Chapter Text
Link slashed his sword, making another deep gash in the Lynel’s chest. It roared in pain, rearing onto its back legs and attempting to stomp Link into a pile of gross mush. Link neatly dodged the attack, rolling out of the way just in time to not be a smudge of grossness on the ground.
The Lynel glared at him with to-human-to-be-a-mindless-monster eyes. Link shivered and backed away for a second, taking a breather. He had been fighting the monster for at least an hour, if not more. He could swear this Lynel was WAY harder than all the other Lynels he had previously fought.
And more… sentient. Normal. Human.
Link grit his teeth and rushed forward, stabbing the Lynel in its right front leg. It hissed, but only slashed Link with its sword. It cut his leg, creating a slash in the brown fabric. Blood trickled from the wound, but Link just kept on fighting. Like he always does.
After the calamity was defeated and the blood moons stopped appearing, Link and Zelda could finally start clearing Hyrule of the monsters that plagued its lands. The task had been hard, dangerous, and taken forever, but they had finally done it.
Then, when he thought he could have some peace, a group of hims walked though a triangle portal thing and told him Hylia needed him for another adventure. He had told Zelda and she said that he needed to go. She made him promise that he would come back, and with a final hug, he had departed.
He would have never expected it, but he had some of the best times of his life with the others. Their adventures had been fun, but they were definitely some of the most dangerous and confusing things Link had ever done. And that was saying something.
Out of the blue, he had been whisked back to his era, leaving the others behind in Time’s version of Hyrule field. He had found out why pretty quickly when he landed in the middle of a monster camp. The blood moons had started up again, and the monsters were giving Zelda and the Knights of Hyrule a whole lot of trouble.
So now, months later, here he was. Doing his usual routine and grinding until all monsters were gone, only for them to annoyingly reappear a few weeks later. He really missed the Chain’s help. Fighting in a team was way nicer than fighting alone.
But he hadn’t been able to contact them in any way, so all he could do was try to help the people of his era to the best of his ability. Which brought him back to his current situation.
The Lynel slashed at Link’s feet and he stumbled backwards. The Lynel grabbed his arm and yanked him forwards. Huh. Lynels normally didn’t do that. Its grip was strong, and Link’s fighting to escape was useless.
It barred its sharp teeth at him, grinning wickedly and digging its grubby nails deeper into Link’s arm.
“You thought you escaped the darkness…” It said, Link flinched, surprised and disgusted by its low, growly voice. “Ha. ha. ha.” Its laugh was slow and sarcastic, sending shivers up Link's spine.
It held up a bottle and snickered. “Time for the little hero to go away.”
It yanked Link’s head up by his hair and pried open his mouth. Link fought, but nothing he could do would let him escape the Lynel's firm grasp. It forced the thick contents of the bottle down Link’s throat.
Link choked, instinctively gagging on the searing liquid. Pain shot through his body as he spasmed, his limbs shaking. He wanted to scream, or throw up, or do anything to get the substance out of his body. He could feel it sitting in his stomach and stewing there, sending out jabs of pain that overcame his body as he started to hyperventilate in the Lynels grasp.
It tossed him to the floor and he landed face first into the grass.
“Pitiful,” the Lynel spat. Link heard it trot away, its hooves thudding on the soft ground.
Link tried to get up, but his body really didn’t like that. He fell back onto the ground and curled into a ball. Pain tore through his body and he curled up tighter, trying to ease the agony that overtook him. It only made the pain worse. He gasped and started to tremble again.
He really wanted to get up, or sit up, or anything, but he knew that would only hurt him worse.
… what had he ingested, anyways? He had never encountered something that could evoke this much pain. He fished around in his brain, but the only thing he could think of was malice. If it hurt him to just touch it, then it would make sense that it would hurt this much to drink it.
But… why? Why would a Lynel, supposedly a mindless beast, pour malice, of all things, down his throat? He had no idea.
Link blinked, noting that his vision was going black around the edges. That couldn’t be good. Another wave of pain tore through him and he grunted, pulling his legs tighter to his chest.
He would just have to wait until someone found him.
His vision blacked out as he lost consciousness.
———————-
Link slowly emerged from the sweet release of sleep. He opened his eyes but all he saw was darkness. He searched for clues as to where he was with his other senses. He could feel fabric covering his body and his eyes. He thought he heard whispers from far away, but that might just be his imagination. Wouldn’t be the first time that happened.
He tried to reach up to take the cloth off his eyes, but the moment he twitched his fingers the agony that consumed him was so great that he let out a whimper of pain. The voices in the other room immediately stopped. He heard feet running across a wood floor and a hot hand suddenly gripped his arm.
“Link? Link, are you awake?!”
He thought he recognized that voice. It was one that he knew very well… ah, right, it was Zelda. He hoped that he didn’t worry her too much. He didn’t deserve to be worried over.
“Link, can you hear me?” Zelda asked. The worry was so palpable that Link could basically taste it coating his tongue. But no, the actual taste from the malice was way worse than the taste of worry. Probably. Link actually had no idea.
He would probably answer Zelda’s question, but he couldn’t even twitch his arm right now, let alone speak. Link felt a lurching in his stomach and instinctively rolled on his side. He spewed all the contents of his stomach into the space beside his bed. Unfortunately, that space also happened to contain Zelda.
She squeaked in surprise and sprung away from the puddle of bile on the floor (the stuff also coated the front of her shirt). Link heaved again, but only little of the stuff trickled out of his mouth.
It was the worst thing he had ever tasted, even worse than the frog Zelda had forced him to eat, for "scientific research.” He blinked wearily over the side of the bed. His vision was swimming, but he could definitely tell that the black puddle of grossness wasn’t normal.
He groaned and rolled onto his back. A hand gently touched his forehead, stroking back his long hair from his eyes. He focused on the person above him. Zelda swam into view, her eyebrows creased and worry lines prominent on her forehead.
She didn’t seem to mind the black bile cover in her torso, or the gross smell coming from the substance. Link’s gaze flicked to the person beside her. Her small shape was easy to recognize. Purah also stood over Link. Well, she was too tiny to truly stand over him. More like she was observing from the sidelines.
Link closed his eyes and focused on Zelda’s soft hands combing through his unruly hair.
“You’re going to be alright,” Zelda whispered.
Link hummed in response, but didn’t have the energy to verbally respond.
Between Zelda’s soft voice and rhythmical stroking, Link slowly drifted off to sleep.
———————-
Once Link fell asleep Zelda and Purah left his room. They made their way through the castle halls and to Zelda’s own bedroom to get a change of clothes. She nodded at the guards standing sentry at her door and went inside, leaving Purah outside to wait for her.
In about an hour she had a meeting with a doctor from Hateno to try to find out just what happened to Link. So far, all that she could tell was wrong with him was the cut on his leg, but thanks to his fast regeneration ability, all that was left was a thin white line.
Zelda went over to her closet and pulled out another shirt. She rubbed the soft fabric, thinking about other things that could have made Link this sick. Maybe he ingested something? Maybe more monster parts? But even those hadn’t made him that sick. He had recovered in a day, and even then he had still been able to walk around.
Today was the first time he had been fully awake in a week. Other times he had sort of woken up, but not enough to understand what was happening around him. It took Zelda’s best efforts to get him to stop thrashing and get some broth down his throat.
It hurt to see Link like this. She was used to him being strong and a constant presence that she could rely on no matter what. He was the only person she could tell all her worries and fears to without being judged. He had even started to actually talk to her. They had had a very engaging conversation about the wildlife in Hebra the other day.
But now, Link was not even able to move, let alone talk. Zelda knew he had been hunting monsters. She and a team of guards had found him sprawled on the ground where a Lynel usually roamed.
Zelda normally helped Link on his monster hunting escapades, but she had had a diplomatic meeting that day to try to help get rid of some monsters terrorizing the Gerudo. Maybe if she went with Link all of this could have been prevented… it was too late now though.
A knock on Zelda’s door snapped her out of her thoughts.
“Hurry up, Princess,” Purah shouted. “The doctor just arrived!”
“I’ll be right out!” Zelda called back. She quickly changed her shirt and headed out the door.
———————-
Twilight wandered through a hazy swamp, his shoes sticking in the mud and pulling at his boots. The fog around him made it hard to see less than a couple feet in front of him. Sweat dripped down his face from the humid air and the gross stench of decaying animals filled his nose.
Huge trees surrounded him, making it even harder to see. He wound his way around trees and long grasses sticking out of the murky, gross water.
He had been having a relaxing dinner with the other heroes when a portal was opened beneath him and he was dumped into a swamp with no warning and no way to tell where in Hyrule he was, or even if he was in the same Hyrule as before.
No matter how hard he looked he couldn’t find any of them. He had no sense of direction and no landmarks to go off of. All the trees looked the same. It was possible he had been going in circles for hours now, but he had no way to tell the direction or the time.
That had always been Time’s job. How Time did that would forever be a mystery to Twilight.
He ran his fingers along an old tree stump as he passed, noting the many rings in the wood. Such a shame this old tree had fallen. He passed it by and kept searching.
After another long stretch of time (or maybe it was just a couple minutes, he had no idea) he thought he saw a human figure in front of him. It was hard to tell with the fog, but maybe his luck had turned around and he had found someone to tell him where the heck he was.
“Hey!” He shouted, jogging to catch up with the hazy outline that might be a person.
Once he got closer the figure disappeared into the fog, and Twilight slumped, disappointed. After some mental debate he decided to head in the direction he had seen the figure.
More time slowly crept by. Exhaustion was creeping in and Twilight was seriously debating trying to sleep in the muck that made up the ground. As gross as it was, he really needed to rest.
A scream echoed through the air, and Twilight was immediately on the alter, adrenaline rushing through his body. It sounded like it was coming from every direction all at once, long and high and desperate. The sound continued to grate at Twilight's oversensitive ears, and he whirled around, trying to place the location of the sound.
All of the sudden, the wailing stopped. Twilight hissed in distress. Someone was hurt. He could smell blood tinging the muddy air. Was it one of the Chain? They needed his help.
He took off running in a random direction, hoping, praying that whoever it was was alright.
Another scream rent the air, and Twilight sped up to a desperate sprint.
The hazy figure from before appeared facing away from him and standing over a body. Twilight's gaze locked onto the knife in their hand, coated in red blood. His heart pounded in his ears and he tried to yell at the stranger, but his voice wouldn’t work.
The figure turned around to face him. A huge, sinister smile crept across their face and they raised their empty hand in greeting. Suddenly, they disappeared, and Twilight was given an excellent view of the body.
Twilight gasped and dropped to his knees. He gently cradled the body’s head as tears dipped down his face, mixing with the blood on the body’s chest.
It was Wild. Wild was dead, with a stab wound deep in his chest, right where his heart was.
Twilight bent over Wild’s body and sobbed.
“Twilight!”
His head snapped up at the voice. It sounded close by, but Twilight was all alone.
“C’mon, Twilight!”
He whirled around, searching, still holding Wild’s body close to his chest.
“Twilight, you need to wake up!”
Suddenly, Twilight’s eyes flew open and he started into the worried face of Four.
“Oh, thank the Goddesses. You were having a nightmare, Twi.” Four said. “I’ve never seen you like that before.”
Twilight groaned and slowly sat up, putting his face in one of his hands and pushing himself up with the other. A pounding headache echoed through his skull, making it hard for him to concentrate on the world around him.
It was fine… It was just a nightmare. Wild wasn’t dead. He was fine. Granted, he was missing, for months but that didn’t mean he was dead. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be. Twilight wasn’t sure he could stand a life with no Wild in it.
A hand rested on his shoulder and he started, whipping around to face the figure Time. Worry creased his brow, the marks on his forehead crinkling.
“I’ve never seen you have a nightmare like that before.” Time whispered.
“I’m fine,” Twilight immediately dismissed.
It was still dark and all the others were still asleep. Not Wild though. He was dead somewhere in a swamp. Twilight shushed his brain and focused on what Four was saying.
“-never knew someone could scream in their sleep. I’m surprised that no one else woke up.”
Twilight had been screaming? It would be hard to brush off his nightmare as nothing if that was the case.
“Twilight, are you sure you’re fine?” Time asked.
Twilight gave him a small smile. “Yeah. Just a bad dream. It’s nothing.”
Time sighed and joined Four sitting next to Twilight's bedroll. “Do you wanna talk about it?”
“No.” Twilight said quickly.
“If it’s nothing, then why won’t you talk about it?” Time inquired.
Twilight huffed. He loved Time, but sometimes, like his current situation, he wished that Time would lay off and let him be.
“I just… I don't want to talk about it.” Wild’s dead body flashed in Twilight's mind and he shivered. He is NOT dead.
Four hummed. “I get that. I don’t like talking about my nightmare either.”
Time shot him a look. “Not helping, Four.”
Four shrugged. “Well, I normally find that pushing people to open up normally just pushes them away. But maybe that’s just me.” Four stood up. “Welp, I’m goin’ back to bed. See you in the morning.”
Twilight and Time watched Four settle back under his blankets.
“I can take the next watch, if you like.” Twilight offered.
“Are you sure?” Time asked.
“Yeah.” He didn’t want to go back to sleep.
“Okay, then.”
Twilight shuffled out of his blankets and sat on a log that the chain had set up earlier that day when setting up camp in the clearing they were currently in. He gestured for Time to go back to sleep, which Time did, thankfully.
Twilight stared up at the stars, wondering where Wild could be and hoping with all his heart and soul that he was alright.