The stranger gazed out at the field below, now covered with the dark mist. An overhang above the entrance kept the mist clear of the cave itself.
"You're from the time of the Great Calamity, aren't you?"
The stranger turned. His expression was hard to read. He nodded. "'Champion' is just going to confuse us. We need to find—" He stopped, his eyes piercing into his scar-ridden counterpart. He dug through his bag. A flash of green caught the other Hero's attention. The stranger paused. "Tell me if either of these… look familiar to you." With an air of reverence he handed the bundles over.
The scarred Champion was stunned. "I— I recognize both of these. This one—" He unfolded the bright green and blue fabric. "This is the Captain's uniform. He's one of the Heroes who's been traveling with us, one of the ones who… got caught in the mist. And this…" He unfolded the other bundle and stared at it.
"Is that yours?"
He nodded, his mind and heart awash with memory and emotion.
"Then… you're the Hero of the Wild?"
Again he nodded. "Yeah. That's my—well, my other title, yeah."
"Then that's what we'll call you." He held out his hand for the two outfits. "Like you said, I came here from the time of the Great Calamity—or, after its defeat, rather. So I suppose 'Hero of the Calamity' might be fitting. What do you think?"
Failure stung him, but he tried to keep his mind focused. "Those are both mouthfuls. We're all the 'Hero of Something', so in cases where we use that as an identifier we end up just dropping the 'Hero of' bit. And I assume—"
The stranger frowned severely.
"—yeah, I figured you wouldn't want that as a nickname."
Silence fell over the two as they thought. Wild couldn't help but stare at him. This stranger was so composed, so self-assured. So unlike himself. Wild was an emotional puddle of mess at even meeting this other Champion, while the stranger remained—
Like a flash of lightening, the brilliance struck. "Calm."
"Hm?"
"What do you think? 'Calm' is kind-of short for 'Hero of the Calamity', and it seems to fit your personality. I mean, at least, what I've seen of it so far. So?"
He thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. That works."
"Hey…"
Calm stared at him.
"This, might seem like a strange question, but… well… I lost all my memories not too long ago, and they just kind of come back to me at random times, usually connected to whatever I'm looking at."
Calm looked surprised, but said nothing, waiting for Wild to continue.
"But it was strange… When I saw you earlier, I, thought I had a memory come back, but… it was, of a tree? Does that, ring any bells?"
Calm stared at him. Searching. "Who else was there?" he asked quietly.
"My—" Wild choked a little. "I think, my dad? He said, something about using an apple tree—I was practicing swordplay I think—" Wild stopped. "Are you okay?"
Slowly, Calm was backing away from him, eyes wide and fixed, until he ran into the cave wall. "That can't…" He blinked. "Your son, he said something about time travel being fickle?"
Wild shrugged. "I have no idea. I know nothing about time travel; never really dealt with it before this outing. Why?"
More silence. More staring. Wild could see gears turning over in Calm's mind, spinning and spinning but never really finding their place. "What did he say? In your memory."
"The memory cuts out before he says anything, really. Just that I'm not supposed to practice on a particular tree."
To Wild's surprise, Calm sank to the ground, his gaze dead ahead and distant.
"Whoa, hey," Wild rushed to him. "You okay? What is it?"
Calm brought a hand to his mouth. His eyes began to glisten. "That can't be… You can't—"
"Be you from an alternate future?"
"No." Calm studied his face again. The gears in his eyes suddenly clicked. "Show me your hands."
"My—?"
"Hands. Take your gloves off."
Confused, Wild did as Calm directed. Calm took hold of his fingertips and positioned his hands palm-down. His eyes carefully scanned the backs of Wild's hands. "You don't have them," he muttered. He looked at Wild, then removed his own gloves. The backs of his hands were speckled with faint lines, almost forming little spider webs. "It's a birthmark. I've always had them."
Wild's own mental gears began spinning. "But… that doesn't make sense—"
"Only if you think we're the same person."
Wild stared at him. "How… How can we not be? I mean, aside from the obvious differences with the Calamity—"
"That tree is where—" Calm stopped. His eyes shone with the remnants of tears he kept furiously blinking away. "Where my twin brother was buried."
Wild's eyes went about as wide as they could go. "Twin…" He couldn't get the other word out.
"What's his name?"
His father removed his hand from the tree. "Your mother prayed at the Goddess Statue every day to know what to name you boys," he said solemnly, "just like she did for your baby sister. The only name that ever came to her mind… was 'Link'."
Calm was waving his hand in front of Wild. "Hey—you in there? Are you okay?"
Wild blinked. "Yeah, sorry, just—" He sat back on his knees. "More of the memory came back." He rubbed his face, then stared at the back of his hands. "I… I had a sister—"
"Aryll."
Wild stared at him, shaking.
"She and Dad got sick, right before the Calamity struck. Neither of them made it. I… barely had enough time to grieve before the knights were all called to the battlefield."
"So… you lost them, too?"
Calm glanced at him, then nodded sadly.
Silent tears were shed as the two Champions took in all of the new information.
"I never thought I'd meet you."
Wild looked up.
"I was older when Dad finally told me. I used to wonder what you were like." The tiniest hint of a smile lit up Calm's eyes. "Well. Now I guess I'll get to find out." He looked out over the valley, his smile vanishing. "We should get going. What did you say my nickname was? 'Calm'?"
Wild nodded. "And I guess… I guess I'll be 'Wild', then."
Calm got to his feet and helped Wild up. Wild—the pain of all the loved ones he'd lost, the grief fresh in his mind—pulled his twin into a hug. He didn't want to miss the opportunity while he had it.
He barely noticed Calm's entire body tense up.
Wild let go. "You okay?"
Flustered, Calm nodded. "Let's go tell the others." He walked passed his twin, awkwardly averting his gaze. "The sooner we head out, the better."