Disappearing was apparently a good reason to worry people. Disappearing without trace for nearly two days and then coming back beaten, bruised and blood-soaked was apparently a reason to force someone to stay inside a bed until every single scrab was healed and if one dared to even think about getting up to be tied to said bed.
It was, as a summary, a very boring next three days.
At least there were some good things. You learned for example a lot of Hylian curse words, because Legend suffered through mentioned tying up session, with which the hero definitely did not agree.
Also you could at least spend the time teaching some more English to those who wanted it. While Legend might understand you by now almost perfectly, which was to be straight utterly ridiculous by normal standards (yeah, let's learn a new language in three – no, not years, days), but also seemed to very much annoy Four who seemed to have taken Legend's success as a personal offence and challenge. No matter who else came to visit you and tried to spend time with you, the little hero would chase them away in his attempt to catch up with Legend's language progress. Which was kinda funny to watch, because in the end he, Wind and Wild ended up in a three way war aboutr who got to spend time with you, which quickly turned sour when they decided to start a tug war with you as the rope in the middle.
Hyrule - who seemed to be the local nurse and was therefore not only just as possessive of you, because it seemed like you came after him in the timeline, but also of your health - was definitely not amused. You had not thought the brunette could be as scary as he was.
Anyway, even though you were stuck in bed and were not allowed to get up, with all the Links there was no minute of boredom.
Lastly, by the second day of you being stuck in bed against your will, Twilight came into your room carrying a ridiculously huge rucksack, which he placed near the door thus when it fell over it started to block the entrance. It was about as wide as he was tall and about double his height. How he even had been able to hold it was a miracle, but you figured someone who was able to wrestle a Goron should be able to carry heavier things. That did not mean you didn't wonder why he was putting this ridiculously huge thing that took up about half the room in there.
Understanding came only when Four managed to come in also by climbing over the inconveniently placed thing and used his English language skills that were painfully acquired by a 24-hours English intense course taught by yours truly to explain: "The postman just came by. Poor man told us to give you this." And then he handed you a letter.
And this letter described so much and yet nothing. Because how?
"To my dearest most idiotic best friend,
your this worldly existence has been taken care of.
By the way, your disappearance caused quite the ruckus cause you disappeared with nine others, who sat in the same bus as you. They're still missing without any sign, and where the back half of the bus was there is now a gigantic black portal (and apparently that's where the postman came out of - WTF?!). I'm glad at least you're (somewhat) safe. Your brother was absolute ready to storm the portal. Me and Malin had to physically bind him to a chair for a few hours to get him to reconsider.
On another note: Do you have any idea how much a single one of the green rupees is worth? If I introduced them too quickly to the market I would probably crash it. On top of that their resemblance to the real Zelda rupeehas blown up my ebay account. I've set it up to get some quick cash and put it aside for you for after university, cause I don't need it. But I know you will and since you refuse to accept anything I gift you, we'll just do it that way. No take-backsies, okay, you gigantic idiot?
But next time you have to promise me to take me with you, alright? I wanna be there in person and meet my fictional idols in reality (and have the possibility to drool over their real, flesh bodies instead of paper or plastic ones). You always had the better luck. T-T
By the way have you met any monsters recently? I kind of dreamed of you fighting some. It was utterly crazy and weird and it was like I was looking over your shoulder and could only comment on what you were doing. And you argued back? It was really weird. (Please, please, please tell me these were only fever dreams, cause in one of them you were kind of dying…)
Don't do anything too stupid, please? I don't want to get nightmares, action filled dreams are fine but seeing you dying for real would honestly ruin my night(it already did kind of once). So if that was you I was able to dream live stream I'm begging you not to do anything too stupid (e.g. attacking a Frosttalus with nothing but Hairspray, a Lighter and a frail mini sword). Thanks, I owe you one.
Anyway, back to topic. In the backpack is everything I could think of that you would need for the journey with the Links. Your brother helped pitch in so don't forget to thank him, too. He is taking care to calm your Homefront (your parents didn't believe for a second our little farce that you simply had gotten sick and are now resting in my house's private infirmary with a really contagious sickness – well at least the media bought it). When you come back your parents might or might not kill you for disappearing without a word. It all counts on his diplomatic skill.
Many hugs and don't forget to get home safe and sound
Zelda
PS: Yes, we also packed fresh underwear. Don't argue and don't be embarrassed. Both your brother and me have known you since you were in your pampers.
PPS: Babble is the best and must ironic name ever. By the time you get back home I will have made sure everyone will know of it and call you it. I hope you'll have gotten used to it by then because you'll never get rid of it again. Take it as revenge for worrying me."
When you had finished reading, your head was spinning in relief and a thousand questions. What about the others in the bus? Had they also come to a Hyrule? Was Gannon, your friend, one of them? Was that why he had probably suddenly appeared here, in Time's Hyrule? If so, you had to find him, really. As soon as you were allowed out of bed.
Also, how had Zelda known what had happened? You remembered her apparition in your delirious state and gulped down in fear. Had she truly been there? And you apparently had answered her? When? How did she even get there?
Your eyes widened in realization and dread pooled in your stomach as your brain started connecting the dots laid in front of you. Could it be...? No, no, it cannot. Zelda was a normal girl with zero ties into this world but her obsession with these videogames. To even think of that, you had to be delirious.
But on the other hand her oddly specific request…
NO, just no.
You refused to think about it and thus concentrated in the other questions you still needed to see answered. Because how in the world had a tiny, twig like person like the postman managed to get this ridiculously huge rucksack here through time and space? This really was commitment. Or maybe it was just simply magic, like your new additional mini bag had been. That would honestly at least make sense.
Apropos bags, you got yours back. Immediately you had taken the ripped page from our notebook out from it, taken the sole from your right trainer out, put the page in there and put the sole back on, effectively hiding the ripped page. There was no way you would ever go without that notebook again, as cursed as it was, for emergencies it had too high of potential to save your hide.
You refused to run into another situation like the one you had been in that dungeon.
Lastly you plundered the rucksack for the most important things, stashing the rest away in the magic bag. While it was nice that your family and friends had packed stunners, guns and a long list of other weapons, you had no idea how to use them and thus stashed all of them simply with the other less than useful stuff.
It was on the other hand with high pleasure that you pulled out a fresh set of clothes and a sparkly new phone. You were a bit annoyed that Zelda had just bought a new and expensive one for you without your consent, but it also felt good to feel the familiar device beneath your fingers again, especially knowing that Zelda had packed enough portable chargers to charge it for the next months. And so you plucked in the new set of headphones and simply enjoyed as familiar music grazed your ears, Zelda having taken great care in copying and pacing the data from your SD card onto the new phone, leaving you widely giggling as you played the Legend of Zelda theme song for the fifth time in a row.
It was then that Legend climbed into the room, apparently having escaped his captors and chosen to use your room as a sanctuary to escape to. But when he saw your new phone, he froze. And then he finally approached, emotions dancing his eyes.
"What is that?" he finally asked. "It looks a little like Wild's Sheikah Slate, but it doesn't seem the same." "It's not" you agreed. "It's a phone."
"Phone" he repeated, thoughtful. "Do you…" he stopped, pain visible within his eyes.
"Do I what?" you questioned, waiting for him to finish his thoughts.
"Do you have her song on there?" Oh, that's why. Ouch.
"Yes" you muttered. "Would you like to hear?"
He nodded, numbly. You slid aside to make enough place for him to sit down. He sat down, quietly, heavily. You handed him your headphones and clicked play, trying to carefully assess his reaction. He tensed, and soon after he almost seemed to sink into himself. When the song was done, he ordered voicelessly: "Again."
And so you did.
Again and again and again.
His back was turned to you and his shoulders shook, but he didn't cry yet.
"Maybe we should stop?" you suggested carefully. This kind of masochism could not be good for his mental health.
"No" he said. "Again."
Your fingers accidently brushed the song beneath the one you had just repeated dozens of time. Now, instead of the official English version, the not understandable version used from within the game sounded.
There was a sob and then you realized that Legend was crying, shoulders shaking, still turned away from you. He practically seemed to shatter as he sat there, listening to the music.
This could go on any longer. You stopped the music and carefully took the headphones back from Legend's now still form. It was good that he was crying, leaving his tears to run free for once. He trusted you, you realized. But this, this could be in the long run very harmful.
Chasing dreams is fine, but not if one then proceeds to waste their life away, yearning for it.
"You can't keep doing that" you said, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"I can" he answered, his tone betraying him. "Put it back on."
"No" you stated, an idea coming to your mind on how to delay his self-destruction while you think of another plan. "You wanna hear this forever? Teach me Hylian and after you can listen to it for as long as you please."
He tensed and for a moment you were afraid he might attack. But instead he wiped his face dry and nodded firmly, probably aware of the true intention behind your words.
And then Hyrule rushed into the room and spirited Legend angrily away, probably chiding him worse than Madame Pomfrey would about how unhealthily leaving his bed when he should be resting could be.
It was the morning of the fourth day, you would finally be allowed to get up and go around, when you had planned to finally start to figure out if Gannon truly had ended up here. You were just finishing packing everything either into the magical bag or your backpack, when suddenly Four stormed into the room he had shared with you and Wind for the last few days. He had his sword and shield strapped to his back and held his own bag close to him and he seemed stressed. "We're switching! Grab everything you've got!" he yelled before rushing out of the room again.
"What?" you asked confused, taking your backpack and making your way downstairs.
There you saw Time and his wife having a passionate goodbye kiss, surrounded by the other Links, who were all packed up.
And then Time tensed and that was the only warning you got before your stomach turned upside down and you fell once more through time and space.