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Wild steps through the water of a river, letting out a delighted noise when he sees something shine through the water. He reaches down to pick it up, and frowns when nothing but a chipped rock comes up.
Surely that’s not what was shining…
He looks closer into the water, reaching down when he thinks he sees the shiny item again and letting out a triumphant noise when out comes a pretty looking gem.
He knew he saw something.
He puts it away into his slate, Hyrule might like this. Wild thinks with a small smile then continues forward in the water. He scares away many of the fish, but he wasn’t after them today- so it’s fine. Although he could use them for lunch later.. Hm…
Nah. He didn’t feel like going after them. He was much more interested in what else could be in the water. Maybe he could find another one of those gems? Or… Ooh!
He crouches down, getting a close look at a crab skittering by.
It certainly looked different from the crabs in his Hyrule. He really liked exploring the other’s Hyrules because of stuff like this. Everything was familiar yet vastly different.
Wild’s ear twitches when he hears movement behind him, and he turns his head towards Sky who seemed to have just walked over. Wild waves at him as soon as Sky locks eyes with him, and the other’s eyebrows furrow in a confused way.
“I would have expected for you to already have lots of fish by now,” Sky hums as he waves back, “Unless they’re in that slate of yours?”
It’s Wild’s turn to look confused. He drops his hand, glancing down to the water then back up to Sky. He stands up from his crouched position, and raises both hands up this time to sign, “Was I supposed to be fishing?”
“...Yes?” Sky crosses his arms, “Unless it was just an excuse to go exploring?”
Wild blinks slowly, racking his brain for any kind of memory that he said he was going to go fishing.
He can’t find anything.
He bites at his lip, frowning. “I.. Can fish.”
“Wild. You’ve been out here for an hour.” Sky states, “Twilight gets worried when it even reaches the thirty minute mark sooo.. You want to make it two hours and have a wolf come after you instead?”
Wild fidgets nervously, “I don’t know. Depends. Did we need fish?”
Sky exhales slowly, not out of irritation. “You said you wanted to make something with fish tonight for dinner. …Remember?”
Wild shakes his head. “No. I don’t, but I can get fish to do that.”
“Wild,” Sky hesitates before he leans down, rolling up his pants a bit then moving forward into the water. “It’s fine if you forgot. It happens to the best of us, but- when you got out here, what did you think you were doing?” He questions, now next to Wild.
“Exploring…? I knew it was safe, so I thought I had time to look for stuff in the water.” Wild shrugs, “Sorry.” He signs with anxiety building in his chest.
“No, It’s okay. Don’t worry.” Sky waves him off, “Tell you what, let me help you fish. We can probably get something quick together, yeah?”
Wild gives Sky a small smile that the other returns, “Okay. Thank you.”
“Sure.” Sky cups Wild’s face in his hands, “But next time, you’re taking at least Hyrule with you.”
Wild snorts, batting Sky’s hands away. “If anything, I think me and Hyrule would both forget what we’re doing the moment we saw something cool.”
“Yeah yeah yeah, but the buddy system is important.” He glances towards the water, “Now tell me how to sneak up on these fish.”
Wild nods his head seriously, “Actually, I think it’d be good if you splashed at the fish to get them to move towards me.”
“I can absolutely do that!” Sky chirps, “Get into that corner, I think it’ll work best.”
They manage to get a good amount of fish, although- halfway through Sky ends up splashing Wild and it turns into a water fight. The two of them are soaking by the time they get back to camp, which makes the others sigh fondly.
Wild’s forgetfulness isn’t brought up again, until he forgets something else.
Actually, he forgets a few things.
“Hey Wild, can I get my pelt back?” Twilight asks him one day,
Wild is confused. Because he didn’t borrow Twilight’s wolf pelt. “I never took-” He starts to sign, but then he looks down when he feels something soft, and it’s in his lap.
Huh….
He gives it back to Twilight without saying anything else. Twilight gives him a look of concern, but thanks him regardless.
Another day, Hyrule is dragging him towards a large opening in the side of a mountain.
“The flint is in this cave, right?” Hyrule questions as they enter it, and that makes Wild frown.
He.. Kind of thought they were just exploring. Did Hyrule need Flint for something?
Wild lets go of Hyrule’s hand so he can sign, “I think so..?” He pauses, “Hey Rulie', when did I say that?”
Hyrule tilts his head at him, “Say what? Oh- when you told me the flint was in the cave?” Wild nods his head, and Hyrule raises an eyebrow. “Like… Ten minutes ago? When I asked you about it? …Why?” Hyrule questions slowly, already staring skeptically at him.
Wild grimaces, “It’s nothing-”
“Wild. Please?” Hyrule’s hands twitch, as if he’s resisting checking Wild over or crossing his arms.
“..I forgot I said that. It’s okay. I probably just got distracted.” Wild tries his best to quickly tame Hyrule’s growing concern.
Hyrule hums, frowning and staring at Wild. “If you say so. Anyways, I don’t think I told you what I needed the flint for, did I?”
Wild shakes his head. If Hyrule did say anything, he doesn’t remember it.
…Hyrule looks at him like that wasn’t the answer he was looking for, and it makes Wild cross his arms insecurely.
“Okay, well. I was thinking it’d be good to have on hand just in case I needed it to quickly start a fire. I know you carry a lot, but I wanted to get some myself. Plus, I’m not great at starting fires without it.” Hyrule explains, and it makes Wild slowly put his arms back down.
“That makes sense. But um. I carry more than a lot, I really could just give you some of mine?” Wild takes out his slate, swiping to the Flint. He holds it out to Hyrule, who takes it and stares blankly at it.
“..Wild. Why do you have over a thousand pieces of flint?”
“It’s very easy to find, especially around death mountain. Did I not tell you that?”
“No.” Hyrule deadpans genuinely, “Well, now I feel dumb. Want to explore instead for an hour?”
Wild takes the slate back, smiling at Hyrule. “That’s what I thought we were doing anyways. Come on, there’s some mushrooms in here I’d like to get.” He takes Hyrule’s hand, ignoring his sigh of concern in favor of dragging him further into the cave.
Hyrule does not bring it up again later, because they both rather embarrassingly get themselves stuck in that cave. And that was way more memorable.
On yet another day, he had to comfort Wind because he completely forgot he promised they’d go get a gift for his sister and instead went with Legend to the local market to help him with a ‘thank-you’ gift for Hyrule.
He felt awful despite Wind seeming to understand that he forgot, and he makes it up to the other regardless. But. Ugh.
With all of these moments and more rattling around his brain, it was clear that it was becoming more than concerning.
He shouldn’t be forgetting this much.
It was making him stressed out, and he doesn’t think the stress was helping.
He wasn’t sure what to do about it, so he doesn’t do anything for now. It wasn’t like it was too big of a deal, right? It’s not like he was forgetting entire memories, just brief moments. So. Surely it was fine.
Surely he wouldn’t lose everything again.
Sure… Surely.
He goes a week without saying anything about it. He’s gone longer dealing with it, so it didn’t make much of a difference minus the fact that he just didn’t completely acknowledge it before.
Except. With that acknowledgement came anxiety, and because of that anxiety he’s forgetting more.
Which all just builds up to today.
Warriors is lecturing him. But he can only make out bits and pieces because he can also hear his own heartbeat beating loudly in his ears.
Everyone else behind Warriors looks tired and worn down, which made sense considering the fight they all just got finished with.
The fight that could have gone a lot smoother if he remembered what he was supposed to do during it.
According to Warriors, he was supposed to have been stationed up in one of the trees and watching everyone’s backs from above using his bow.
He instead, had dove right into the fight.
And he had no idea how to tell Warriors that he forgot, because he just seemed so upset.
He feels so ashamed, despite the fact that it wasn’t his fault that he forgot. But he also hasn’t told anyone how badly his forgetfulness has been affecting him- so this was still his fault, wasn’t it?
“Wild.”
Wild’s eyes focus back onto Warriors,
“Are you listening?” Warriors questions, sounding impatient.
…
Wild stares, and stares, and stares.
“I forgot.” He signs shakily, “I forgot.” Again.
“You.. Forgot…” Warriors repeats slowly, his eye twitching.
“Warriors-” Four tries to speak up, his voice sounding rough from shouting out earlier for Time to look out.
“No. You don’t just forget battle plans. A fight can go wrong if one of us does something someone else doesn’t account for and it did almost go wrong. Hell, most of us would probably be without minor injuries if he instead of Four was looking out for us.” Warriors speaks angrily, and he reeks of disappointment.
Wild slowly hugs himself, eyes blurring again as he looks off into nothing.
“Warriors. I think.. There’s more to it than that.” Sky speaks up this time, and although he seems very tired- he steps over and crouches by Wild.
Warriors sighs irritably, “If you’re going to try and make excuses for him-”
“Stop.” Sky snaps, glaring back at Warriors. “Let me explain.” Sky looks back to Wild, reaching over his back and grabbing his hoodie so he can pull it over Wild’s head. “He’s not in any state to explain himself, and I think I know what’s wrong.” He murmurs, raising a hand to Wild’s forehead and frowning when it feels just a little too warm.
Wild lets Sky do whatever he pleases, he could feel himself crashing hard to do anything about it regardless.
“Wild’s been forgetting things, and it’s not out of carelessness.” Sky side-eyes Warriors when he says this, “I think it’s because he’s genuinely forgetting. Surely you’ve all noticed by now? I can’t be the only one. Especially when I ask him to go get something for me and he comes back with nothing and forgetting I even asked him to get anything in the first place.”
“I have..” Twilight pipes up, “He took my wolf pelt a lil while ago and forgot he did, so I’ve been givin’ it to him on purpose some days to see if it happens again. Out of I’d say five times, he forgot I gave it to him two of em' and it’s been right in his lap.” He exhales worryingly, twisting his hands together as he stares at Wild.
“I have to remind him to grab a bowl for himself of the food he makes, or stop him from getting a third bowl because he forgot he ate already.” Legend mumbles, looking very upset but trying not to let it leak through his voice. “I thought he was just getting distracted. But he had to tell when he was full and not full right? I- Ugh.” Legend looks away, running a stressed hand through his hair.
“I asked him to help clean the barn and I found him cooking with Malon instead.” Time says thoughtfully, “I just thought Malon grabbed him on his way out so I sent Wind and Four to clean it instead.”
“That’s why???” Wind partly whines out, though he’s looking just as worried as Twilight. “I thought it was just because I didn’t eat my vegetables.”
Time stares down Wind. Wind looks away while Four lets out a sigh. “I’m fine with cleaning the barn if Wild can’t. That’s one of my only exceptions, by the way.” Four rasps out, accepting the water given to him by Hyrule when handed over.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on him ever since he forgot why we were exploring a cave.” Hyrule admits, “I’ve noticed.. A lot. And I’ve tried to see if anything was wrong every time I healed him but I can’t find anything.” He sounds frustrated with himself, not at Wild. Frustrated that he can’t help Wild on his own.
Wild grabs onto Sky’s shirt, making him look down at Wild with a concerned frown. “I forgot.” Wild signs, “I forgot.” He’s getting teary-eyed, “I forgot- I’m sorry. I for-”
“Shh,” Sky wraps his arms around Wild, bringing him close to himself. “We’ll talk about it more later, it’s okay. It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.” He whispers, rubbing a hand up and down his back.
Warriors is silent, looking down at Wild with a stoney-faced expression. Then, it crumbles into something akin to guilt and acceptance. “I tried sending him to a shop while I was going to be busy in another part of the city, I found him outside the gates where we were meeting but, he never went into the city in the first place. I also.. I assumed he just got overwhelmed like he has before.” He sighs out, “I still wish he said something, but I’m sorry Wild. It’s not your fault.”
Wild’s ears pin down, his head resting on Sky’s shoulder as he shakes. He hates worrying them, he hates when he makes mistakes, he-
He’s scared.
He’s so scared of forgetting.
Forgetting it all again.
Is he being dramatic? It’s not like he’s forgetting everything. He’s just.. Not remembering stuff his brothers are telling him.
….
He holds onto Sky tighter, but they were too important to him to be letting them down like that. He doesn’t want to forget what they tell him.
“Let’s set up camp and rest.” Time states, “We can figure it out tomorrow when we’re not tired.”
Hyrule hums in agreement, “I need everyone who got healed today to get at least eight hours of sleep tonight.” He says sternly, “Sky can stay with Wild, I don’t want Wild wandering. I..” Hyrule lets out a huff, “I want to keep an eye on him. I’m worried.”
Legend gives Hyrule a pat on the back, before he takes a few steps towards Wild and Sky. He crouches and extends a hand towards Wild’s head. He gently coaxes his face out of Sky’s shoulder, something twinging in his chest at Wild’s wet cheeks. He leans forward, “Everyone here cares about you, and that’s something we’ll make sure you remember.” He whispers, “So don’t be dumb and keep things from us.”
Legend lightly presses his lips against Wild’s forehead, then stands up and goes back towards Hyrule who grabs his hand and drags him to set up their sleeping mats.
Wild blinks slowly as Sky lets out a fond sigh, he starts to stand- bringing Wild with him up. Wild’s legs shake, and Sky holds onto him tightly.
There’s a wolf by their legs then, Sky looking down at Twilight with a grateful look as Wild lets out an almost relieved huff of air at Twilight’s fur brushing against him.
“Oh! I’ll get out Wild’s sleeping mat!” Wind chirps out, going over to Twilight’s things where it’s typically kept. While it would be stored in the slate- no one else in the chain can use it. So they convinced Wild to let them all keep some of the stuff he’d need incase of an emergency. And in this moment, Wild wasn’t in any mood to use his slate.
“I’ll.. Keep first watch.” Warriors exhales softly, “And uh,” He looks to Time.
Time nods his head, “That’s fine. I’ll take second and Twilight can take last. The rest of you are resting, Hyrule’s orders.”
“Hey, have we ever thought of like.. Just taking an hour each through the night? Wouldn’t we get more sleep like that?” Wind questions thoughtfully as he spreads out Wild’s mat, patting at it when Sky and Twilight bring him over and settle Wild down onto it.
“Get my mat too?” Sky asks politely, Wind nodding his head and standing to get over to Sky’s things.
“Well. We need to be alert during our shifts, so being tired for an entire hour wouldn’t be great.” Time hums, “It’s alright. There’s a reason why we take breaks and let night shifts take naps if they need it.”
“Ahh..” Wind brings Sky’s mat over, then stares at Twilight when the wolf gives him a questioning look. “Ack, fine! I’ll get your mat too. We got a cuddle pile over here..” Wind huffs.
“If you’re looking for a cuddle pile, Wind. I’m seriously considering splitting.” Four wheezes out, taking a sip of water when Hyrule stares him down. When he sets the water down, he smirks at Wind’s curious stare. “Color pile?”
“You should split. It’s been a bit and it’s healthy to do it.” Hyrule hums out, “..Especially since you told us about it and you still refuse to do it when it’s good for you..” He mumbles under his breath.
Four sweats, “I heard that…” He mumbles back, “Yeah yeah okay. I’ll split.”
Wild listens to them all converse as he’s cuddled close to Sky and Twilight. He glances to Four when he splits apart and catches Red’s eyes immediately who skips over to him- ignoring the other color’s yapping.
Red sits down in front of them, getting a good look at Wild and humming. “Lemme get some wipes and clean your face!” He chirps out, standing back up and zoning in on Four’s bag.
Wild wasn’t sure what was on his face. But when Red returns and gently wipes underneath his eyes and on his cheeks- he does feel better. Cleaner, maybe. He could use a full wash, but…
His eyelids feel particularly heavy.
He remembers the warmth of Sky and Twilight, he does not remember falling asleep.
Wild leans heavily into Legend’s side in the morning, Legend pointing at his slate’s screen as Wild types into the journal it comes with.
Everyone else was still asleep. Wild woke up early, only a little confused initially before he remembered what happened.
Legend woke up before he did, and as soon as Wild’s head popped up from the Sky and Red cuddle pile- Legend pulled him out of it.
Twilight had wandered off to sniff around the outside of their camp as soon as Legend got up.
Legend made sure Wild remembered everything from yesterday, being gentle in a way that he refuses to be in front of everyone else when they’re awake. Then, he told Wild to get his slate out and pull up his journal.
He doesn’t remember telling Legend about having a journal- but he doesn’t bring that up.
“It doesn’t have to look nice, but make sure it’s in a different entry.” Legend first said to him, “Label it as ‘reminders’ or some shit like that.”
He saw where Legend was going, and it made his face go red in both shame and gratitude. Shame for having to do this in the first place, and appreciation for Legend caring.
“I wonder if you can set alarms on this thing to make the reminders pop up..” Legend mumbles as Wild does his best to make the new entry look nice.
“Dunno.” Wild says back very quietly, making Legend inhale sharply as to not react to hearing his voice.
It’s obvious that Wild does not talk often, it being a mixture of his throat hurting and mental trauma.
Legend will not make a big deal about it- so Wild can remain comfortable.
“Can look.” Wild taps away on his slate, looking over the settings of the journal feature first before frowning and moving on.
“Wait,” Legend stops Wild’s hand before it moves to the next feature, “Right there. What’s that?” He points to a bell icon.
Wild blinks, clicking it and lighting up. Not only were there settings to get notifications on reminders, but it links to his journal along with his calendar.
“Was this always there?” Legend questions curiously.
“...Dunno. Never needed though till…” Wild frowns, then lets out a huff and shakes his head. “Is’ okay. What now..?”
Legend rubs up and down his back comfortingly, “Hmm.. We write your first reminder down, and afterwards when you get more you keep writing them down.”
“What’s my first?” Wild opens his reminders entry, tapping on the first bulletin point.
“Well. Actually, there’s two.” Legend pokes Wild in the cheek, making him pout. “Firstly, make it so it reminds you like.. Once a week to check your reminders. We’re gonna make it pop up the important reminders only and that’ll be one of them so you can see the less important ones too.”
“Kay,” Wild concentrates as he types and presses a few settings, making sure he doesn’t mess anything up. Legend watches over his shoulder, not really knowing everything about what Wild was doing- but the words on screen seemed about right.
“Now… This next one is important, but it doesn’t have to be a pop up.” Legend hums, “Right under ‘check reminders’ I need you to type in ‘Legend loves you’.”
Wild’s hand freezes above the journal, and his head whips up to stare at Legend with wide eyes.
“What? I’m not saying it again.” Legend rolls his eyes. “....Just write it.”
Wild slowly looks back down, fingers shaking as he types.
“Can..” Wild’s voice stutters, “What if I forget you told me to write this and that you said it?” His face scrunches up in a bit of pain, his voice starting to sound more strained the longer he talks. “Is it ok if you say it again then..?”
Legend lets out a soft exhale, grabbing the slate from Wild and setting it aside. He pulls Wild into a hug, ruffling his hair in an oh so fond manner. “I was kidding, of course I will dummy. Just don’t tell anyone else I said that.” He says sarcastically, “Also, don’t push yourself. I love hearing you, but Hyrule won’t be happy if you keep speaking without doing your voice exercises to make your throat less painful.”
“Kay.” Wild says even quieter, “Thank you.”
“Mhm.” He squeezes Wild tightly, staying close to him until he hears a rustle. He doesn’t immediately pull away, but he does shift so it’s more of a side-hug and pretends like he was just picking Wild’s slate back up and totally not avoiding getting caught being soft.
He has a reputation to keep up. So, limits on getting caught are in place. Not that his brothers would give a shit, but- y’know. Boundaries. He didn’t want that much attention.
Anyways. This isn’t about him.
“Have anything else you need to write down? I imagine Hyrule can think of a few things…” Legend says teasingly, Wild grabbing the slate from him with a little huffed laugh.
Twilight bumps his nose into Wild’s back then, letting out a ‘boof’. Wild leans backwards, Twilight lowering himself to the ground for Wild to lay on and letting out a grumble- as if he didn’t want to be a bed. Even though he was completely used to it at this point.
When Wild giggles at his pouting, Twilight leans his head back and licks his face fondly. Wild puts his slate onto his lap and pushes his head away, sticking his tongue out as he wipes at his face. “Dog breath.” Wild complains. Twilight’s tail just wags when hearing his voice, not caring about the insult.
Wild uses his knees to prop his slate up, petting at Twilight as he uses his other hand to start typing.
Legend doesn’t lean back into Twilight, rather moving to stand up. He pats Wild on the back before he wanders over to where Hyrule was waking up and wiping drool from his mouth.
Wild’s ears twitch in thoughtfulness, and he bites his lip when he thinks.
Hm....
‘Wild’s Reminders:’
- Check Reminders. [Set to Remind Weekly.]
- Legend loves you.
- Do the voice exercises Hyrule told you to do.
Wild glances to Twilight, the wolf looking at him curiously. He looks back to his slate.
- Brush Wolfie Twilight. [Set to Remind Once a Month.]
He grins, he should’ve found this a long time ago.
The reminders stack up throughout the entire day.
- Hyrule loves you.
- Twilight loves you.
- Use the gel Hyrule gave you on your scars. [Set to Remind Once a Week.]
- Make sure you’ve eaten. Legend says you forget to do that sometimes, ask him if you’re not sure if you have or have not. You still can’t tell if you’re full, Hyrule wants to figure that out.
- [Listed here are the birthdays of each Chain member, with reminders set for the dates and a few days before the dates.]
- Time loves you.
- Don’t pick at your scars.
- If you’re exploring and don’t remember the main reason why you were, immediately head back to camp and ask someone. Take one of the Chain with you afterwards. Set a reminder on your slate before you go out on your own to remind you of this in an hour.
- Red loves you!!
- Remember to drink water.
- Green loves you.
- Blue loves you.
- Vio loves you.
- Blue says that means Four loves you too.
- Four says to not be stupid. Not sure what exactly what qualifies as stupid.
- Four listed off a big list and Hyrule supported him, I think I’ll just list them out as they happen instead.
- Four says that’s fine because it’s not like I’m intentionally stupid, I don’t take offense.
- Wind loves you!
- Wind says he loves you the most, I think he’s just trying to one-up everyone because they said it before him.
- Wind denies this.
- Time says to stop putting reminders that aren’t actual reminders, but I want to remember these. So they are important.
- Time says that’s okay.
- Sky loves you lots. He said lots genuinely. I believe him. I don’t think he was just trying to be different.
- Go to Sky when I can’t sleep because of nightmares. Go to Hyrule when I can’t sleep because of pain.
- Warriors loves you.
- All of your brothers love you. Warriors said to note that.
…..
- I love my brothers.