Wind hummed a bit to himself as Wild cooked dinner. He'd been doing his best to try to befriend and understand the newest Link, but he'd really only ended up with more questions. Wild was pretty cool, if he did say so himself. He never really treated Wind like a kid, and he was super patient whenever he went off on tangents.
He also loved listening to Wind's stories, even if he'd heard them before. He tried to get Wild to tell him some stories of his own, but he hadn't really had much luck, yet.
They were still in Four's Hyrule, but they were expecting a shift any time, now. He hoped it'd be to his own Hyrule—he really wanted to show Wild his island! He knew that Tetra and Aryll would love him.
"Dinner's ready." Wild announced, and everyone traded eager grins. Vio and Red helped pass out all the bowls. It had taken some getting used to, but the colors were fitting in nicely.
"Thanks!" Wind beamed as he dug into the meal.
"I still can't get over how good you are at cooking." Red grinned. "I'm hopeless."
"Of course you're hopeless, you can't follow directions to save your life!" Vio huffed. "They're called cookbooks. You're supposed to follow the directions."
"Can you cook, Vio?" Warriors asked with a raised eyebrow.
"He can at least make something edible." Green laughed. "As long as there's instructions, he can make it. If it's not written down, though, forget it."
"I can write down some recipes if you'd like?" Wild offered, causing the purple-eyed Link to perk up.
"Really?"
"Yeah. And if you'd like, I could use some help with dinner from time-to-time. There's some recipes I can't make if I'm doing it alone. I really think you'd all like them, too."
"Well, we can't say no to good food." Red laughed alongside Warriors.
"He's got a point! If you need a hand, let us know." Warriors added on.
"We may not be able to cook, but most of us can follow directions." Legend scowled. "I can at least help with prep work."
"I help my wife often." Time added on, causing a few of them to blink.
"You're married?" Hyrule stared.
"Very happily." He held up his left hand to show the simple golden band.
"To who?" Twilight tilted his head, staring at his mentor with a curious gaze.
"It's gotta be Zelda." Warriors insisted.
"You'll just have to wait until we reach my Hyrule." Time smirked.
"What?! No!" Wind pouted. "I don't wanna wait!"
"You're such a kid." Warriors laughed, making him pout more.
"I'm not a kid." He insisted. "I beat Ganon, too."
"Age doesn't mean much." Wild spoke up, causing Wind to focus his attention on him. Everyone was starting to finish up their meal. "Ganon doesn't care how old his enemies are. You're a kid physically, but that doesn't mean much to him. He'll hit you just as hard as anyone else. It also doesn't make you any less of a hero." He sent Wind a grin, and he felt his cheeks flush a bit.
"Did you face Ganon?" Hyrule asked carefully. They all knew Wild avoided topics like his journey with a vengeance. He seemed vehemently opposed to sharing anything personal. It made Wind kind of sad.
"Yeah." Wild nodded after a long moment. "Calamity Ganon is what my people call him." There was a shadow in Wild's eye that Wind hadn't seen before. It held a darkness he didn't like. It almost scared him a bit, like Wild knew something that none of them had experienced, and it left him with scars on his soul that were as horrific as the ones on his face.
Wind decided he'd try to steer him towards another topic instead. "So you've seen some of our Hyrules, now. What's yours like?"
Just as suddenly as it appeared, that shadow was gone, replaced by a light that Wind was becoming increasingly familiar with. Everyone relaxed a bit, having found the safe ground again.
Wind's eyes flickered towards something around Wild. It wasn't something he could see, so much as sense. Wild seemed to have a few spirits around him. He wondered who they were. Legend had a few spirits, too.
The others leaned forward in interest as Wild hummed a bit in thought. "I guess the biggest difference I've noticed so far is size. You said Twilight's Hyrule was big, and maybe we just didn't go very far, but it felt a lot smaller than mine."
"You mean yours is even larger than Twi's?!" Wind's eyes were huge. Twilight's Hyrule was so big! It took almost three whole days to get from Castle Town to Kakariko, and that was far longer than any of theirs!
"That's just what I think. I haven't traveled all over Twi's Hyrule, so I really can't say." Wild shrugged as he and Vio put the dishes away.
"I mean… you never got tired while trekking through my Hyrule." Twilight mused. "Who knows? Maybe your Hyrule is bigger. How long does it take to get from your Castle Town to your Kakariko?"
Wild paused to think. "From Castle Town, I think it's about a week or two. Don't quote me on that, though, because I don't usually rest much on trips like that. I think if you add in resting at night… maybe a few weeks? It's a bit faster by horse."
"Holy hell." Warriors whistled. "Your Hyrule is massive."
"My feet hurt just thinking about it." Legend scowled.
"No thank you." Blue scowled. "I'd rather merge."
"I've noticed that the weather here is pretty mild, too. My Hyrule often has severe temperature fluctuations in specific regions."
"How severe are we talking?" Vio leaned forward in interest. "Like, desert kind of fluctuations?"
"Uh… the desert can go from about 120F to negatives in a twenty four hour period." Wild scratched his scars.
"That sounds harsh." Warriors frowned. "Dare I ask about your Death Mountain?"
Wild laughed a bit. "Death Mountain is so hot that if you don't have the right equipment or elixirs, you'll burst into flames and die. I've seen it happen to unprepared travelers."
"That's insane." Twilight gasped. "They'll just… fwoosh?"
"Yep. Some places are uncomfortably hot even for a Goron."
"And I thought our Death Mountain was toasty." Red grimaced.
"I didn't think it was that bad." Vio crossed his arms.
"Yeah, but you didn't have to hike the whole way up." Blue pointed out bitterly. The four Colors traded looks that Wind and the others were coming to know as them speaking mentally. He had to admit, their facial expressions were entertaining when he couldn't hear what was being said. Blue scowled and Vio's lip twitched upwards.
"No offense, but your Hyrule sounds like actual hell." Legend shuddered lightly, looking at Wild.
"It's not all bad." Wild smiled widely. "The people are kind and helpful once you get to know them, and the scenery is incredible!" He grabbed his slate and flicked through it for a moment before turning it around. The image was breathtaking—a sunrise over the snowy peaks of a mountain. There were trees as far as the eye could see, and Wind had never seen anything quite so beautiful before.
The others seemed to share that sentiment, even the colors stopped their silent argument to study the image. Wild showed them another picture with scenery that was just as majestic. "My Hyrule is full of nature, and towns are few and far between. Perhaps because of that, scenery like this is pretty much everywhere. You've just gotta take the time to look."
"Man, I can't wait to go exploring that Hyrule with you!" Hyrule grinned and Time paled a bit.
"You got lost enough in Twilight's Hyrule. From the sounds of it, yours is a lot bigger." Legend glared.
"I know my Hyrule pretty well, though. And if I get lost, I can always just check my map, ask a korok, or teleport."
"Wait, you have koroks?!" Wind perked up excitedly. He didn't catch the small wince Time gave. "I have them too!"
"Yeah! The koroks and I have this game we've been playing throughout my journey! It's the world's biggest game of hide-and-seek! See, they stole all the maraca seeds from Hestu—another korok—and hid all across Hyrule! So whenever I find one of them, they give me the seed." Wild grinned proudly. "They have all sorts of puzzles to solve to find them, and sometimes they're in the most frustrating places." He scowled lightly thinking of some of them.
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Warriors grinned, leaning on his hand casually. His eyes gleamed with curiosity.
"So this one time, I was climbing to the summit of the Dueling Peaks—because there might be something cool up there, right?—and I finally get to the top expecting some kind of ore deposit or shrine, or at the very least a weapon, but no. Instead there's a single rock just sitting there. And lo and behold, I lift it up and there's a korok. And he laughs at me. Like watching me nearly get flattened by a Talus to get there was entertaining. I was half tempted to drop the rock back on his head." Wild huffed as several of them burst out laughing. "There actually was a shrine up there, but it was on the other side of the peak."
"So you just free climbed a mountain?" Sky asked, perplexed.
"Well, yeah. How else was I supposed to get up there?" Wild blinked.
"What if you fell?" Twilight frowned.
"I have a paraglider." Wild beamed, stepping back to unfold a piece of fabric that looked something like Sky's sailcloth. Only instead of being the fabric by itself, it was pulled taut between two sticks of some kind. "It lets me glide like a Rito. It's really fun! Sometimes I'll climb stuff just to glide off—you never know what you'll find."
"Woah! Think I could try it sometime?!" Hyrule grinned.
"Sure! Oh, that reminds me! I think you'd love shield-surfing! It's a popular sport in my Hyrule~!"
"Someone stop them." Twilight groaned softly in horror, making Time chuckle.
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you, but why do you steal all your weapons from monsters?" Warriors asked. "When you bought that sword and shield from Castle Town, you said you'd never had a new weapon before."
"I haven't. Or, not from what I can remember, at least." Wild's smile calmed. "Like I said, towns are few and far between in my Hyrule. You can't just walk into a shop and buy weapons. You can buy arrows from some people, but merchants don't carry very many of those—I think most if not all of the arrows and bows in my Hyrule are crafted by the Rito. Even Hylian bows are usually stolen from monsters or passed down through families. If you're lucky, you can find old rusted weapons at the bottom of rivers and lakes and then chuck 'em at an octorok on Death Mountain—they'll polish it right up, you just have to remember to duck when they spit it back out. Sometimes you can get some pretty nice weapons that way."
"What about your Castle Town?" Twilight asked. "Surely, there's some kind of smith there?" The colors nodded in unison, obviously thinking the same thing.
Now, Wind may have been young, but even he noticed how uncomfortable the question made Wild. So he decided to give the hero an out. "You could always find stuff in dungeons?"
Wild shot him a grateful look before it quickly changed to confused. "Dungeons?"
The group blinked at one another. "You… don't have dungeons?" Legend asked incredulously.
"I have shrines? They're filled with deadly puzzles set up by the Sheikah centuries ago to help prepare the hero." Wild offered.
"No, that doesn't quite sound like a dungeon." Hyrule shook his head. "Dungeons have all sorts of monsters crawling inside of them. Sometimes they've got puzzles, but more often than not they're old temples or crypts that've become infested. Lots of locked doors, need to find the keys, usually gotta run around a lot?"
"No?" Wild tilted his head. "I don't think I've ever encountered that before…" He paused. "What's a key?"
They stopped and stared at him. "You're kidding, right?" Legend held Wild's confused look. "Holy shit, you aren't. How the hell did you get anywhere without a key?"
"I mean, is this key thing really so important?" Wild frowned.
Hyrule sighed and pulled out a key. "This is a key. It goes in the lock of a door or chest to open it."
"Why not just… kick it open? Or bomb it?"
"Why is a bomb your go-to solution for everything?" Vio pulled at his hair as Green patted his shoulder.
"There, there."
"Not. Helping." He glared at his green-clad quadruplet.
"Kick what open? The door?" Wind tilted his head.
"No, the chest." Wild answered simply.
"Most chests don't just… open when kicked." Twilight chuckled. "They're usually locked. I know I had to pick a lot of locks to open those dang things. The really special ones needed keys, though. Magically protected and all that."
Wild frowned. "If you punch it or kick it, it should open, though. They always do, even when they've been buried in the snow or sand."
"Buried in…" Sky stared. "You have chests just laying around?"
"Don't you?"
"No, we don't." Warriors laughed. "If we did, I'd be a lot richer."
"Richer? You'd sell the weapons?" Wild grimaced.
"Our chests normally have rupees in them." Red informed with a chipper smile. "I'm guessing yours has weapons?"
"Yeah. Swords, broadswords, arrows, lances… You can find all sorts of weapons. If you're lucky, you'll find a shield." He grinned.
"Can you use all those?" Time raised an eyebrow.
"Course." Wild nodded. "I can use any weapon. Boomerangs, spears, clubs, swords, axes… I remember one time I took on a Lynel with a rake." He laughed.
"I'm sorry, did you just say Lynel and rake?" Legend looked like he was halfway between throttling Wild and fainting.
"Yeah, I sorta ran out of weapons. But I only had a little more damage to do before it was dead, so it worked out in the end." Wild waved it off.
"Unbelievable." Hyrule shook his head. "Your Hyrule is all kinds of crazy. No dungeons, no keys, unlocked chests just laying around, Lynels, weapons galore… Must be quite the culture shock coming to these other Hyrules."
"Kind of." Wild rubbed the back of his head.
"With how often you 'run out of weapons', I'm shocked you're not a regular to that goron blacksmith of yours." Blue muttered under his breath.
"I visit the Gorons often enough." Wild grinned as Blue flushed, likely having forgotten how good Wild's hearing was. "Yunobo would get worried if I didn't visit every so often…" He frowned. "Come to think of it, they must all be worried. I got sucked away without any warning." He paled a bit. "Shit, Sidon must be worried sick! And Teba!" He ran a hand through his hair as he grew more distressed. "Shit, he's gonna lecture me until my ears fall off! And Riju—oh, no, shit! Purah! And Bolson. I'm so dead."
"Calm down, pup." Twilight laughed. "Time passes a bit differently. We don't understand it, but you won't have been gone for too long by the time we hit your Hyrule."
Wild didn't look overly comforted at that. "I had things on order with the Gerudo." He stated. "I'm always on time to pick them up. If I'm even a day late, Riju will send an army out to find me."
"You're exaggerating." Warriors scoffed. "Right?"
"No." Wild shook his head. "Last time I was late to pick up my orders, I stumbled into town half-dead from an unexpected Yiga-Modulga encounter. The whole town freaked out and shoved I don't know how many elixirs down my throat." He rubbed his face with a sigh. "This is going to suck."
"Well, the mailman seems to find us no matter what Hyrule we're in." Wind piped up. "I can still exchange letters with my sister and grandmother. Maybe you can write them?"
"Uh…" Wild frowned. "We don't really have a functioning mail system like that in my Hyrule yet."
"You don't? If it's that big, how do you send letters?" Sky blinked.
"You send someone out to deliver them or deliver them yourself." Wild answered. "I've got a good number of friends among the Rito, so maybe I can talk to them about establishing a mailing system involving that… Usually it's no issue for me because I can teleport across my Hyrule."
"Wait, you can what?" Hyrule startled.
"Teleport. Using the Shrines." Wild pointed towards his slate. "It does more than just store stuff and take pictures, you know. I can freeze water and make bombs and stuff. Magnesis is pretty handy, too."
"Dare I ask?" Time shook his head.
"Probably not." Wild sent him a cheeky grin. "Oh, speaking of, we're almost out of potions and stuff, right?" He looked towards Hyrule, who nodded. "I'll make us some more Elixirs, then."
"Huh?" Legend stared blankly at Wild. "You mean buy us more Elixirs?"
"No?" Wild answered slowly as he set the cooking pot back up. "I'm going to brew us some Elixirs."
"You can brew?!" Half the group shouted in shock.
"You can't?"
"It's a guarded trade secret." Time explained. "If just anyone knew how to brew potions, then the sellers would be out of a job."
"Everyone in my Hyrule knows how to brew." Wild shrugged. "Why do you think I'm always gathering stuff? Not all of that's for food."
"Amazing. Do you know how many rupees we'll save on potions?!" Hyrule grinned. "Can you teach me?!"
"Uh… sure? It's not that hard. The Hearty Elixirs just take some monster parts and a Hearty Lizard."
"I'm sorry, did you just say monster parts and a lizard?" Sky turned a bit green.
"Yeah?" Wild frowned as he pulled out what looked like bokoblin guts, lizalfos horns and a tooth that Wind did not want to know the origins of. He tossed it in the pot and poured something into it before adding a whole lizard to the mix and stirring. "It's pretty simple. Like I said—everyone back home knows how to make it." After about a minute of stirring the hellish concoction, it melted into the familiar thick reddish substance that they downed every time they got hurt.
Wind, himself, suddenly felt a tad green around the gills. "I'm… not sure I want to see that ever again."
"I mean if it works? It's really not that bad." Hyrule shrugged.
"Coming from you?" Legend looked a tad pale. "I've seen you eat your cooking. You've got the stomach of a Goron."
"Wild, if you're going to brew more… elixirs, please do so when the others aren't awake or around." Time spoke up. "I personally don't mind, and it seems like Hyrule doesn't either, but the rest of the group…" He turned to stare at Warriors who was trying his best not to puke.
Wild turned a bit red. "Sorry." He quickly bottled the Elixir and put it away in his slate, storing the rest of his cooking equipment as well. "I'll try to be more careful."
"It's normal for you. You didn't know." Hyrule shrugged. "I'd still love to learn, though."
Wild shot him a grin. "I'd love to teach you."
Hyrule beamed. "Time, can Wild and I take the first watch?"
"Sure." Time waved his hand. "I'll take the last one. Twi, you're on middle duty."
"Fine."
Wind couldn't help but grin as he snuggled into his bedroll. Tonight, they'd learned a lot more about Wild and his Hyrule. He couldn't wait to learn even more about their newest brother. Maybe tomorrow, they could see his lands for themselves. He felt a soft smile flit across his lips as he fell into the realm of dreams, the waves of his memories rocking him to sleep.