Fundamental Foundation

Time and Wild focused piece. Wild is around eight or nine in this piece.

As the Lynel fell to the ground defeated, Time slid his sword away and approached Wild, who like the loot goblin he is, began collecting the Lynel's dropped goods.

After a moment of consideration where Time eyed Wild, then the scene around them, he spoke: "You know, sometimes you scare me."

Wild blinked in bewilderment, glancing over his shoulder to Time, burrows furrowed in amused confusion, "Scare you? Haha."

Time sighed and ruffled his hair, ignoring Wild's squeak of protest, "It's stunts like those that make me worry about you. I know you can handle yourself well, but sometimes it just gets to me. About all of you."

Wild said nothing for a beat as he stood, mulling over Time's words.

Then he visibly hesitated a beat, nibbling at his bottom lip, "Have I…have I told you about my first day awake?"

Stilling, Time shook his head, "No."

It brought a spark of hope in Time's chest that Wild perhaps trusted him enough, felt like he knew Time well enough, to divulge what he had kept so close to his chest. Only Twilight knew of Wild's beginnings and Twilight respected Wild far too much to share something so private to anyone, even Time himself.

(Not that Time would force Twilight to do that, that was just wrong on so many levels.)

Wild paused again and gave a nervously sheepish laugh, "Eheh, you should've seen me. A complete feral animal."

Time, teasingly, raised a brow and commented with a pseudo serious voice: "You mean to tell me you aren't a feral animal now?"

Wild gasped in mock offense, "Rude!"

Time gave a hearty laugh.

Wild smiled softly, looking out over the field they were stood in with a reminiscent glint in his gaze, "Still, I couldn't speak or understand Hylian. In every way, despite my jokes, I was very much a feral child," Wild turned to Time, eyes glazed over as he relived his first moments, the memories still so clear even after almost three years awake, "Stepping out of the Shrine…I'll never forget it. The feeling, the sight. A felicity unlike anything else…"

He closed his eyes, his first view from that ledge on the Great Plateau. The sight of the mountains, the castle, the endless forests and distance ruins.

"So I knew literally nothing and I only had my hands and mouth. Fighting came naturally to me and i…kinda tore into a bunch of Bokoblins? It was…I didn't know it then, but it was really graphic."

The taste of iron in his mouth is one Wild was very familiar with, be it his own or another living being. He had always bordered the line of literal feral, even now after time around proper people, it was just impossible to train himself out of it at a base level. Maybe that was just who he was, his bond with the land influencing him far more then he really knew or could tell.

"I scared the old man badly—a child covered in dirt and wet and dried blood? Hair that dragged on the floor? I'll never forget the sound he made, haha," His laugh was nervous this time and held a shakiness to it.

Time looked at Wild with concern, his gaze still so distant.

"It took me some time to come around and trust him…"

"When did you meet Madius?" Time questioned, "You haven't told us much, but I thought it was soon after?"

Wild blinked and shook his head, shaking off the glint in his eyes to look at Time, "It was a while? Didn't keep track, didn't think to but it was around the third or fourth month mark? Maybe? Keeping track wasn't exactly something I thought to do…and…I don't think it was by chance I found dad either. He was being holed up in the Yiga Clan base, weight down with enchanted chains. On my quest to find the Yiga Clan's leader, I stumbled across the cells and lo and behold, there he was."

A beat.

"He was expecting me," Wild added, eyes turning knowingly onto Time, who swallowed at what he was referencing.

"He probably was," Time nodded, hand dropping to his bag, "After we met you, I didn't know it then, but he had felt who you were and asked me questions. I was oblivious of course but…in retrospect—"

"—He felt our blood connection because he's my father?"

Time huffed out a laugh, even now, after almost a year of travelling with Wild, it still got to him, "Yeah."

Wild eyed Time's bag and he wouldn't be surprised if Wild wanted to speak to the Madius, even if it wasn't his own version. His father was his father, no matter the place in the timeline. Time also knew that Madius would love that chance as well.

Maybe the next time they were at his farm, in the safety and privacy of Lon Lon Ranch, would Time ask Wild if he wished to speak with Madius.