I do not own Legend of Zelda. Bowties, however, are cool.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abnedgo

by Running Ninja

Link sighed heavily and swung both his boots up onto the table, knocking dirt on the map that was spread across it. He swilled the beer in his cup, and took a deep swig. Shad watched him closely and quietly from his usual chair at the Resistance's designated table. The kid had just spilled an entire bath of information Shad wasn't quite ready to comprehend.

"So, why did you want to learn so much about the sky beings?" Link asked, contemplating the bottom of his mug.

"Well…well, seeing as you found them and all, I guess I owe you the story," Shad said, looking down in shame and wringing his hands. "Shad's short for something."

"Cool, bro. Link's not short for anything. It's awfully allegorical, but that's beside the bush."

Shad looked up at Link hesitantly, weighing the outcomes. Link probably wasn't inebriated enough to not remember this, so maybe he shouldn't tell. But Shad did owe Link. And Link was the only member of the Resistance that didn't know.

"Come on, Shady. Why so secretive? What's your real name?"

The scholar exhaled deeply. "Shadrach."

"Shadrach?"

"Yes."

"No wonder you're such a good speller," Link mused into his empty mug, tilting it back to collect the last drops.

"But that's not all. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego."

"Wait, you have three names?"

"No," Shad sighed, wringing a napkin under the table. "I had two brothers. You know, like the tale."

"Rack, Shack, and Benny, didn't own a penny, Rack was all for brains and Benny all for gains, and Shack just liked housing."

"Close enough," Shad mumbled.

Link snuffled drunkenly. "So what's the dealio with the other two?"

"Dead," Shad scraped the floor with his toes, wondering if a sober Link might have improved conditions.

"Oh, that's a downer," Link piped up.

"Yeah. They were a lot like you in some ways. Eager to change the world. Brave. Outgoing."

"I think you met a different Link," the inebriated Hero tilted back his chair, "because this one was drafted and can't even knock up the nerve to ask Telma for another drink." He cocked a drunken smile.

"You're still a lot more admirable than the brother who preferred to lock himself in the study with his father's books. My father was a part of the guard, you know. Died in a petty skirmish. But Meshach and Abednego took after him. They wanted to be a part of the guard too, until they caught wind of the Resistance. They knew from Dad what a crummy lot the soldiers proved to be, so they figured vigilante was a better way to serve. And I got pulled along to all the meetings, bookish Shadrach. I was really young, you know, and I whined to Mom that they didn't play with me, so she insisted they haul me along. She thought we just played by the fountain though, she never dreamed of vigilante meetings."

"Wow. I'd never have handed it to you, Shad," Link said absentmindedly, tucking his hands behind his head, and becoming disproportionately fascinated in his boots.

"Yeah," Shad said, wondering if Link was talking about holing himself up in a library or attending vigilante meetings. "This was before the twilight, the group just did crime raids and crime crackdowns, you know the things the soldiers didn't do. People would come to us with problems: jewelry stolen, a sister assaulted, and then we'd track down the bastard and teach him a lesson, exact a fine for stolen goods, depending on what he'd done."

"All sounds very noble of you, Shad daddy."

"Please tell me you did not just call me that."

Link cocked a goofy smile and stared at the ceiling. "Did you know there's a secret passage in here?" he asked.

"Yes, I did," Shad said, "I was one of the people who discovered old town maps and hidden ways in and out of the castle, originally built to evacuate castle dwellers."

"Those ropes are really easy to tight-walk when you are a wolf," Link said.

"What?"

"A wolf. You know, better balance."

Shad rolled his eyes. "So, anyway, with all these tasks, us brothers got really close. We'd always pull each other out of trouble, when guards came knocking and things."

Link burped loudly. Shad shot him a glare.

"If you were drunk you'd find that funny," the hero mumbled.

Shad sighed and plopped his wrung out napkin on the table.

"Just cut to the chase, Shady-o."

Angry now, Shad hit the table with his fist. "So then in one mission to check in on Impaz, last remaining Sheikah, the three of us were ambushed. They took Meshach and Abednego but decided I was too skinny for meat so they left me behind. My father had always told us about the sky beings at night and Impaz also believed in them, and all this time…all this time—Well, they were supposed to be creators, right? Closer to the gods then we are?"

"Uh-huh."

"So—"

"So what, cucco butt?"

"I was just kind of wondering if maybe they could bring Meshach and Abednego back," Shad said very quickly, immediately standing up, "but seeing as my one line of communication with them is you, that's out the window. Come on, you old lump, you're too drunk to make it back home, you're going to crash at my place," he grabbed the heavily influenced hero by the scruff of his tunic and hauled him off. And so, too tipsy to realize his ability to resist, Link was dragged out of Telma's bar, grinning and not admitting he really didn't have a home to stumble back to. Without Shadrach he'd have been a drunkard passed out beside the road by a horse. At least on his better days the drunkard part of that sentence got eliminated.

AN: So hey guys, merry Christmas and happy holidays! I haven't been writing fanfic recently, but I was going through old stuff and found this. If you want more stuff I've got a profile page, just know that the recent stuff tends to be better.

In case you're wondering, this oneshot was inspired by some goats. (Named, you guessed it, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.)