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When Link wakes up to the sound of waves and trills of seagulls, he knows something is very wrong immediately.
For starters, that sounds like the ocean.
And the last time he had been near an ocean, it had been disastrous. A whole load of nonsense that left cities flooded—if not destroyed—because a phantom decided to merge his world with another world while stealing the Triforce of Power. Again.
Tetra was cool, though.
Naturally, Link springs up from the ground and assesses himself and his surroundings, fighting down his panic. Panic won’t be helpful here. Visual information will be.
He is clad in his normal garb, scarf and all. He tugs at it, the beloved fabric a little too warm for the tropical weather. He has his sword and shield, but no other equipment. He appears to be on an island—a tiny island. There is one lone house with a rather large pool area—taking up the middle of the island—and a miniature cliff behind it with a small waterfall pouring into the pool. There are no monsters to be found, thankfully. Only him, and what looks like a black blob by one of the lounge chairs.
This place looks like a resort of sorts? Link isn’t sure; he’s never seen the ocean that belongs to his Hyrule, nor has he left the general vicinity of the castle aside from his adventure.
He needs a vacation.
Giving the island one more look, Link relaxes, letting out a bated breath. He could get used to a peaceful place like this. Aside from the blob and the fact that he’s stranded here, Link likes the island. His eyes land on the blob once more, and with a shrug, Link starts toward it. As he draws closer, he sees the blob is actually a person swamped in a black cloak. Their breathing is deep and even—almost too even. It has his hands twitching to grab the hilt of his sword. Nevertheless, Link kneels beside the person to get a better look at them. He finds that the person is a teenage boy with horrific scarring on the left side of his face. Link winces at the sight.
That’s all he has time to do before the teenager’s eyes fly open and a right hook nails him in the jaw. “Fuck!” He yelps, clutching his face and rearing back. The teenager scrambles away from him, a sword seemingly materializing in his hands. Link throws his hands up.
“Hold on, hold on! I’m not looking for a fight, I’m—shit!”
Link has just enough time to grab his shield and fling it up between them before the teenager is upon him, the sword slamming against the shield and eliciting a grunt from Link as his arms strain to take the blow. The teenager is deceptively strong, withdrawing his sword only to swipe at Link again. Link jumps back, water lapping at the heels of his boots. Dammit, the pool!
Jumping back is a mistake, Link realizes, and not because of the water. The teenager takes a few steps back and pulls a bow out, nocking an arrow and taking aim at him.
No, Link registers as he scrambles away, three arrows.
Arrows flashing blue soar through the air, and Link is forced to throw himself to the ground as they fly over him. The wind has a chill to it as the teenager draws back three more blue-tipped arrows. Behind him, ice springs from the arrows, forming large spikes on the bright green grass and the side of the house.
Note to self, Link thinks as he holds up his shield and runs, don’t fuck with teenagers passed out on the beach, because they apparently have arrows with magical ice properties. That, and can throw a damn good punch.
One of the three arrows hits his shield, and Link gawks when the arrow not only pierces the metal, but also begins freezing the shield, the frost traveling down his leather gloves. Link throws the shield aside before it can travel too far, yelping when another arrow whizzes by his ear, just barely missing his skin.
“Will you quit it?” Link shouts, ducking into a roll to avoid more of the icy projectiles. “You’re going to ruin my—woah!” Link trips over his feet and falls in his haste to scamper away from the next batch of arrows, these ones yellow-tipped and sparking with electricity.
“I’m not trying to kill you!” Link yells, and the teenager freezes, the string of his bow drawn back with three more yellow-tipped arrows. “Chill the fuck out,” he snaps, pushing himself to his feet and dusting himself off. The teenager lowers his bow, leaving the arrows on the string as he stares at Link in confusion. They both jump at the sound of a door slamming open.
“What the actual fuck is going on out here!” The voice of a child roars. The teenager immediately raises his bow again and aims past Link, eyes wide and frantic. Link chances a glance over his shoulder, his own eyes widening when he sees a boy not a day over fourteen standing in the doorway of the house with an expression that looks to be a mix between bewilderment and outrage. A bow with blue-tipped arrows rests in his hands. Link decides that this is no longer fair; why does everyone but him have kickass magical arrows?
“This is a private fucking oasis, assholes!” The boy continues, raising his bow and nocking an arrow, “Go take your shitty squabble somewhere else!”
“A private oasis?” Link yells back, incredulous. The teenager behind him doesn’t move, but Link keeps and eye on him all the same.
“Yeah! And it’s mine, so screw off, dick-bags!”
“You expect me to believe this is your private oasis?” Link crosses his arms and rolls his eyes. “You’re, like, twelve!”
The boy cries out in rage, lifting his bow. “I’m Link, the Hero of Wind, and I am not—yikes!” The kid slams the door shut as three yellow-tipped arrows embed themselves in the wood. To Link’s shock, the door lets out a shriek.
“Filthy arrows! How dare you shoot at me! Get over here and remove these vile things from my wood this instant!”
Link turns to exchange a dumbfounded look with the teenager, who slowly lowers his bow and walks up to stand beside him. “Did—did that door just—“ Link begins, pointing at it with a finger.
“He said his name is Link,” the teenager replies in a soft, raspy voice, ignoring the door as it continues to rant. Link nods, noting that the teenager looks surprised due to the information and not the door. Frankly, the door has Link somewhat freaked out.
“He sure did. He at least had the decency to not immediately attack us.”
The teenager glares at Link in reply. Link throws his hands up.
“Don’t give me that look! You started it! I was making sure you weren’t dead, but then you punched me in the face and shot magical arrows at me!”
The teenager at least looks guilty at that statement, eyes lowering and a hand reaching up to tug at his hood as he shuffles his feet. Despite how dangerous this teenager is, the fact that he appears to be shy makes Link relax.
“Anyway,” Link continues, “you know the name?”
“It’s my name,” the teenager replies, peeking up at Link from under his hood. “And the name of my mentor.”
Link blinks. “Huh?” There are more?
The door slams open again.
“Get off my property!” The kid from before screams, “You fucking shot my friend!”
“Kid,” Link snaps, grabbing the teenager’s arm to stop him from raising his bow again, “calm down. We didn’t shoot anyone.”
The kid points at the door. “Tell that to Door Butler!”
“That doesn’t co—don’t fucking shoot holy shit!”
The kid has a murderous glare on his face, his bow drawn back and a red-tipped arrow aimed right at Link. If Link is correct in his assumption, that arrow would cause a fire if it were launched.
“If you won’t leave, then you better have a really good explanation for being here in the first place,” The kid snaps.
“You said your name is Link,” Link begins, recalling what Tetra had told him. The kid jerks a nod.
“Yeah?”
Link gestures at himself. “My name is Link.” He claps a hand on the teenager’s shoulder, who shoots him a startled look. “His name is Link.”
“What of it? It’s just a name!”
Okay, new tactic. “You’re the Hero of Wind. Tetra has told me about you.”
The kid lowers his bow. “You know Tetra?”
Bingo. Link nods. “Yeah. She helped me close the rift between our worlds when the Phantom merged them.”
The kid gapes. “That was you?”
“Sure was!”
The teenager looks between them during their exchange, his head tilted to the side and a lost expression on his face.
The kid narrows his eyes. “Where’s your proof?”
“Uh,” Link puts a hand to his chin, eyes narrowed in thought. He has nothing he could show that proves he met Tetra, only memories and the remains of the flooded cities near Hyrule Castle. If this island is any indication, he is definitely no where near his home, if he’s even in the same world.
But he does have the Triforce of Courage.
He takes off his glove, fighting the straps for a moment because of the frost. He then holds up his left hand, now bare, and clenches his fist. He feels the marking on it begin to shine. “Will this do?” He asks.
The kid nods dumbly. “Yes. That will do.”
“Can one of you guys please explain what’s going on?” The teenager begs, “Merged worlds? Phantoms? And we’re all named Link?”
“Yeah, what’s up with all of us being named Link?” The kid asks. “I mean, I’m a hero, and you’re a hero,” he nods at Link as he says this, “So I’m assuming you’re a hero too?”
“I’m having a existential crisis,” the teenager mutters.
“You’ll get used to it,” Link sighs.
“That doesn’t answer the question,” The kid says, walking up to them.
“I defeated the Calamity, and I’ve been called the Hero of the Wild a few times, so I’m gonna say yes,” the teenager replies.
“The Calamity?” Link mutters.
“The wild? Like, wild animals?” The kid asks.
The teenager shrugs. “I guess? Forests, fields, mountains, y’know: the wild.”
“What’s a field?”
Link and the teenager stare at the kid, Link merely puzzled and the teenager astonished.
“Y’know,” Link says, “Tetra did tell me that her home is mostly a sea.”
“What?” The teenager turns to him. Link nods.
“Oh yeah. You thought you were still in your home?” Link chuckles, “Oh no, buddy. You’re a long way from home.”
“That’s not possible,” the teenager protests, pulling a strange tablet from the loop of his belt. He taps at it, eyes narrowing. “There’s no way I’m not in—“ he pauses, his tapping growing frantic.
“What is that?” The kid inquires.
“Not sure,” Link replies.
“There’s no… There’s no signal?” The teenager gives his weird contraption a few more taps, a series of sounds coming from it, but in the end, the teenager hangs his head in defeat.
“Where are we?” He asks them.
“You’re at my bachelor pad in the Great Sea!” The kid chirps.
“In other words,” Link adds, taking pity on him, “you’re in another time period.”
“Another—what? Did I sleep again?” The teenager mutters under his breath as Link and the kid exchange a look.
“I would hope that you sleep every night,” Link says.
“Not—not that kind of sleeping.”
“What other kinds of sleeping are there?” The kid asks.
“Prolonged stasis of the body to allow it to heal,” the teenager replies without missing a beat, fiddling with the contraption. “But wouldn’t it still work if I slept?”
“Prolonged stasis—What?” Link crosses his arms, eyebrows furrowed. “Buddy, you’re in another time period. You could be in the future, but you could also be in the past.”
“What?” The teenager yells.
Link sighs. “Farore. Just—let me explain. It’s simple.”
The only simple part of Link’s explanation isn’t even part of said explanation. The simple part was establishing nicknames, because calling one “kid” and the other “teenager” was getting too repetitive, and it felt impersonal to him—especially since he had always made sure to know his fellow soldiers’ names and personalities.
The kid suggested going by their title names, and he quickly became known as Wind. The teenager adopted the name Wild, and Link took Warriors as his own.
Everything after that, well… Warriors may have broken Wild a couple times due to sheer confusion. Wind just found the entire thing cool, despite having, arguably, the least amount of experience with other worlds and people from said other worlds.
Warriors is grateful that he has experience with this kind of nonsense.
After having Wild apologize profusely to the Door Butler, who reluctantly forgave him, the three got comfortable in Wind’s cabana.
Wild told them about his mentor, who also shares the name Link. He says that this Link, nicknamed Twilight, had come from a separate world and had been accompanying him while Wild was still on his journey, until one day a strange shadow attacked them and Twilight disappeared without a trace. That was over a year ago now, and Twilight had never returned.
“That means there’s at least six of us. What a mess,” Warriors gripes.
“Er… six?” Wind waves a hand between them from where they are seated on the plush carpet of the cabana. “There’s us three and Wild’s friend. Where are you getting six from?”
“I told you I have experience with this kind of stuff,” Warriors replies. “I actually met another Link, but I always called him Mini Me. He never told me about his adventure, and he was rather quiet and closed off, but he did say his name was Link and that he had been on an adventure before. Not only that, but I also went to a different time period where another Link was from, but I never met the guy. And if Wild’s friend is from the Era of Twilight like I suspect he is, then that’s another Link I could have met but didn’t.”
“There are too many Links,” Wild grumbles.
“Precisely,” Warriors agrees. “There are too many.”
“So… are you still on your journey then?” Wind asks. Warriors shakes his head.
“No. I’m still a captain in the Hylian Army, but my adventure is over.”
“Then why are you here?”
Warriors opens his mouth to reply, but then pauses, the question processing in his head. “Huh. I don’t actually know.”
“What about you?” Wind turns to Wild. Wild shrugs, twiddling his thumbs.
“I don’t know either,” he mumbles.
Warriors groans, “There’s got to be a reason you and I just woke up here!”
“I don’t remember anything strange happening before I came here,” Wild says. “I went to bed last night and woke up panicking because I was in an unfamiliar place and you were standing over me.”
Warriors hums in thought. What could have happened this time to cause him to travel to another time period again? And to one he has already been to before with two other heroes? Normally, the worlds merged with his own, but this time, it seems to be only himself that has been… merged? Moved, more like. And Wild’s presence only provokes more questions. Just what is going on?
“Hang on,” Wind pipes up. “Wild, you said Twilight just disappeared on you?”
Wild nods, a crestfallen look on his face. “Yeah.”
Warriors perks up, and Wind shoots him a knowing smirk. “When that shadow appeared, right?” Warriors presses.
Wild nods again, fingers curling into his cloak.
“Has anyone else disappeared because of a shadow?”
Wild shakes his head. “No. Or at least, I haven’t heard of anyone else disappearing.”
“Do you remember what happened?” Warriors leans forward.
“It just… appeared,” Wild begins, “And it went to attack us. Twilight jumped in front of me, and then everything went black. When I woke up, Twilight was gone.”
“This shadow guy could be why this is happening,” Wind states. “The sorceress that merged the other worlds with Warriors’ world was able to summon them, right? Maybe this is her doing again?”
But wait, Lana is with her now. Lana wouldn’t let that happen. And besides, Cia isn’t being controlled by Ganon anymore, and she wasn’t the only one able to summon shadow beings.
Warriors shakes his head. “Not the sorceress, but maybe someone else from my world. You make a good point, Wind.”
Wind grins, but Wild frowns. “What do we do, then?” Wild asks, “because I have a kingdom to rebuild.”
“You and me both.” Warriors turns to Wind. “I guess we start looking around.”
“This island is tiny,” Wild drawls.
“Not just here.” Warriors rolls his eyes. “Wind is from this world. He would know all the places to look for any potential evils and how to get to them!”
Wind hops up, now beaming. “And there are a ton of islands in the Great Sea. You would be hopeless without me! You couldn’t even get off this isle without me, because I doubt you have a boat.
Wild opens his mouth to reply, but Warriors slings an arm around his shoulder, causing him to yelp in surprise. “You’re right! We need you help!”
While Wind puffs his chest out proudly and begins to grab supplies, Warriors gives Wild a little shake. “He’s a kid,” Warriors murmurs, “And besides, we need his help anyway.”
“I just hope we’ll figure out what we’re doing soon,” Wild mumbles in reply. “No offense, but I need to get back to my own… time period.”
Warriors chuckles, patting his back. “Ditto, my friend.”
The two help the youngest of their trio gather up supplies, Warriors rummaging in a chest for a sail Wind swears he put in there, while Wild gathers food from Wind’s stash. Bidding the Door Butler goodbye, the trio make their way to the edge of the island, where a small red boat awaits them. While small, Wind promises that he can get them a much larger ship from Tetra once they get to Windfall Island, which isn’t terribly far from Wind’s private oasis.
However, before any of them jump down set the sail up on the boat, the world begins to twist and warp around them. Warriors groans and closes his eyes, his stomach churning at the sight. He hears Wind do the same, and he suspects that Wild is merely keeping quiet about his own discomfort. When the dizziness fades, all three open their eyes to see a dense forest surrounding them on all sides.
“What the fuck?” Wind shouts.
“Don’t fucking swear, kid,” Warriors chastises, “It’ll make me look bad.”
“Shut the fuck up, I’m a pirate! Now, where are we?”
Wild holds up his slate-thingy, grinning from ear to ear. “I’ve got signal again! We’re in my time period!”
“Oh joy,” Warriors groans. “Are we gonna just hop from time period to time period all willy-nilly?”
“I hope not,” Wild replies. “That would be annoying.”
“Yeah,” Wind agrees. “It would.”
The three stand there for a few more moments, before Warriors suggests they start traveling. Wild gestures for them to follow him, and together, they begin what is going to be, as Wild stated before, quite the annoying journey.