Author's Note: Spoilers for both BOTW and Hyrule Warriors AOC. I have always been interested in why Revali acts the way he does, and so I will be exploring that in this story. Let me know what you think!

Chapter 2

Featherlight

"Do you have some sort of death wish?"

Link pulled her leg away as Revali reached for it with a strip of cloth in his fingers, earning her a glare as acrid as his tone.

"Charging straight into a horde of three Lynel?" He scoffed. "As excellent as I am, not even I am possessed of such hubris, or such idiocy."

With a goofy, lopsided grin, the Hylian pulled three Lynel horns from her bag sitting in the snow beside her. Proof of her own excellence, of her confidence in her skills.

Revali made it very clear that he saw otherwise, however, looking down his beak at the deep gash running the length of her leg below the knee. Link signed, "I'll be fine," before remembering that he could not understand her. She sighed. How could she possibly work together with him as champions if she could not even communicate basic concepts to him? Mipha, having known Link since she was a child, was highly fluent in sign language. As soon as she had learned Link was mute, she had taken it upon herself to learn. Urbosa and Daruk had each asked Link, when they met, to teach them the basics so that there would always be an open, functional line of communication between them. Zelda, of course, with her penchant for reading and studying, had simply already known sign language, among many others in which she was fluent.

Then, however, there was Revali. Urbosa and Daruk had wanted to learn, but the Rito champion seemed to show no such interest. Link, Zelda, and Impa had been in Rito for a week already, and though they had often spent time together helping the Rito warriors to cull some of the monster population surrounding the village, Revali had never once approached her about a means of communication. Maybe he enjoys these one-sided conversations where he can listen to himself talk. Link certainly wasn't planning on broaching the topic with him. She wasn't going to beg him to learn how to understand her. If he wanted to leave himself out of the loop on important information needing to be conveyed during missions and battles, then that was his own responsibility.

The sound of Revali's voice pulled Link out of her head. It was quite easy to tune him out when she was not able to be an active participant in the conversation. "I propose an exchange."

She looked at him, sitting opposite her in the snow with his legs crossed.

"I will tend your wound and bandage your leg. In return, you…"

What request could he possibly have had in mind to make him hesitate, Link wondered. She nodded slightly to indicate that she was listening and to encourage him to continue.

"You will teach me sign language."

A slow smile spread across her lips, chapped by the constant dry, slicing air of the Tabantha frontier. Link nodded, but then gestured at her leg and shook her head. She would happily teach him sign language, but she did not need any help with her leg.

"You don't require my assistance, is that it?" A mischievous light appeared in his eyes, not dissimilar to the shrewd look he assumed on the battlefield. "Then stand up."

She pushed herself up with her hands, wobbling slightly and leaning against the mountain face nearby for support. The dull throb that had been plaguing her intensified into a sharp, rending ache, and Link gritted her teeth but met Revali's gaze evenly as he also stood and moved toward her.

"Off with you, then. Or did you intend to remain out here and freeze?"

Link was unable to catch the look of disbelief that crossed her face before it gave her away. She knew there was no way she would be able to walk all the way back to the village like this. She hadn't intended to, of course; she had at least planned to bandage it up herself so that she wouldn't bleed out on the way. She tried to glance discretely at her bag, but from the growing smirk on Revali's face she knew he caught her.

"If your leg is fine, surely it doesn't need any bandaging?" He drawled, folding his arms.

You want to play this game? Fine. After a deep exhale, Link stopped bracing herself against the wall.

"Link," Revali warned, closing the space between them swiftly.

She ignored his protestations and put her good leg first, and then tried to drag her injured one gently behind her. As soon as she lifted it, however, pain seared all the way up her thigh, and with a silent gasp she found herself pitching forward, the blinding white of the sunlight reflected in the snow rushing up to meet her.

But it never did.

She heard a flap of wings and then found her field of vision filled with deep blue as wings tightened around her. Revali had caught her against his chest. This close, she could both hear and feel the rapid fluttering of his heart. Birds have much faster pulses than humans, Link remembered Zelda saying once, and the Rito are no exception. If I am not much mistaken, their hearts beat on average 300 times a minute. Isn't it incredible! She smiled. Yeah, it was. His body was also warmly insulated, and—

"Ahem."

With a pink dusting rising to color her cheeks, Link allowed the Rito to help her sit back down in the snow.

"Now are you ready to accept my aid?"

Link huffed but nodded. The two remained in perfect silence as he set about pouring a cleansing elixir onto the wound and wrapping it around several times with a cloth bandage. His gentleness surprised her, his fingers darting deftly around her wound as he tended it, feathers brushing her skin. She quite honestly had expected him to manhandle it, but perhaps she gave him too little credit.

After he finished, he rose and held out his wing to her. She took it and found herself pulled to her feet. Her wound immediately started shooting pain up and down her leg, but she brushed past Revali and began making for the village as quickly as she could, which was not very fast at all.

She heard a quiet chuckle as he caught up to her in a few strides. "Although I loathe to admit this, we are alike in at least one respect."

Link glanced at him, eyes widening.

"Independent to a fault. Even to our own detriment."

A smirk. She couldn't argue with him there.

"That is why I proposed an exchange," he explained. "A quid pro quo. I thought it may facilitate you accepting my help if it were not so blatantly…"

One-sided.

So that was why he had taken so long to express a desire to learn sign language. Because he did not know how to ask for help. Link knew why she was the way she was—coming from a long line of fathers who were royal guards, she had to work all that much harder to not only live up to them, but to prove that she could do it at all because she was a woman. But she wondered about the reason for Revali's staunch independence.

With a soft smile to herself she stopped limping up the steep path to the village. Revali had, to her great surprise, done her a kindness, and the least she could do was return it. Perhaps in her gracefully accepting his help, it would show him that there was no shame in allowing oneself to accept aid and encourage him to do the same in the future.

"What is it?" The taller Rito stopped beside her, his voice for the first time sounding mild rather than vitriolic or condescending.

It of course did occur to her that if she did this, it might cause him to only look down on her and scorn her further. But it didn't matter. Link knew, even if no one else did, that she could have done it on her own. That didn't mean she had to.

Eyes beaming with warmth, she held her hand out to Revali.

He stared. "You… are asking for my help?"

Link nodded.

After a beat, he took her hand and lifted that arm around his right shoulder, pressing his left wing against the small of her back to further support her.

"Is this all right?" He asked in a low voice as he helped her take a step.

For someone so harsh, so standoffish, so strong, being held against his body felt like snuggling against a pillow. Link nodded, and they continued trekking in slow steps to the village. Perhaps there was much more to Revali than he let others see.

"Don't expect me to baby you like this every time you get a scratch," he snapped.

Or perhaps, that was just her wishful thinking.

Revali had helped her all the way back to the trio's hut before unceremoniously dumping her on her hammock and disappearing without so much as another glance. Link was far too tired to be offended, however, and after an early dinner with Impa and Zelda she gladly curled up in bed and drifted off to sleep.

All around her, she saw darkness. Smothering, encroaching darkness as if she had been blindfolded. Embers and ashes flitted past her, carried upon an invisible, stagnant breeze. Her heart sped up as she could feel something coming, something dangerous. She had to find Zelda.

"Link!"

Link tried to scream for Zelda to move, but no sound came out. A man shrouded in dark robes appeared behind her and threaded his fingers around her throat, squeezing. Link rushed toward them as the princess gasped and gagged for air, but her legs could not carry her fast enough. With every step the two of them seemed to grow farther away, not closer. The world around her slanted, as though she were running sideways and would fall any moment. Hideous laughter rang out in the darkness as Zelda collapsed to the ground, her body perfectly still. The man snapped his fingers, and malice began to grow upon her body like a fungus, crawling up her legs, then her torso. Soon she was encased in a swamp of malice, no sign of the Zelda she knew to be seen.

"Your destiny, heroes, is to die."

He appeared in front of Link, his eyes boring into her own.

"The hero to seal the darkness shall instead be consumed by it!"

She tried to run, but her body wouldn't move. Looking down, she saw malice growing on her feet. The swamp had teeth and a golden eye rolling in its socket, staring. It crawled slowly up her body.

"You can't save them."

It was as though all hope, all willpower, all life was being sucked out of her.

"Everyone and everything you love will be gone, destroyed!"

Link gagged as the malice slithered up her throat and filled her mouth and nose.

"Hyrule is mine now."

"Link! Wake up, Link!"

She jolted upright in her hammock, nearly hitting Impa sleeping in the one above her. Cardinalis whined as Link looked wildly around her, sweeping the hut for any signs of danger or disturbance.

"Everything is all right, Link," Zelda said softly. "You had a nightmare." She had gotten up from her own hammock across the room. Standing before Link, Zelda reached out her hand, only to withdraw it to her chest just as quickly.

"What is it?"

"I…" Zelda fiddled with a lock of her hair. "I had a nightmare too. A man in black and purple robes, and some sort of physical darkness swallowing me. And you."

Link looked up sharply. The same dream? And "the hero to seal the darkness," why did he use that title in reference to me? I couldn't possibly…

Making room for the young princess by scooting over and pulling Cardinalis into her lap, she pat the other side of the hammock.

"We should see if any of the Divine Beast pilots had this dream as well," she signed. "Or Impa."

Yet the latter seemed to be sleeping perfectly soundly if the diminutive snores issuing from the hammock above them was any indication.

"My destiny…" Zelda murmured. After knowing her for this long, Link had since grown accustomed to her habit of mumbling to herself when she was deep in thought. "The little guardian showed us a future where Calamity Ganon won. What if my destiny is to fail, Link?

"What if I can't awaken my power? All I've done thus far is disappoint everyone—what if…"

Link wrapped her arms around Zelda's small frame and placed her chin on top of her head. The princess stiffened in her arms, but then began to relax as sobs came tumbling forth. As the Hylian warrior rubbed the princess's back, she hoped that Zelda felt as comforted and safe now as Link had in Revali's arms.

"You're so strong, Link." Zelda sighed, pulling away after several minutes. "So brave. You rush right in, defending everyone without hesitation. People rely on you, not the other way around. You're nothing like me. You don't cry or breakdown. You hardly even wince when you're injured."

An audible puff of breath from Link's nose, her way of laughing. "If only you had seen me this afternoon," she signed.

Zelda's eyes lit up, always eager for a story. "What happened?"

"I asked for help. My leg injured by Lynels, I would have fallen on my face when I tried to walk if Revali hadn't caught me. He bandaged me up and held on to me the whole way back." A fond smile subconsciously crossed her face. "Needing help doesn't make you incompetent. All of us call Hyrule home, and it will take all of us to save it. That's why we've spent the past two months recruiting and befriending the champions to strengthen the bonds amongst the people of Hyrule, just as you said."

To Link's joy, Zelda laughed. "Did you sneak and go to the Spring of Wisdom without me? Surely this can't be the same Hylian who challenged Daruk to a rock rib eating contest last month."

"Well, after today, I was just thinking that I wouldn't think any less of Revali if he relied on me. I hope that the reverse is also true, but he already thinks I'm weak and incapable, so I don't suppose it matters much either way."

"Oh, Link…"

She looked to Zelda expectantly.

"You recall when all this first began, how I was often cross with you?"

A smirk. "How could I forget? I could hardly even take a breath without you saying something to me that felt like being beat on the head with a Moblin club."

The princess turned away, though not before Link caught an embarrassed flush on her cheeks.

"Yes, well, in that case I'm sure you also recall Urbosa telling you…telling you that you are a constant reminder of my failures."

Link nodded.

"It occurs to me that perhaps this is also the case with Revali. Could it be that you also remind him of things he would rather not remember, and he excoriates you at every opportunity as a result?"

Her fingers absentmindedly stroked Cardinalis as she pondered Zelda's words. While it seemed he was always snarky and arrogant no matter who he interacted with, it was true that he did not treat Impa and Zelda as harshly as he did her.

With a shrug and a sigh, Link signed to Zelda that she was going to sit outside the hut to get some fresh air, well-knowing she would not be able to sleep again after that nightmare. "I'll be just outside the door if you need me."

The princess nodded as she climbed back into her own hammock. "Think about what I said, Link."

As she left the hut and shut the door behind her, she realized she did not want there to be any credence to Zelda's words. Because if there was, it would mean that the very sight of her dredged up painful feelings in not one, but two of her teammates, people she would by necessity be spending extended amounts of time around. It was bad enough to be the unintentional cause of one person's sorrow already. How was she supposed to fulfill her duty of protecting Zelda if her very presence caused her pain? And Revali… Though his safety was not her responsibility, would he ever trust her as a fellow champion if all he saw when he looked at her were memories he would rather forget?

Link started when she stepped outside and saw a figure standing just beside the door, poised like a statue with their back leaning against the wooden wall of the hut. She reached for her sword at her back, only to freeze mid-motion when a voice said quietly, "It's just me."

Letting her hand fall to her side, Link crossed the few steps to him, gazing up at him with questioning eyes. His feathers looked ruffled, as though something had startled him. Perhaps from tossing and turning, from a bad dream…?

Link held out her hand. She had thought of a temporary way to communicate with him until she could teach him some sign language.

"What, you want me to carry you again?" There was no bite in his words, merely a weary sigh.

Shaking her head, she pointed at his wing and then held her hand out again. He eyed her dubiously, causing her to gesture to herself and then open and close one hand in the symbol of talking. At last he reluctantly placed the end of his wing in her palm, and with the fingers of her other hand she traced the letters of a sentence into his wing.

"Are you here standing watch because you had a dream?"

In the dark, his luminous green eyes widened a fraction. "So you know it. This does not bode well."

If Revali had the dream too, then the other three champions likely must have as well. But why not Impa?

Link explained to him the events of she and Zelda's shared dream. "Did you see the same?" She traced into his wing.

"Not exactly."

The discomfort, dare she say fear, lurking in the undertones of his voice made Link shudder. She hadn't expected him to be afraid of anything, but perhaps that was as foolish a thought as Zelda believing Link was some invincible brave hero and not just another knight.

"I witnessed the same events you described, namely Zelda's strangulation"—Link winced—"and your being devoured alive by darkness. Yet, I also beheld my own fate."

She looked up sharply at the Rito, whose gaze was rigidly trained straight ahead, staring at the mountain range in the far distance.

"As you and Zelda met your ends, I could only look on from where I was trapped in some sort of invisible tomb. No matter how loudly I shouted or how forcefully I threw myself against its walls, neither of you could see or hear me. As though I were some ghost." He scoffed, but instead of his familiar derisive snort it came out more as a shaky breath. "The darkness ate away at me as you both died, hollowing out my flesh until I began to look like a…" He gulped. "Honeycomb."

Link wrapped her arms around herself, closing her eyes. Yet as soon as she did, she tore them open quickly, for fear of seeing all that was described waiting behind her eyelids. Exhausted, she slid down against the side of the hut, folding her legs beneath her. The Rito pushed up off the side of the hut and stood by the balcony railing, his back to her.

Revali's wings curled into tense fists at his sides. "After all the work I've put in, all the sacrifices I've made, after how far I've come—that I should still be reduced to something so helpless."

Link wanted to call out to him, but even if she had been able, what would she have said?

"Tch. It's a disgrace. I must redouble my efforts at training." He seemed to be muttering to himself more than her now, as if he had forgotten her presence entirely.

"I refuse to ever be so helpless, so utterly useless again."

Link watched him, her head cocked in curiosity. The Rito with the deep, Prussian blue feathers illuminated in the silver glow of the moon, the normally inconspicuous muscles in his back now so tense they were made visible. A chilly breeze blew from the west and ruffled his feathers, and with a sigh he relaxed. Feathers so soft and downy, yet bow so sharp—what was he afraid of?