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Hyrule really didn’t mean to get separated from the others. He just… got curious. He didn’t think taking that left in the village would lead to him being completely turned around and with no clue as to where the others were. It just happened!
Hyrule sighs as he spins around on his heel and attempts to retrace his steps back to the main plaza of the village. He’s sure someone will be there!
Let’s see… I made a left at the barrels on my way here… When he finds the barrels he’s looking for, he takes a left. And then at that fruit stand… He keeps walking, a hand lifted to his chin. It should be around here… right?
Hyrule keeps walking, and when he realizes that he was supposed to make a right at the barrels due to retracing his steps, he lets out a loud groan and walks back, ignoring the odd stares sent his way.
Focus! He scolds himself. If you want to retrace your steps, you turn in the opposite direction you came in!
Life was so much easier when he wandered around until he found what he was looking for, free to make a path of his own instead of following specific roads in a cramped space.
When he gets back to the barrels, he is sure to make a right this time. He takes approximately four and a half steps before realizing that he screwed up again, and whips around. He glares at the barrels as if they had personally skewed his sense of direction. He’s back to square one, and it’s all because he keeps making little dumb mistakes like this!
He reaches the barrels once more, resisting to topple them over only because people were around, and makes a right. He grins when he recognizes the path. He’s finally getting somewhere!
Or at least he thought. As soon as Hyrule walks through the bend in the road, he sees a vegetable stand. He does not remember seeing a vegetable stand.
Oh come on! Hyrule grumbles and turns back around. I must’ve come through somewhere! He pauses, village residents flowing around him like a river around a protruding rock. Were those even the right barrels?
Now personally offended by both the barrels and himself, Hyrule decides screw it, and just begins wandering through the streets. He has to stumble upon someone at some point. As long as he doesn’t leave the village, he’ll find the others sooner or later. Though judging by his rotten luck and lack of direction, it’s looking like it’s going to be later.
He doesn’t understand how his sense of direction got so screwed up in the last ten minutes! He’s spent years wandering around his time period, and he never once thought of using a map until he met the others—unless he was in a dungeon, of course. Even in the labyrinths, he at least had some semblance of where he was going despite those things being literal mazes filled with traps and monsters.
Hyrule, while lost in his self-pity, turns down an alleyway without paying attention, eyes unfocused and functioning just enough to keep him from walking into things. That’s why when he suddenly finds himself even more lost than he already is, he goes ahead and takes the blame because really, he was already struggling to reorient himself, and he let himself get distracted by his own thoughts.
There’s something wrong with this village, Hyrule concludes. I might not be savvy with a map, but I’m not this bad!
He makes a random turn and takes several steps before realizing that it’s a dead end. He fights the urge to rip his hair out as he spins around on his heel once more. However, before he can take a step, something brushes against his leg.
Hyrule looks down to see a creature covered in dark brown fur weaving between his legs. It looks up at him with bright yellow eyes and lets out a loud “meow!”
Wait a second, he’s seen this animal before! One of the doctors back home had one! What did she say it was called? A kitty? Kitty sounds right.
Curious, Hyrule awkwardly shuffles away from the kitty so he can kneel down and give it his full attention. It lets out another “meow!”, butting its head against his knee and making a weird, vibrating sound in its chest.
“Hello,” Hyrule murmurs in reply, his hands twitching with the desire to run his fingers through its fur. The kitty must sense it, because it rubs its head against his right hand, almost invitingly. Hyrule indulges himself at that, fingers carding through the fluffy fur as the kitty continues to make that vibrating noise. It presses into his hand, eyes squeezing shut. Encouraged, Hyrule sits down properly, about to put his other hand to work when the kitty immediately moves to perch in his lap, yellow eyes staring into Hyrule’s green ones as he plays with its fur. It blinks its eyes slowly, and Hyrule copies it despite not knowing if that action actually means something or not.
He marvels at the fluffy animal in his lap. He didn’t know kitties were this friendly! The one he met before this crazy adventure only ever slept on a pillow in the corner of the room—he actually thought it was dead the first time he saw it. This one, however, is beginning to push on his leg with its paws in a rhythmic pattern—like kneading? He watches as claws extend from its paws and lightly dig into his pants before retracting as the kitty lifts its foot. Why does it have claws? And why is it doing… this?
The kitty turns in his lap once, twice, and then lies down, curled into a ball and looking up at Hyrule with sleepy eyes. Hyrule lightly scratches its head and the vibrating noise grows louder. He smiles, using his other hand to scratch under its chin. The kitty lifts its head up to give Hyrule easier access, eyes squeezing shut as it basks in his attention.
After several minutes of this, Hyrule realizes that he is effectively trapped.
He should go and look for the others, but there’s a vibrating ball of fluff on his lap and it looks so peaceful and content. He… he really doesn’t want to move it.
Hyrule sighs. He may as well get comfortable, considering it looks like that kitty isn’t going to be moving anytime soon.
A high-pitched “mew!” makes him look up from his current predicament, and his heart nearly melts. There’s another one, and it’s really small! It has to be a baby, considering how unkempt its fur is and how it’s waddling over to them with its tail sticking straight up like a stick. Hyrule lays one of his hands out, palm up, and waits for the tiny orange kitty to approach, anticipation building up in his chest. It sniffs a finger—it’s barely the size of his hand, gods—and when Hyrule twitches it in response, the kitty bats at him, trips over its own feet, and falls over into a mess of limbs and tail with a squeak.
Hyrule laughs.
Well, no, saying he laughs doesn’t really describe how he laughs. His eyes squeeze shut and his nose wrinkles as he scrunches it up, mouth open as the delightful sound comes from his chest. His head is tilted up, shoulders slack and hands going limp as he’s lost in his joy and amusement. Hyrule laughs.
The kitty in his lap trills, watching the smaller kitty as it stumbles to its feet. Hyrule wiggles his fingers, making another delighted noise when the kitty crouches down, eyes wide and pupils round instead of slits. It watches his hand closely, tail lashing and hindquarters wiggling and Hyrule has to bite back another laugh lest he breaks its concentration. After a moment, it pounces, tiny claws pricking his skin as it gnaws on his ring finger.
He thought his heart was going to melt before.
Hyrule is practically a puddle as he scoops the little kitty up, giggling as it tries to bite his other hand. It’s so rowdy compared to the one in his lap! But Hyrule can feel it doing that vibrating thing as he holds it in his hands, and the little guy lets out another “mew!” and tries to bat at his face. A quick look at its paws reveals that it has little, pink pads for each toe. They oddly remind him of beans.
He feels claws dig into his clothes on his back, and Hyrule nearly falls back as another kitty climbs up and sits on his shoulder, letting out a curious noise. From what Hyrule can see, it’s a sleek black one with brilliant blue eyes. The brown one in his lap lets out another trill, almost disapproving. The black kitty hops down from his shoulder and into his lap, nearly crushing the brown one as it does so, and the two begin making that trilling noise back and forth as the orange kitty wriggles in his hands with another “mew!”
Hyrule is definitely not moving now.
“Here you go,” he murmurs as he places the orange one on the ground beside him. The kitty immediately pounces, clinging to his sleeve as Hyrule raises his arm. It’s back paws churn in the air, and Hyrule quickly lowers it back to the ground before it can shred his clothes. Meanwhile, the brown and black ones readjust themselves on his lap, curling up together and closing their eyes. Hyrule assumes that’s where they’ve decided to nap.
Why he has never come across other kitties before, he’ll never know. He might be unbelievably lost in some random village, but he has these furry animals to keep him company, and he is going to find more when he goes home. He’ll find the others eventually. He always does.
Well, more like they find him, but that’s not important.
The orange one lazily plays with his hand while the other two doze away. Hyrule looks up from them to see a black and white kitty staring at him from behind a crate. Hyrule holds out his free hand, but its ears flatten against its head in response. Shy? Or perhaps wary? It doesn’t look angry, that’s for sure.
Before he can ponder over that kitty’s odd behavior, two more scamper past it and near Hyrule—a yellow one with darker stripes and a grey one with one white paw. The grey one is chasing the yellow one, and the two run around and around, yowling up a storm. The brown one on his lap lifts its head up, a low growl in its throat.
“What’s with those two?” Hyrule mumbles. The brown kitty meows something back, its tail twitching in annoyance.
Another brown kitty pads out from behind the crate, this one adorning black stripes and a shredded ear. It stalks towards the yellow and grey ones, ears pulled back and tail lashing back and forth. That one looks angry. It bites the back of the grey one’s neck and hauls it away, and the yellow one runs to hide behind Hyrule but gets pounced on by the tiny orange kitty. Instead of yowling like Hyrule the yellow one would, it dramatically falls on its side and begins playing with the orange one instead. It’s… it’s really cute. Scratch that, it’s absolutely precious.
Meanwhile, the other two make their way over, the black and brown one sitting beside Hyrule’s legs and chirping something to the brown kitty in his lap while the grey one sits on his other side not occupied by the orange and yellow ones. It stares at him with pale blue eyes, and Hyrule meets its gaze evenly, tilting his head in curiosity. He holds out a hand, and the kitty sniffs it before stepping over his arm and lying down, pressed into his side with its paws tucked under its body. He’s reminded of a loaf of bread. Why do kitties remind him of food so much?
Hyrule experimentally runs a hand down the length of the grey kitty’s body, and he’s pleasantly surprised when it begins purring, looking up at him with those icy eyes. If Hyrule didn’t know better, he would think it’s smiling.
He briefly wonders why these kitties have decided to lie down both on and beside him. Do they not have their own homes like the one he saw before this adventure? What did Hyrule do to gain their attention? Normally this would be something that happened to Twilight, as Hyrule has seen the man walk right up to deer and somehow not spook them.
He glances at the black and white one still hiding behind the crate. It’s looking at him, but it hasn’t moved an inch. He feels claws in his arm, and when Hyrule turns to look, he sees another tiny kitty slowly making its way up the length of his arm. It’s bigger than the orange one, and it’s fur is a mix of brown, black, and white. Bright green eyes look up at him as the kitty squeaks.
“Hi,” Hyrule replies. He swears he hears the grey kitty snort.
The tiny kitty makes it to his shoulder and perches there, sniffing Hyrule’s ear and eliciting a giggle from him—it tickles! He raises a hand to stroke its fur, but the kitty surprises him by jumping into his head, and Hyrule barks out a surprised laugh.
“Woah!” His eyes flick up in a vain attempt to see the kitty currently wobbling around on his head. After a moment, Hyrule feels it sit down and make that vibrating noise.
He must look ridiculous.
Another “meow!” catches his attention, and Hyrule carefully turns his head to see a pure white kitty eyeing the black and brown ones in his lap. Before Hyrule can attempt to pet it, it hops into his lap and curls next to the other two.
Just how many kitties are there? There’s eight crowded around him, nine if he counts the one still eyeing him from behind the crate. It has poked its head out a little more since Hyrule first spotted it, but it still seems wary.
That is, until the grey one meows at it. The black and white kitty halfway steps out from behind the crate in response, and when the grey kitty meows again, it slinks over to Hyrule, steps light and hesitant and ears swiveling around on its head.
The similarities between this kitty and how Hyrule used to be are uncanny. It’s chilling, in a way, to see an animal act so similar to himself. What does that say about him?
Nevertheless, the black and white kitty comes to a stop beside the grey one and lies down with their sides pressed together. Once situated, it nuzzles the grey kitty, making that vibrating noise and causing Hyrule to aww quietly.
A glance to his other side shows the yellow and orange kitties sprawled out and asleep, the orange one on top of the yellow one. The only ones not sleeping are the black and brown one and the one still on his head. The former watches him curiously, and Hyrule notices the scar on its muzzle for the first time. It’s an older kitty, fur still fluffy, but slightly unkempt, and those amber eyes hold an intelligence to them that makes Hyrule feel a little self conscious. Time used to make him feel that way once upon a time.
Now that he thinks about it, the kitty strangely reminds him of their unofficially official leader: big, imposing, older, but when Hyrule reaches out a hand, the kitty doesn’t hesitate to lean into his touch, that vibrating noise sounding more like a rumble.
“Don’t you have someone to take care of you?” Hyrule asks. The kitty trills something in reply.
“Or are you all living out here, without a family to take care of you?” The kitty presses closer to his hand, letting out a quiet “meow.”
“Do you have anyone to turn to?”
The kitty looks at him then, and if it had eyebrows, then it would be raising one. It looks almost exasperated, as if Hyrule had just asked it a dumb question.
And then it clicks.
“You’re all a family, aren’t you?” Hyrule whispers, and the vibrating noise grows louder in response.
That explains why the kitties are so friendly with each other, from curling up together on his lap to breaking up little skirmishes between themselves. The three on his lap remind him of when Twilight and Wild would flock to those who were having a bad night, one settling beside them while the other keeps an eye on them. The yellow and grey ones remind him of Warriors and Legend, easily getting into a spat of some sort and easily forgetting about said spat to spend time with the others, and whether that’s humoring Wind or… coaxing Hyrule out of his shell…
Either these kitties are far too similar to himself and his companions, or he needs to make some other friends.
The brown and black kitty looks almost smug when Hyrule comes to this realization, eyes half-lidded as it gives him a knowing look.
“There you are!”
Hyrule startles at the exclamation, nearly throwing the kitty on his head off. Twilight laughs as he saunters toward him, the kitties gathered around Hyrule lazily looking his way.
“How did you find me?”
Twilight smiles sheepishly, sitting down a few feet from him and extending a hand for the yellow and orange kitties to sniff at. “Want me to be honest with you?”
“Preferably,” Hyrule chuckles.
“I am so fucking lost right now.”
Hyrule laughs hysterically, causing the little one on his head to stumble. He raises his hands and lets the kitty crawl into them, cradling it close before he can accidentally hurt it. Twilight laughs alongside him, a blush dusting his cheeks.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” He says between chuckles. “I’m not the type to get lost, but—“
“There’s something about this village!” Hyrule exclaims, scrunching up his nose when the kitty in his arms bats at it. What’s with the little ones and his nose? “I got turned around so many times!”
“Oh thank the goddesses,” Twilight sighs, relieved. “I thought it was just me!”
The brown and black kitty pads over to Twilight, sniffing his fingers. Twilight moves to scratch under its chin and grins when it begins making that vibrating noise.
“Do you know what that noise is?” Hyrule asks. He’s getting rather tired of referring to it as “that vibrating noise.”
“Cats do this when they’re happy, or if they want to comfort you,” Twilight explains. “It’s called purring.”
“Wait, are they not called kitties?”
Twilight raises an amused eyebrow. “They can be, but usually by children. Normally, they’re called cats.”
Hyrule’s face flushes.
“I may or may not have been mentally calling them kitties this entire time.”
Twilight laughs again, and the sound is music to Hyrule’s ears despite the embarrassment. “You’re not wrong you know.”
“I guess…”
They spend who knows how long talking, Hyrule asking questions about cats, and Twilight providing all the answers he needs, all while the group of nine strays meander about. The brown and black cat—a tabby, Twilight called it—ends up sitting in Twilight’s lap as he plays with the yellow and orange ones.
“We should probably go find the others,” he says to Hyrule at some point.
Hyrule’s heart sinks at the notion of leaving. The three in his lap look so peaceful, and he’s cradling the brown, black, and white kitten—who’s fast asleep. The grey cat and black and white cat are still pressed against his side and leg, purring away. He must look utterly dejected, because Twilight lets out another chuckle.
“Yeah, I get it. I don’t wanna leave them either.”
“They’re good company,” Hyrule sighs as Twilight gently nudges the tabby off his lap. It goes without protest, though it does look significantly less content than it did before.
“They really are,” Twilight agrees. “Makes you wish you could take them all with you.”
Hyrule looks at the bunch of cats thoughtfully. “That may be true, but I could never take them with us. They belong here, with each other.”
Twilight gives him a soft smile as he moves to help Hyrule dislodge the cats keeping him trapped. “A rag-tag group sticking together to survive and thrive. Now why does that sound so familiar?”
“I couldn’t tell you,” Hyrule jests, placing the kitten down and standing. The cats rub against his and Twilight’s legs, but don’t try to stop them as they begin retracing their steps.
Back to square one I guess, Hyrule thinks as they turn the corner.
But at least he made some friends to remember him by.