Chapter Text
The Hero of Twilight’s day started off bad.
A lot of his days started off bad when he was away from Ordon. It had been two years since she had left, and yet Link still hadn’t gotten used to the silence of traveling alone.
But he had been called by the queen herself, and it wasn’t like he could just say no. She had said, in her letter, that she had important news that would be easier to explain in person than in written form (code for, I don’t want anyone who isn’t you or me to hear about this), and so the start of his day involved packing his things and saying goodbye to the village.
He was trying to stay optimistic. While he and Zelda’s friendship had been a bit rocky at first, it had grown after their mutual experiences with Ganondorf, and Link now considered them to be good friends. Who knew, maybe the news was that she’d been getting lonely and wanted to have tea with him. It was always good to have his mind open to all the possibilities.
(Yeah, sure, he could imagine Midna saying from his shadow, her voice dripping with sarcasm, and maybe when you get back to Ordon she’ll be there throwing you a surprise party there, too.)
Whatever the information was, it didn’t matter. What mattered was getting there safely.
And Hyrule Field seemed to be determined to make him fail at just that.
“Augh!” He swung his sword at another Kargarok out for his blood, and barely had time to see it fall before he heard the barkish growl of a Bulblin from behind. He spun his sword in a circle and knocked it off its feet, springing up and thrusting his sword into its neck.
Link stood, panting, and turned to scope out his surroundings. He spotted two Bublins a couple of yards away, but they hadn’t seemed to notice him yet; if he was sneaky, he might be able to get past…
Something grabbed at his ankle, snatching his attention, and—what?
It was the Bulbin he’d killed mere seconds ago, with a large, gaping wound in its throat that poured blood so black it could’ve been oil. And yet it still wriggled around, grabbing at his leg and hissing in a way he’d never heard a Bulblin do before.
He was so caught up in staring at the monster in horror that he didn’t hear the beating of wings from behind him until talons were wrapping around his neck.
He kicked the Bulblin off and grabbed at his throat, trying to tear its talons away. It scrambled at his throat and caught onto something else he had on his neck. A small string. Part of the necklace he wore around.
The necklace that held the Twilight Shard. The Twilight Shard that kept him from turning into a wolf.
“No,” he gasped, reaching for his sword, but he’d dropped it when the talons had grabbed him and why was he so stupid, he had never done anything like that before—
—and the necklace slid over his head and off his neck as the Kargarok above him flew off.
Link barely had time to scramble for his sword and hurl it towards the monster before he felt the burn in his body. He heard the screech of the Kargarok as the weapon hit, and then his bones were shifting and snapping, and his body was morphing into something else.
When his eyes opened again, he had four legs and a mouth full of fangs.
It had been a little while since he’d last been the wolf, but he was quick on his feet as ever. He sprung up and ran in the direction he’d heard the Kargarok get hit, and just as he thought he saw something in the distance, the world in front of him blurred.
Something was facing him. It was purple, and large, and swirling with some kind of magic. He couldn’t give it a thorough inspection; he had been running too fast, not expecting anything to appear, and before he knew it he was tumbling head over tail into the thing.
He felt a familiar sensation in his fur, and then everything went dark.
—
When Link came to his senses, the first thing he thought was, idiot.
It had been a while since he’d fumbled in battle like that. Dropping his sword when attacked? Pitiful. The Hero’s Shade was probably tearing up the afterlife in rage after seeing his protégé fail so miserably.
The second thing he thought was that he was still a wolf.
And then the panic set in.
His eyes snapped open and he jumped to his feet. The Twilight Shard, the only thing keeping his body in Hylian form, was gone. He needed to find it, it couldn’t have gone far, there was still a chance he wasn’t stuck forever. He raised his nose to the sky to smell.
Leaves. Grass. Dirt. Trees. Animals.
Not Hyrule Field.
He lowered his nose and actually looked at his surroundings. He was definitely not in a field—more like the woods. Thin trees reached out in all directions, the sun shining through the leaves and onto the tiny plants below. He could smell deer grazing to his left and he could hear a stream somewhere south of him.
For the first time, he remembered the purple triangle of magic. Even though it had been two years since he’d last felt it, he knew the sensation by heart—warping magic. He had been warped somewhere away from Hyrule Field.
But where? He didn’t recognize this place. It certainly wasn’t Faron Woods. Had he been warped out of Hyrule entirely?
“Sky?” A voice shouted, and Link was on his feet in an instant. Boots crunched against leaves, and the voice yelled out, once again, “Sky?”
More footsteps. There was more than one person, and when there was more than one person in the woods, that meant trouble, especially in his wolf form.
Link slunk into the undergrowth, trying to look smaller in the grass and hoping they wouldn’t spot him.
“Sk—” the voice began again.
“Wind!” A different voice this time. Peering past the plants, he counted six heavily armed boys and men, wandering through the forest in front of him. “Could you be any louder?”
“Sky is missing, Legend!” The one Link assumed was the youngest snapped back, arms crossed. “Do you just not want to find him, or something?”
Legend (strange name, but who was Link to judge? Yeto and Yeta were kind enough) glared back. “I’d prefer not to attract hordes of monsters to our exact location, is what I don’t want!”
The younger one (Wind?) squared his shoulders and said, “right, the same monsters who are probably tearing into Sky right now!”
Multiple of the others in their group made faces at that. Clearly, it didn’t make a pretty picture in their minds.
“Arguing is what’s going to lead monsters to our location, which is what I don’t want.” A deeper, more authoritative voice chimed in, and the largest man, with strange face markings and a full body of armor, stepped forward. “I understand both your concerns. We do have to find Sky, but we also have to keep quiet. These woods can’t be big—with enough quiet searching, I’m sure we’ll find him.” The man gave Wind a pointed look when he said “quiet,” and the younger boy rolled his eyes but nodded. “Now let’s get going.”
The armored man ruffled Wind’s hair as he passed him, and the younger boy yelped, ducking away with a poorly hidden smile. The group turned and walked in the other direction, leaving Link alone.
After a moment, Link rose. A strange group, with strange names and stranger looking people, and he felt slightly compelled to follow. But he had bigger things to worry about—namely, finding the Twilight Shard before it was too late.
He wasn’t sure where to start. Water might lead to a settlement, but in his current form, non-animals wouldn’t do much good. The animals might be able to help, though, so Link set off in a random direction and hoped for the best.
He walked for a little while, past fallen trees and bushes with berries before he realized something was wrong. The animals were quiet, aside from the chirping of birds, and he thought he could smell something in the wind. Was that…blood?
He hesitated, warring with himself. Should he go? It could lead to something, or he could be wasting his time…maybe even walking into a trap, of some sort.
But the birds in the trees were making a ruckus, and clearly something was wrong. Whatever it was, he needed to help.
(Always such a hero, imaginary Midna sighed in his head.)
He followed his nose to the source. He knew the smell of blood and pain well, and it was easy to track. He weaved between trees and bushes, nose in the air, ears perked, until he reached a small cluster of trees.
It was a simple spot. Six trees standing upright, and one freshly fallen, judging by the smell and sight of it. And beneath the freshly fallen tree was a foot.
Link circled around to get a better look at the other side of the tree, and sure enough, the trapped foot was attached to a young man.
He was around Link’s age, maybe nineteen, with some sort of cloth around his shoulders. The second he noticed the large wolf, the birds in the trees seemed to go dead silent.
Link could smell his fear. The boy’s shoulders were squared and his face was stern, but his own inner emotions were what sold him.
“I have a sword,” the boy threatened, and Link was impressed to hear his voice wasn’t shaking. “Come any nearer and I’ll hurt you.”
He didn’t see a sword, but he didn’t give into the threat either way. Instead he flattened himself to the ground, trying to look smaller and less threatening. I’m not dangerous. You can trust me.
The boy looked hesitant. He wasn’t an animal, so he wouldn’t understand what Link was saying; still, Link was hoping he could read body language well enough to get the message across.
“Are you…friendly?” The boy asked, clearly still wary.
Link pricked up his ears and wagged his tail. Yep!
“I’m going to take that as a yes?” At Link’s confirming tail wag, his shoulders slumped and he fell back onto the ground with an exhausted groan. “Thank Hylia. I can’t fight like this.”
Link didn’t know who Hylia was, but he took that as a sign that he could stand. He began to investigate the scene—the tree wasn’t too large, and it was only trapping a small part of his leg, mostly just the foot. If Link could lift it up…
“I got separated from my friends.” The boy kept talking, arm thrown over his face, unaware of the inspection going on. “A giant portal opened up and we all stepped through, except for some reason I got teleported to absolutely nowhere, and a couple of seconds later a big tree fell. I managed to jump away far enough that my body hasn’t been crushed, but my leg…well, you can see.”
Link tried to guess the weight of the tree. He’d grown up working at the farm with Fado, tossing around hay and bags of horse food, and his record for how many adult goats he could hold at once was four. Did this thing weigh four Ordon goats?
“I really hope the others are okay. This Hyrule doesn’t look familiar to me, but then again, we haven’t been together for long. Just a couple of months. The others are really nice, though, and we’re all good friends, I think. Still, if this is an unknown Hyrule, there will be unknown dangers. I hope no trees fell on anyone else…”
Link took one second to pay attention to the fact that this guy was talking about different Hyrules before he took a gamble and crouched down, trying to shove his head between the soil and the tree.
“What’re you—? Oh, no! Don’t do that, you might hurt…yourself…?” The boy trailed off as Link managed to wedge his body under the tree and lifted, getting the tree inches off of the ground, just enough for the boy to escape. His legs shook beneath him. Definitely heavier than four Ordon goats, or maybe he just needed to work out in his wolf form more.
He growled to let the boy know he needed to move his leg quickly, and the Hylian got past his shock quick enough to scramble out of the way. He jumped back, careful to avoid being crushed, and then turned to check on the boy.
His leg looked…not so good. Swollen and red and probably broken, although hopefully not, but the Hylian it was attached to was grinning. “Thank you!” He gasped, leaning over to scratch Link’s head gratefully. He tensed, but when the boy got behind his ear to a spot that felt good, he found he didn’t really mind. “Are you okay? You’re not hurt?”
Link’s tail thumped against the ground reassuringly. Not hurt.
“Wow. What kind of Surface animal are you?” The boy asked wonderingly, still scratching behind Link’s ear as almost an absent thought. “Time said horses are pretty strong, though you don’t look like how he described you…”
Before Link could process that, the boy seemed to remember something else. “Oh! Fi!” He got to his feet, wincing when his injured foot hit the ground, and hobbled over to the bushes. Link trailed after him worriedly, only to see him pull a glowing sword from the bushes, one that looked very familiar…
“I dropped her when the tree fell,” he explained. “I was worried something might happen, but then you came. Thanks, again.”
Link didn’t respond. Because in the boy’s hand was undoubtedly the glowing Master Sword of Legends, the same one Link had put back in its pedestal at the end of his journey. How did this stranger have it? And how was he not getting burnt?
The boy seemed to notice his sudden shock. “You sure you’re okay?” He asked, reaching out a hand and pulling back when Link flinched. “I’ve got potions, if you need one. I don’t know if they work on animals, but…”
Link shook himself off. He was fine. More confused than he’d been for two years, but still fine.
The boy narrowed his eyes. “If you’re sure. Oh, by the way, I’m Sky.” Ah. So this was the person that group had been looking for. “I don’t know if you understand me or not, but I thought I’d tell you. Loftwings understand, after all.”
Link grabbed onto the fabric of Sky’s trousers and tugged. I know where your friends are! They’re going the wrong way!
“Whoa,” Sky huffed, stumbling and grabbing onto Link’s back for stability, “what’re you—?”
Come with me! Link began to walk and Sky, who had only one foot and no direction to go, hobbled along with him.
“I hope you’re leading me somewhere safe,” Sky said under his breath. Link gave no response—the others had been walking the other way for a while now. They’d need to go fast, if they wanted to catch up to them.
They walked for a while. Link tracked the group’s scent from where he’d last seen them and, with Sky leaning against him, he followed the scent trail to the other boy’s friends. There was no way to ask or truly know what was going on, but Link knew that if he wanted answers, he needed to stick with the large, strangely-named group with the person who had the Master Sword.
Sometimes, Sky talked. He asked the wolf questions and comments he knew he wouldn’t get an answer to, like, where are we going? and it’ll be getting dark soon. Hopefully we get to somewhere you’re taking me before then, but after a while he grew silent. Maybe his foot was too painful to talk past, or maybe he was growing tired of one-sided conversation.
It was their silence that eventually let them hear the group in the distance before the group heard them.
Link heard them first. The distant sound of chatter and multiple sets of feet walking, and when he froze Sky froze, too.
Sky reached for his sword. “What is it, boy?”
One of the group member’s voices projected past the trees. This time, Sky heard.
His face lit up with a brightness that rivaled Ordona and he stumbled forward, letting go of Link in his eagerness. “Guys!” He shouted, and the group in the distance went silent, “guys, I’m here!”
The silence lasted for a second before multiple voices cried out, “Sky?!” and at once Link could hear them all tearing through the forest to get to him. The first one to burst through the trees was one of the two whose name Link actually knew—Legend. Sky stumbled into his arms and squeezed him tightly. “I thought I’d never find you all!”
“Where have you been?” Legend shouted, and then an even shorter boy with a tunic in four colors skidded out after him, the others all following. Their voices clamored over each other, all six of them badgering their seventh at once.
“Sky, we were looking everywhere!”
“Sky! Your leg!”
“What happened, Sky, we were so worried—”
A voice rose above, louder than the others. “Look out!”
Something hurtled towards Link, something sharp and blurry, and he just barely rolled out of the way before it hit him. Instead, it struck the tree behind him with a loud thwack! His best guess was that it was a knife, and in a moment they were all turning on him, finally noticing the predator lurking behind them.
In seconds they had all surrounded their injured groupmate and were drawing their swords. It was six on one, and Link knew his chances of surviving a fight with them were very low. But running might not work either—and so he peeled his lips back and snarled, waiting for the attack.
It never came. “Stop!” Sky shoved past them to get to the front, using a surprising amount of strength to push away when they tried to push him back. “What are you doing? He’s friendly!”
“Friendly?” Legend scoffed. “He’s growling at you!”
“Because you attacked him.” Ignoring his companions’ anxious faces, Sky hobbled forward and held out his hand. “C’mon, buddy. They didn’t mean it—they just think you’re a monster, like I did. I promise they’re nice.”
The six scowling faces in front of him said otherwise.
Still, Link forced his teeth to hide, and he sniffed at Sky’s hand disinterestedly. If he wanted them to trust him, he had to be friendly.
Even if they had thrown a knife at him.
“See?” Sky beamed as if Link had rolled over on his back and stuck out his tongue. When he saw the others didn’t look as convinced, he sighed and said, tone serious, “you might not like him, but he saved my life. And he’s the only reason I found you guys. So be. Nice. No more knife throwing.”
“Saved your life?” It was Armor Man now, and Link found his back straightening instinctively. “What happened?”
“When I teleported, I was all alone.” Sky’s hand found the back of Link’s head in a way he assumed was half to soothe him and half to keep himself upright with his injured foot. “And I was still alone when a tree fell and crushed my leg. I lost the Master Sword and nothing I did worked to free me—and then out of nowhere, the birds went quiet and I saw him.” An extravagant gesture to the wolf beside him, and if Link could blush, he knew he would be at the way Sky seemed to present him as some sort of mystic savior. “He freed me from the tree—he lifted it up with his body!—and when I couldn’t walk, he guided me. And guess where he led me.”
“To us?” Wind guessed.
“Exactly.”
The group was quiet. Some, like Wind, put their weapons to the side; others, like Legend and Armor Man, stayed stiff and wary.
“Sky.” A quieter, more timid voice from a boy in the back. To be honest, Link hadn’t noticed him—he was one of the more normal looking ones, with fluffy hair and a tunic like the rest. But when he spoke, everyone gave him their attention. “I get what you’re saying, but…I don’t know. I’ve been sensing some sort of dark magic in this forest, and it’s coming very strongly off of him. Are you sure…?”
Armor man stepped forward. “Hyrule’s right.” Hyrule was his name? Really? And Link had thought Legend was strange. “He might’ve saved you, Sky, but there’s something off about him. We should keep in mind that this is an unfamiliar Hyrule—we don’t know the monsters, or how smart they may be. We must be careful. Do you understand?”
Sky hesitated, hand still on Link’s head, clearly wanting to protest in some way. But after a moment his shoulders slumped. “I guess you’re right. I understand, Time.” Sky turned to him, a frown pulling at his lips. “Thank you for saving me. Honestly. I’m in your debt. But you can go back to wherever you came from, now. I’m fine.”
Back to where he came from? Link’s ears flattened on his head, and he whined. He didn’t know how to go back. He would, if he could, but…
Time reached out an arm, a silent offer, and Sky finally lifted his hand as he stumbled over and switched to Time for support. There were some glances in his direction as the rest of the group turned and followed the two, some curious, others more threatening as they left him sitting there. He could hear them talking as they grew farther away.
“Trust Sky to find the only friendly dark magic wolf in Hyrule.”
“A wolf? I thought he was a horse.”
Someone laughed in response.
Their voices grew distant. You can go back to wherever you came from. How? How could he go back? He’d fallen through some portal, and according to Sky, that large group had, too.
Back to wherever you came from. Fine. He would go back. But to go back, he needed answers.
Answers that only those strangers could give.
And so he followed.
—
It was easy to track the group.
First off, they were loud. It was a miracle no monsters had heard them with how they were arguing and joking around at the top of their lungs. He almost didn’t need to use smell to follow them, because every time he thought he’d lost them, someone began to talk at full volume and he was right back on course.
Secondly, they stunk. Clearly they hadn’t had lots of baths available during their travels, because they reeked of monster guts and wilderness and sweat. If Link wasn’t on land, he would’ve thought he was catching a gang of reekfish.
With those two things combined, he had no problem following them as they walked. He probably could’ve taken an hour long nap and still followed them, with how prominent the trail was.
They walked for a while. Through the woods, and then onto a path that seemed to cross through too many ruins, and then back into the woods again. At one point it became clear to Link that they had no real goal in mind—walk, walk, and keep walking seemed to be their only gameplan.
And that’s what they did until the sun sunk beneath the horizon and they finally, finally made camp. Link was relieved when reached it, and he took it upon himself to scout the forest around them for any danger.
He sniffed around for a couple of minutes, and when nothing suspicious turned up, he returned back to the camp and laid down near the outer edges, watching the group as they huddled around the fire and talked. Time and Hyrule seemed to be locked into an intense, quiet conversation, their eyes flicking towards the trees in a way that made Link think that they could sense him nearby. Strange, that they could seemingly sense magic. He kept it in mind.
Legend, Sky, Wind, the small boy with four colors on his tunic and another man who had a scarf too fashionable for the outdoors wrapped around his neck were all locked into their own debate around the fire.
“I’m just saying, meat isn’t the only thing that tastes good, you know.” Legend was waving around his food, some sort of burnt-smelling meat he hadn’t really bitten into yet. “I think that maybe, instead of trying to cook this stuff, we should start eating more fruits and veggies and less…char.” He flicked a black part of the meat off onto the ground with a grimace.
“No way I’m going to go around picking berries like some sort of rabbit,” Mr. Scarf scoffed.
“Mmm,” Hyrule hummed, breaking away from his conversation with Time. “I love rabbit meat.”
“No,” Legend growled. “We’re not eating any rabbits.”
“Why not?” Multi Colored Tunic asked. “Can’t be any worse than this.”
Sky, who was half-asleep against a log, his leg with a fresh makeshift splint, chuckled sleepily. “I think the vet’s got a soft spot for bunnies.”
The rest of them laughed, and as Legend spluttered something out to defend himself, Link stood to adjust his position. His leg was starting to fall asleep, and that was never a comfortable feeling. He took a step back and his paw hit a twig. There was a loud snap, and the group fell quiet.
Link peered from behind a tree, and Multi-Colored Tunic Boy caught his eye. The Hylian’s mouth quirked up into an amused smile and he said, “ah. Looks like our wolf is back.”
Heads turned. Some of them were tense and reached for their weapons, but when Sky smacked Legend’s hand away, they all left their swords on the ground. Wind was the first to break the worried silence.
“His eyes can glow? Cool.”
“More like scary,” Multi Colored Tunic said, and wow, Link really needed to get the rest of their names.
Legend waved his portion of food around. “Hungry, fella?” He asked, and then he flung the meat towards him. It landed halfway in the clearing, enough that if Link wanted it, he’d have to escape the safety of the trees.
They all stared expectantly at him. Seeing what he would do. His stomach grumbled; he hadn’t eaten since he’d left Ordon in the morning, and he wasn’t sure when he would eat next.
The meat, although burnt and probably not very tasty, only made his hunger worse.
It could be a trap. He knew Time and Hyrule had known he was following.
Reluctantly, Link stayed in the shadows of the trees.
“Looks like even the wild animals don’t want your cooking, Wars,” Legend snarled playfully, and Mr. Scarf (Wars?) scowled at him.
“Wild animals don’t have a sense of taste,” Wars huffed.
“Neither do I, after that poor burnt creature I just put in my mouth,” Colored Tunic sighed.
Wars scowled. “Four!” He shouted, not actually seeming angry, and the rest of camp burst into laughter.
It wasn’t long before they all settled down for bed and the fire began to burn out. Link stayed where he was, crouched behind the trees, until everyone’s breathing straightened out and it was clear they were all asleep.
That was when he finally slunk out of his hiding spot, making a beeline for the meat on the ground. It was cold and dusty along with burnt now, but he still wolfed it down hungrily. He could hunt, but he didn’t want to risk losing the group, as impossible as it seemed.
The food wasn’t much, and it was gone before Link could really get near full. He lifted his head and scouted the camp for possibly more food, and his eyes trailed across the sleeping bodies, one by one, looking for anything. Sky, sleeping with one arm thrown over his head and the other arm with a death grip around Wind; Wars and Legend, who had been arguing all night, were practically on top of each other, faces wearing matching scowls; Hyrule and Four were cozily bundled up in a handful of blankets, sleeping peacefully, and Time—
Time was staring right at him.
Sitting atop a log on the edge of camp, Time stared him down, his one eye narrowed and untrusting.
There was something familiar about Time. Even his name seemed to ring a bell, and yet, Link couldn’t grasp exactly what was so important about him.
Something in the older man’s eye screamed unwelcoming. Link found himself walking forward anyway, watching the way the man tensed when he got too close to Wind’s sleeping head and how his gaze didn’t falter, even when he was faced with a large wolf, head on, dark magic seeping from his fur like air.
He didn’t know what he was searching for, and wasn’t sure what he was hoping to find. But when Link was about a yard away, Time’s hand reached up in a flash and there was the soft sliding sound of metal against leather. Time’s hand gripped his sword, and his eyes were dark.
The message was clear. Leave. I am not afraid to hurt you.
Yes, Link didn’t know what he was searching for, but this wasn’t it. His chest squeezed with the strange feeling of rejection. He didn’t know this man. Of course he’d be hostile. And yet, for a second…
No. It was clear Time wanted nothing to do with him. The hand on the hilt of his sword and the fire in his eye said it all.
So, like the coward he was, Link turned tail and ran.
He didn’t run far. Just deeper into the forest where he couldn’t see them anymore, until he found a small tree with its roots growing up and down. He dug, kicking up dirt and uprooting plants until his paws were worn and he was done feeling angry. Then he turned and flopped onto the ground, heaving a sigh.
(Aw, Midna’s voice rang in his head once he settled. Feeling like an underdog, are you? If she were actually here, her cackle would be loud enough to ring through the trees and wake the sleeping boys. His heart ached. He missed her.)
He squeezed his eyes shut, her laughter echoing in his head and Time’s eyes burning into the back of his eyelids, hating and familiar and itching at some part of his brain. He tossed and turned, kicking up dirt, until he fell into an unsteady sleep.
He dreamt of swords clashing and skeletal hands, the sound of rough breathing through a helm and the impish voice of a girl he once knew, of twilit beasts and aching paws and howled songs and, most of all, two large, dark holes in a skull where eyes should’ve been.
He woke with a gasp, kicking up dirt as he scrambled to stand. Sunlight filtered through the trees, the sound of morning birdsong floating nicely into his ears.
Morning birdsong and…nothing else.
It was quiet. They were quiet. Link’s heart sank, foreboding.
He ran past the trees, tearing up leaves and tripping on roots in his haste. They had to be there—he would’ve heard if they—
He skidded to a halt in the clearing.
The fire was out. The logs were bare. The ground was empty.
They were gone.