sense that Uncle would be on Koholint. The island seemed to hold all the people that Link loved that he couldn't have. It would hurt to see a fake version of his uncle, possibly even more than it would to see Marin — she, at least, hadn’t ever been real.
Link put off opening his eyes as long as possible, enjoying having his hair pet. It had been so long since he’d had anyone willing to do that for him. Uncle continued humming the entire time. It was horribly off-key, and exactly how Link remembered it.
Finally, Link could put it off no longer. He peeled his eyes open. The first thing he noticed was the roof of the room — it wasn’t Marin and Tarin’s, like he’d expected. Maybe Uncle had his own house? But then Link turned his head, and he realised that the person who’d been humming and petting his hair wasn’t Uncle at all.
“Hey, buddy,” Twilight said softly. “How’re you feeling?”
Legend’s tongue didn’t want to work, but he was able to lift one hand and sign his confusion. Twilight wasn’t Uncle, so why had he thought he was?
Twilight gave him a look that was almost pity but held far more care than Legend was comfortable with. “We’re at an inn. You’ve been sick for a week. The doctor here was able to help, but we only found this town yesterday…. You had us really worried there for a minute.”
Legend… might remember being ill. It was hard to tell, though, with everything feeling fuzzy and scrambled.
“There was… lightning?” he managed to ask. His voice was hoarse with disuse.
Twilight somehow managed to look even sadder. He looked like a dog who’d been kicked. “No, uh, your fever got a bit higher than you could handle. I wouldn’t be surprised if your brain interpreted your seizure as lightning.”
Legend froze. His what?!
Twilight continued before he could say anything. “The doctor said you should recover without issue, but… yeah…. You scared us real good, Ledge. Next time, would you let us know when you first start feeling ill so we could help?”
Legend found himself nodding. He hated the idea, but the knowledge of how bad it had gotten scared him too. Without his permission, his fingers signed an apology.
Twilight grabbed his hand and rubbed his thumb over his knuckles. “T’ain’t your fault.” He sighed, then straightened. “Anyway, enough of that. I imagine you’re hungry?”
Food sounded heavenly right then. Legend nodded, and Twilight helped him sit up, ending up with him leaned into Twilight’s side, one arm around his shoulders. Legend was hit with a brief flash of memory — sitting almost exactly like this, only smaller, at six or seven. Legend spared a moment to consider what timeline shenanigans might explain why Twilight was so similar to Uncle, but he quickly dismissed those thoughts. After all, Twilight was here, warm, and handing him a bowl of porridge that almost seemed to glow with radiance.
And if Twilight’s hand found it’s way back into his hair without a protest from Legend? If Legend maybe leaned into it instead? Well, he was still ill, after all.