Hey everyone! I don't have anything sarcastic, or punny things to say today, so uhhh...I do not own the Legend of Zelda franchise.
This chapter ended up being longer than I had originally planned it to be, so the main story line will most likely be picked up next chapter. I was originally planning it to pick up in this chapter...but oh well.
"Midna….I get you have to rest and all, but you could at least tell us where to go." World sighed. The group of Ravio, Sky, Spirit, World, and the three Tri Force Heroes were currently arguing with their shadows…well Sky's shadow in particular. Midna was hiding away in the depths of the dark reflection of the light provided by Rallen. She disappeared right after they landed where ever Midna decided to drop them, which was in a spring of some sort, without even telling them where they were or where to go. Their day just seemed to be getting better and better every minute. Well, it was pretty far into the night at this point, but…still. "Or maybe where we are exactly?"
"Anything other than silence would be quite helpful." Spirit huffed, leaning down to the point where his face was a mere inches from the water covering the mossy ground, almost touching Sky's shadow. Rallen, being the delightful person he was, stuck his hand out and shoved the Hero of Trains. Immediately after this act, he threw his arms behind his back, looked away, and whistled inconspicuously.
As for Spirit….he flailed his body around comically for a moment, before tumbling flat onto his face. "Real mature." World muttered as he offered a hand to the downed hero. Said boy refused it and instead of getting up, he flicked a handful of water into the nearest person's face, other than World. That just so happened to be Ravio.
"AGAIN?! What is up with you guys and sending water in my direction?!" Ravio roared, then sighing when the whole rest of the group, absolving Midna, started laughing.
The rest of them stood rigid, prepared for anything, staring each other down. "It is SO on!" Rallen declared. Sky whipped out two bottles, one in each hand, and bent down to fill them both up…I'm pretty sure he filled them faster than what was supposed to be physically possible, but you know the Links and their uncanny ability to scoop something up in their bottles quicker than you can say the word iridociclytis.
A couple of others snagged out bottles, and other weapons capable of blowing water, out of their pouches. Kailon and Sylin chose to rely on their own bodies, instead of jars of glass, or helpful items. They both- already both soaked head to toe- threw themselves into the water, splashing wildly around. It was surprisingly effective. Effective enough where the other boys threw down their items and bottles eventually and joined in on the splashing spastically method.
At one point Spirit somehow had Sky pinned down, and forcefully rammed water into the 17 year old's face. The Hero of Trains then back flipped off of Sky for extra 'style points' and proceeded to whip around and flick another fistful of spring water onto the unsuspecting Rallen's face. At another point, World had directed water in Kailon's face, and miraculously rolled underneath his legs before the green-haired boy had time to retaliate, and yanked Kailon over and shoved him into the water fall section of the spring. Directly after that impressive feat, the Hero of Hyrule dove right into the middle of the fighting, and sprayed spring water all around him.
This water fight went on for a good ten minutes, and by the end all of the boys were exhausted, leaning on each other while they sat on the edge of the spring's water, in the now relative silence. The only sound was the gurgling and lapping of the water, and heavy breathing…..mostly from Sky.
Undenounced to the group, Midna had shifted out of Sky's shadow, and was currently 'standing' behind them. "That looked like fun, sure wish I was invited…..I would have creamed you all." The high-pitched, slightly distorted, voice of Midna sounded right behind the group, scaring the living daylights out of half of them. Some of them were more susceptible to sudden jump-scare type of things than others. For example; Sky did not do particularly well with sudden appearances- like Ghirahim…the demon lord was quite fond of teleporting around the Chosen Hero. Whereas World couldn't care less if someone was suddenly behind him…..he doesn't get scared easily….it has to be pretty fricking terrifying if you got him to shudder, or jump. Termina definitely did that to him, making the other boys not want to see that place for themselves even more. Though knowing their luck, it was inevitable.
Ravio, after whipping his head around to face the Twili, shouted in surprise. "Midna?!"
"What did you think? I was just refilling my magic…..you can't possibly claim to believe that teleporting all 7 of you at one time was an easy job." Midna muttered resting her chin on her hand made of hair. "I swear you all weigh as much as that giant bridge I had to teleport once…"
Sky shot a questioning look over to the imp, and forwarded it to Spirit, and then to World. The boys just shrugged, not opening the subject of the bridge.
"Also just to inform you all, you just had a water fight in one of the Light Spirit's sacred springs. Let me repeat myself; sacred." Midna informed matter-of-factly.
Most of the Links brought on a face of embarrassment, and guilt. "Wh-whoops." Sky muttered, rubbing the back of his head.
"Hey, It's not like we knew it was sacred….hell, we didn't even and still don't know where we actually are!" Rallen fumed, placing his hands on his hips, in a defiant manner.
"Yeah, Midna," Sylin spoke up in a quiet voice. "So, where are we exactly? Meaning; what are the sacred springs?"
"Figure it out yourself." She replied helpfully, looking slightly bored. "Or you could always ask the group of boys standing behind us, that's been watching you for a while."
"Group of- wait, what? Behind us?!" Spirit exclaimed, his gaze shifting around their location nervously. The group joined in on the search, though they were unable to see anything in the dark.
Kailon, World, and Sky exchanged a quick glance, and without warning, the three of them picked up Rallen, who was like a walking lantern right now, and began to walk to the deeper section of the spring behind them, near the waterfall. Rallen wasn't upset in the slightest, and instead started to fling his sword around….again.
"Midna, are you sure there is a group behind us?" The Twili's one visible glowing red eye narrowed, silencing the boy who asked. According to her gaze, Midna is never wrong. Though by this point, some of them could tell, that yes, she had been wrong on a couple of occasions -and no she would never admit to them.
"How long have they been loitering there?" Ravio asked in a nervous voice, his cowardice taking full swing again.
Midna gritted her teeth in irritation. "A good ten minutes. And Bunny?" She asked in a fake sweet voice through her clenched jaw. "Do me a favor and shut up."
Ravio sighed, wand walked away from the group, heading towards a gate that worked as an exit to the small peaceful spring. Well, the spring was peaceful before some certain boys came- *cough them *cough. Ravio wasn't gone long, since he darted back to the group less than a minute later. He took the 'shut up' comment quite seriously, for when he came back, he started pointing wildly towards the direction he had just come from.
"I'm going to take a wild guess, and say that you just found them?" Kailon pondered. Ravio nodded rather vigorously, and glanced nervously back the way he came. "You know, you shouldn't listen to Midna like that…so you can talk." Ravio didn't seem convinced…..he really just didn't want to pester the slightly short-tempered Twilight dweller, since it never turned out particularly well for him in the end. It honestly wasn't worth it.
Without any questions Sky, Rallen, and Spirit sprinted towards the exit, to see for themselves. The others stepped forward as well, albeit without the speed factor. Sure enough, slightly around the corner stood four boys, one being restrained by the others, their hands over his mouth. Curtesy of the Light Armor, they could make out the other people's features. The one being held back was tall, had dark brown-blonde hair, and overall seemed like a wonderful person to hang out with -*obvious sarcasm is obvious*. The other three- the restrainers –varied in age and size. One was even taller and older that the first one, and sported his unruly straw-blonde hair in a middle part, and looked a little childish for one of such age. One boy that was supposed to look childish looked more mature than the tallest one, this kid was relatively short, and wore a green hat with a bird head, and beak. The last boy looked younger and shorter than the hat-bird guy, had large wide green-blue eyes, and an overall expressive attitude…..it seemed that you could always see what he was thinking, or his mood.
It was by this point that the restrained boy yanked his way out, now free from his captors. "I said let me go!" He then dusted and flattened out his green tunic with a glare etched into his face.
"Really? All I heard was muffled sounds that were inaudible." The actual bird-hat stated, surprising Ravio, Sky, Rallen, Sylin, and Spirit. "Oh, and Myth, I wouldn't necessarily clarify muffled grunts as-" Myth, the former captive, shut up the hat by clamping down his fist over his beak.
"Now who's making the muffled grunts Ezlo?" Myth taunted. He then turned his attention to the violently bright walking lantern, and the people behind that, and let out a disapproving sigh. "Seriously you guys suck at water fights…And I would have joined if it weren't for these people." The Hero of legends then chuckled, since his last remark got some of the other group to complain, and look hurt.
"You really wanted to scare the crud out of them? I don't know about you, but if I was splashing around with my sister, and some random kids come up to us and chucked water at me, I would have first of all promptly freaked out, and then be pretty upset." The youngest boy confessed, with wide eyes. He closed them in thought for a moment, tilting his head towards the mossy ground, and sighed. "Well, now that I think about it…it might be worse that we sat here watching them for 10 minutes…"
"MY POINT EXACTLY! Wind, you could have I don't know, WALKED UP TO THEM, AND WE COULD HAVE TALKED! I would've done it myself, but you three had to get grabby!" Myth yelled letting go of Ezlo, since said bird-hat-thing couldn't breathe through his firmly clenched fist. The green cap took some overly ginormous gulps of air- 7 to be exact- which made the rest ponder how he even did that, or where the air went. Could the boy wearing Ezlo feel the air that got sucked in, run through his hair? Did Ezlo even have lungs? As far as the boys knew, he was just a hollow hat….that also happened to be alive...
"I actually agree with him on this one…..I'm actually pretty surprised I didn't sprint over there myself." The tallest, and oldest one exclaimed loudly.
"Ezlo are you ok up there?" A sleepy sounding voice questioned, coming from the person wearing the talking hat.
The hat shook his head vigorously and glared a few daggers in Myth's direction before responding. "Sure. Now maybe you want to introduce yourselves?"
"Yeah maybe you want to introduce yourselves?!" Rallen mocked, the questioning look never left his face from when he first lay his eyes on the 'stalkers'. World smacked Rallen, and shook his head while mouthing the word 'rude'. "Fine. Sorry guys, what I really meant to say was…TELL US YOUR FREAKING NAMES ALREADY. That is all." Rallen choked everyone with his fake innocent smile, and he then looked to World for fake confirmation.
"Mate, I like your attitude! The name's Myth." The latter declared, walking towards a position next to Rallen. "I think we can make the perfect sarcastic team, you and I!" The Hero of Legends then rested his elbow on the red haired boy's shoulder.
"They call me Time!" This was said with a child's innocence, which was strange…..but they decided to leave the topic alone. "Oh, and that's Wind, Tiny, and Ezlo!"
"And you guys?" Tiny asked, practically asleep on his feet. No one cared to notice Hylia's Chosen Hero though…..he was in the state that could be easily considered as a walking zombie bokoblin. He looked dead from fatigue, and yawned every 5 seconds. He always looks tired, even when wide awake, so I guess he didn't look too different.
"Oh yeah….My 'name' is World-eiiyye I got you!" World exclaimed lunging forward, since Tiny started swaying on his feet, and had begun to teeter over. "Ok, I have an idea. How about on our way to where Midna tells us to go, we introduce ourselves then? Just try to stay awake!"
"So Midna…which way?" Sylin questioned.
"Hey Dusk, why are we still awake, and not sleeping, like normal people? I'm not sure about you guys, but I'm known for my capacity for sleep. I never wake up on time!" Paint complained. Scrub, Green, Red, Vio, and Ora all replied with a consensus of 'Ditto'. Dusk and Blue however glanced at each other and shrugged, since both of them usually wake up at a reasonable time. Dusk because he kind of has to- darn obligations. And Blue since he probably got the very small part of the original Link that caused the boy to actually wake up on time. "Oh, I see…..looks like I'm not the only one then. Well now thinking back on when you guys slept at my house, and at the blacksmiths, I guess I really shouldn't be all that surprised. I'm looking at you two." Paint continued pointing his finger at Vio, and then Red. Red giggled, while Vio just rolled his eyes.
"True, true" Green admitted reliving the memory from earlier that same day when Dusk physically shoved him off of Paint's spare room bed. That was a pleasant way to wake up. Green thought sarcastically to himself, looking over to Dusk with aggressiveness in his eyes.
Dusk took it the wrong way, being as oblivious as always, and interpreted it as wanting to know how he wakes up on time. "Remember how I said I'm a ranch hand? I have to wake up early to do my job…..though on days that Fado occasionally does my work for me, or there happens to be no work at the ranch for me to go and do, then I sleep in later…..but normally getting woken up by…Illia..." Dusk explained, his voice cracking at that end, his voice drenched in sadness. Blue was extremely tempted to open up the wound, in order to get answers, but he somehow refrained himself from doing so….that was just too harsh- even for him. "We were childhood friends…but she lost her memory. She remembers me somewhat now since I helped her try to recall her memories, but she only knows that she knew me once, and that we live in the same village. Nothing more." Blue didn't even have to tear it open, Dusk did it all by himself without even being prompted.
It was silent after that. Having Dusk- of all people –act this kind of way, was unsettling, and made the rest of the Link's ponder their own lives for a moment. Ora walked over to him and placed an arm on the Hero of Twilight's back. Instead of being letting it comfort him, Dusk's wolf instincts told him otherwise, so once Ora's hand grazed the surface of his back, he snapped his head around in a snarl, shaking the Hero of Season's arm off. He continued growling for a moment before stopping, and calming himself down.
He looked away sheepishly. "Heh, heh…..wolf instincts, ya know?" Ora on the other hand looked a little more than slightly terrified, holding his hands to his chest. He blushed, and nodded, claiming that it happened to the best of them…..though in reality, no. No that does not happen, since normal people don't possess the ability to turn into a wolf, so therefore the instincts don't carry over between the second form people don't have. But, same difference, right? ….Meh, close enough.
"Did we ever think about what we are going to do in order it get home?" Red asked in a quiet and sad voice. He then noticed the answer since everyone else avoided eye contact and looked at some pointless object in the house like it suddenly held the elusive answer to the meaning of life. Red hung his head low, and began to sniffle. Green came over and hugged him, murmuring hopeful things to his 'brother'. Blue came over as well, though less encouraging. Vio remained where he was. (1)
Silence overtook the relatively small treehouse that Dusk called home after Red's jolt back to what was actually important. After a while of nothing, and no reason to remain awake for the time being, they began to doze off even where they were sitting- or standing, since other than the floor, there wasn't many places to sit, considering Dusk doesn't hang around home very often. Only Dusk, Vio, and Scrub remained awake, though the only reason Scrub strained to stay awake so hard is he wasn't quite sure that Dusk wasn't going to prank him for telling- even though it was hardly his fault at all. Dusk probably wouldn't do anything like that surely…..well, hopefully. Vio…..well the purple clothed boy was reading a book near the fireplace- typical. Dusk, sensed something that he couldn't quite place…..he was also curious about Midna…..as well as they were all in his house, and he needed to watch over it- the fireplace was always a concern for him, and he only still had it lit because there were so many people sleeping on the semi-cold floor…..they need to have some comfort.
Red was lying on Blue, who was in turn lying on Green all in a weird heap in the middle of the floor. Which made Scrub wonder whether Vio was going to join said sleeping pile, or if he was going to do his own thing. Of what he knew of the boy appropriately wearing violet so far he assumed Vio would sleep in a chair or something….but then again, people seemed to always surprise him. Like Blue for example- he seemed so rock hard on the outside, like he really couldn't give two shits about anything, and yet he adopted a slight caring attitude when Red had started to cry…..probably because they are technically the same person…..but either way it had mildly surprised the young Hero of Time. Or when Navi just disappeared once he had gotten sent back in time by Zelda to live the childhood that had been snatched away from him. He would have never thought that sweet and caring Navi would just suddenly leave without even saying goodbye…he stilled planned to go searching for her after he finishes saving Termina….though he was getting less hopeful every day that passed without her. He had taken her for granted- all he noticed then was her annoying 'HEY LISTEN' she always yelled to get his attention to point out things he already knew…..but now he actually missed it. Sure he had Tatl (not currently since she's back in Termina), but she was no Navi. Tatl was practically the opposite- sassy, sarcastic, quiet (sometimes- she didn't yell to get his attention, and that counts as 'quiet' to him.), and she didn't care about him at first…in fact Tatl only hung around Scrub so that she could reunite with her brother Tael. She stuck around since she had grown to like Scrub, as much as she probably wouldn't admit it.
Paint was collapsed on the far corner of the room, propped up by the wall he was leaning on. And Ora was lying sideways across two chairs.
It was silent for a while with Scrub- who was practically sleeping by this point, in the state of half-awake and half-sleeping, and Dusk staring at the dying fire, watching the weak flames dance around in the darkness. Vio walked over to his 'brothers' and lay down beside them- not quite on the pile, but in close proximity- and immediately fell asleep. Five minutes later is when Scrub finally broke by collapsing sideways and landing on his face, surprisingly not getting woken up even slightly. Heavy sleeper huh? Dusk thought to himself with a chuckle. Welp, finally time for me to get to sleep!
Dusk seeing as everyone was all asleep, got up to his feet and stretched his legs that had fallen asleep themselves from sitting in one position for so long. Right as he had grabbed a bucket and filled it with water he had stored in a barrel located in his kitchen, a loud thud was heard from outside.
The Hero of Twilight walked outside his house and peered over the balcony, only to see his impish companion's face right in front of his nose. "Eeee!" He yelped jumping back a few feet. "Oh Midna, it's just you….thank Farore, I thought it was those pesky bokoblins venturing a bit too far again. You almost scared me right out of my fur! ….Wait…..you know what I mean." He stuttered, running a hand through his dirty blond hair, happy that his companion was back, even though it was him that had rudely left her suddenly.
Then it spontaneously dawned on him.
He suddenly left her, right in front of the mirror of Twilight….the entrance to her homeland. Currently on the way to free her people from Zant. Yup, Dusk was in for some trouble…..and lots of it too.
Unexpectedly, Midna floated right up to Dusk, since he had jumped back earlier in surprise, and hugged him with more affection than she had ever shown to anything ever -as far as the Hero of Twilight could tell at least. It was short lived however, for the princess of the Twilight Realm tore herself away from the Hylian Hero soon after, and proceeded to slap him with her more powerful hand made of her hair. Dusk could have sworn he saw tears swelling up in her orange-red eye, through his own squinted ones. "Link! I don't know if I should be really happy to see you, or if I should be pissed since you left in the first place right when we were heading to my world to kill Zant and free me and my people from the curses! And you inadvertently pranked me by having me think that Sky was you. And then even more showed up, all of which was not you!" (2)
Dusk was in the middle of processing everything that had flown out of the Twili's mouth, and her strange actions, but didn't get the proper amount of time. Midna slapped him twice more with noticeably less power than the first one, and pushed him over so that he stumbled to the wooden floor. "I figured it out…..I decided that I am going to be pissed." She said bluntly, turning her head the other direction. She reverted her hair to its normal position, rather than a giant fire-colored hand, and sighed.
Dusk was on the ground trying- and failing- to get all the air back into his lungs, and he just stared curiously up at the impish Twili. "Hmmph…..wh….what….you…?" Dusk spluttered. Midna then yanked him off the ground so he could stand upright, and hugged him yet again.
She murmured something quietly into his long pointed ears. "And maybe….maybe I can be happy too?" Without as much as another word, she shifted into the comfort of her Hylian companion's shadow. Dusk was left there staring into the night sky dumbfounded as all crud. It was touching and comforting, yet confusing and weird all at the same time. Since when did she act that way? Especially to him –her so-called slave. …Dusk just couldn't figure it out, the answer was eluding him.
He was soon snapped out of his befuddled reverie by a couple of different voices coming from the clearing in front of his house. As he directed his eyes from the starry sky, he noticed with a start that someone had managed to climb up his ladder without him realizing it, and was standing right in front of him….and he should have noticed since this 'kid' was practically as tall as him. He must have just been focusing so hard, that his heightened wolf abilities didn't even catch the sounds. Maybe they did, but Dusk was just too busy trying to understand his Twili companion. "Oh! Umm, hello. …Wait another one?!" Dusk exclaimed as he finally took in the fact that this person was another look-alike….just another Link to add to the steadily-*ahem, sporadically- growing pile. "Hmmm, you must be 'Sky' then, I assume?!"
The other Link looked extremely confused for a minute before a look of recollection spawned on his facial features. "Yeah! …No wait, I am not Sky. I'm Time! But I did just met him though. I saw Midna come up here….You're the one she knows right? Is this your house? It's just like mine!" Time was talking pretty fast, and was looking at the Hero of Twilight with concentration.
Time? That sounds familiar. "Yes, and uhhh, cool?" Dusk replied skeptically staring at the Time with the same amount of concentration…he knew this person. Realization then dawned on him, at about the same moment it dawned on Time as well.
"Wait, you're Time! That's right I do know you! I thought you looked too familiar." Dusk declared. When he was with Tiny and Scrub, they had come across Time in his home village, but soon after Scrub and Time explained their quests leading up to this point, the groups got split up, both heading to two different worlds.
"Oh, yeah! You're Dusk right? The wolf person! I didn't know it was you that Midna knew!" Time exclaimed happily.
"Well it's good to see you again, but I'm tired, and you said that this 'Sky' was with you, so go and get him then." Dusk paused for a moment, thinking back on what Midna had said to him a littler earlier amongst all of the confusion. "Is there any others….not just you two? Is Tiny with you?" It was Dusk's turn to spam the questions now.
"More. And Yes." Time confirmed. "I'll go get all of them. Oh and just in case you were curious, that thud you probably heard a while ago was actually Sky, falling to the ground dead asleep…..we were so focused on preventing Tiny from doing the same thing, that we hadn't even noticed him acting more tired by tenfold." Now Time was acting like his physical age….weird.
With that, Time descended down the ladder again, and Dusk entered his literal tree house. Now that he was actually paying attention to the world around him, he could clearly hear a lot of commotion clambering up his ladder now.
(1) NO I DO NOT SHIP ANY OF THE FOUR SWORDS LINKS TOGETHER! I think it is absolutely disgusting and I question all the time why it's even a thing…..THEY ARE ALL THE SAME PERSON FOR NAYRU'S SAKE! Sorry I just have a problem with it…even though I have read a couple of really good Four Swords fics that did have shipping like [Red X Blue] and or [Shadow X Vio] in it but that doesn't mean that I support it. It's at least nothing you're going to see in any of my stories….sorry.
(2) As you can see, I am in fact a shipper of MidLink [Midna X Link] (OTPPPPPPPPPP :D) Though do not worry, I will not make them a couple in this story…..I will just hint at it, and Midna will show some signs of having a 'crush' on Dusk as you have already seen a bit of already. Also…username drop! (like a title drop, but with my username…..yeah I know :P)
Thank you Marie Merlia Meribeth for favoriting, and thank you The Legend of Zelda Fangirl for favoriting and following!
I apologize for this chapter being kind of rough, and bumpy.
