Hello.
This is for day four: surprise. This is from an AU where Hyrule is related to the Great Fairies, fyi—and it also mentions brief events from a chapter from 'Linktober 2k19', chapter twenty-eight: 'Karma', and the story 'Now You Don't'.
I don't own Legend of Zelda or Linked Universe.
Enjoy!
Hyrule didn't know much of family.
He was an orphan, grew up in the wilderness, raised in literal caves. His only close family were the Great Fairies, but sadly, he wasn't able to visit them enough to consider them closely related, though they were his aunts.
He didn't attend school, had the basic knowledge of nomenclature, and didn't have much interaction with civilisation prior to his adventure. Before he went to the library with Wind to find Four, he didn't even know what a library was—libraries were rare in his Hyrule, only being in heavily populated towns (which he didn't stay long in), and in the castle; but that was called the study, and he never went there.
But the eight men he got forced together with on this insane mission, he figured, were as close to a family as he was ever going to get.
Even though he knew that there was the impending fact of what will happen after their adventure is finished, he still allowed himself to get close to the others.
He thought that they were only family in soul, for they all possessed the Hero's Spirit.
Oh, how wrong he was.
There were more ways to be connected to someone besides from spirit.
It all started when the group landed in Warriors' Hyrule.
Unlike last time they landed in his Hyrule, they were not in the middle of a major battle. They were at the end of a battle in the middle of a field littered with keeps.
For the sake of Four, who was unconscious, Twilight, who had a migraine, and Hyrule, who was disoriented, this was excellent news.
"Link?"
Turning around, the group was greeted with the sight of a familiar yet unfamiliar face. Warriors, instantly, got down on one knee. "Your Royal Highness."
If it wasn't the fact that Warriors responded in such a knight-like way, the others wouldn't know that this was Princess Zelda of Hyrule. Her outfit, once chic and beautiful, was now torn and bloodied—since she was not in the infirmary, it was most likely the blood of her enemies.
"At ease." Zelda sheathed her rapier. "Link, where have you been? We've been worried sick!"
Standing up, Warriors apologised, "I'm afraid I got pulled into something… otherworldly."
Zelda perked up at that. "Otherworldly?" She looked behind him, where the eight were. "Who are these?"
Warriors gestured to the group. "These are the others who also got pulled in as well. This is Wind, Sky, Time—who's carrying Four—Legend, Hyrule, Twilight, and Wild." Looking around the battlefield, he saw wounded soldiers being carried off to the infirmary, doctors littering Hyrule Field, and hordes of dead monster bodies darkening in large piles around the keeps. "What happened here?"
"Some of Ganondorf's armies tried to rise up again," Zelda explained. "It was a long battle without you—are they okay? Do they need a doctor?" She looked at where Time held Four's unconscious body, and where Twilight was leaning against Wild, as Hyrule with Legend.
Hyrule shook his head as Twilight massaged his temples. "We'll be fine," he said. "Four just needs somewhere to lie down."
"The castle was unharmed," Zelda said, gesturing lightly. "The infirmary is packed, but is working fine. What happened?"
Warriors sighed, "Post-Switching symptoms. They don't bode well through portals."
"More portals?"
"There's been previous portals?" Sky asked.
Before Warriors could speak, a loud voice boomed across the battlefield, "Princess!? Is the princess okay?"
Lifting his head, his fatigue fading, Hyrule saw a woman carrying a very large sword rush across the battlefield. Zelda turned to face her. "Impa, I am fine. No need to worry."
"Princess," Impa assured, "it is my duty to protect you from harm."
She furrowed her brow when she spotted Warriors. "Link. Where have you been?"
"Enough about that now," Zelda said. "We need to head to the castle. We can question them after their wounded is treated."
"I shall drop them off at the infirmary."
"Actually," Zelda said, "I would rather keep them away from the general public. We need not cause chaos with more visitors from other worlds. Until otherwise, they are our guests."
Hyrule straightened up, his nausea disappearing. This allowed Legend to elbow Warriors. "Seems like there's been stuff you've been neglecting to tell us, Captain."
"Where's Lana?" Warriors wondered, ignoring Legend. "She may know about these portals."
Zelda nodded. "That's what I think. We shall contact her at once."
Impa surveyed the group, her gaze judgemental. Hyrule couldn't help but feel awkward when she quickly dismissed him—to be fair, he was just a simple traveller with barely any armour or hidden weapons. What you saw was what he had. For weapons, of course.
Magic was different.
"Since you're Her Royal Highness' guests, I will treat you as such," Impa said. "But, if I feel the need to discard one of you, if I feel you are threatening the princess, I will not hesitate to cut you down."
"Impa," Warriors said, "these are the last people to harm Zelda."
"You have my word," Time agreed. "No harm will come to your Princess Zelda."
The other Links couldn't help but nod along. Twilight's migraine faded to a more manageable throbbing, so he nodded as well.
Impa, as content as she could ever get, turned towards the castle.
"Come along," Zelda said. "We must hurry if we are to arrive before dark."
As they walked through the castle, towards the Throne Room, Zelda began to speak with Warriors.
They had entered the castle, and had to enter a long corridor to reach the Throne Room. Guards stood at the entrance, which laid at the end of the corridor.
"The blueprints for the machines are coming quite well. It's a pity you've been gone, not only for the battlefield, but for the engineering as well."
Warriors, glancing behind to make sure no one could hear, agreed. "It's fortunate I have returned at all."
Since the corridor was silent, the group could hear their conversation.
"If you have time, you must meet with the Sheikah engineers," Zelda said. "They would desire your insight before…."
Warriors nodded. "If we have time."
"You have Sheikah here?" Wild couldn't help but wonder.
Impa scoffed, "I'd watch what you say about the Sheikah, boy. I am their leader."
"I don't mean anything bad!" Wild assured. "I was just surprised! Some of my best friends are Sheikah!"
That didn't seem to ease Impa.
Wild tried to cover his mistake, quickly listing, "There's Dorian, Paya, Purah, Robbie, Pikango, Cado, Impa…"
The group walked passed a small room covered in drawings and sketches. Hyrule couldn't help but peek into the room as the group continued.
Curse his curiosity, but the room seemed interesting.
He pushed the wooden door open and peered inside. The graphite used on the parchment was partly smudged and faded, so Hyrule couldn't make out much of the drawings. He did see some writing that looked awfully familiar, though he couldn't place where he'd seen it before.
"Woah…" he breathed as he picked up a piece of parchment. The writing on it made no sense to him, but he could tell it was complicated. They were blueprints for some sort of machine, although, the logistics seemed to be way off.
"Hyrule! There you are!"
Flinching, Hyrule turned around.
Warriors stood at the entrance to the room. Though he didn't show it, Hyrule could tell he was slightly panicked.
"Uh… hi?"
"Come on," Warriors gestured for him to exit, "we need to meet with the rest. You should've stayed with the group."
Hyrule walked towards him. "I was, but then this room caught my eye."
As he stepped outside, Warriors shut the door. "Yeah, it does that. Now, come on, it's rude to keep royalty waiting."
Hyrule nodded, and they headed down the corridor.
"So, you're all Links from different worlds and times? You've all had the Triforce of Courage?"
"Well…"
"The majority of you had the Triforce of Courage? You're all Heroes in your worlds? And you've all defeated Ganondorf?"
"I didn't, actually," Sky admitted as Wild nodded. "There's no Ganondorf in my time."
"And which is your time again?"
"Skyloft."
"Ah, yes. The Chosen Hero."
Sky nodded. "You can call me Sky."
The Links had explained their story—how they were from different points of the timeline, and how they had no idea why they were together, or how they Switched worlds. They were no longer standing in the Throne Room, but had moved to a different room—one with enough chairs for everyone.
Four was still unconscious, sleeping in one of the guest rooms.
"Hmm…. Then, I'm curious, you knew the first Zelda?"
Sky smiled at his fond memories. "Yes. My Zelda, Sun… she truly is as beautiful as a goddess."
Impa couldn't help but furrow her brows. "Sun?"
"We gave each of our Zeldas a nickname of sorts," Time said, "so there's less confusion when we talk about them."
"Oh?" Zelda piped up. She turned to Warriors. "And what, by chance, is my nickname?"
Warriors paused before smiling. "Artemis, Your Highness."
Artemis mused for a moment. "Well, there certainly is worse names…. Artemis… I quite like it."
Hyrule hid a smile at Warriors' relief.
"I must admit," Artemis said, "I am curious about your Zeldas…"
Legend scoffed, "Fable's sarcastic and annoying. Spends most of her time hiding with the people."
"So, a female you?" Warriors couldn't help but joke.
Legend furrowed his brows. "Har, har. Very funny."
Sky smiled. "Sun's lovely, nice, compassionate… she's so sweet and caring… but she did throw me off of Skyloft once—"
"Hold up, she threw you off?" Hyrule checked.
"Yeah, but it was an accident," Sky said. "It wasn't malicious, she thought I was lying about my Loftwing and so she pushed me off so I would call it. It worked out in the end."
Twilight shrugged. "Dusk would probably do the same to me."
"That's not worrying at all," Hyrule said. "Dawn and Aurora couldn't even imagine pushing someone off a cliff! Well, maybe Ganon…"
To think that their ancestor pushed Sky off of Skyloft…
"You have two Zeldas?" Artemis wondered.
Hyrule scratched the back of his head. "Yeah…. Dawn was kidnapped by Ganon, and Aurora was cursed into an eternal sleep for a few hundred years."
Wild agreed, "Flora wouldn't push someone off a cliff, though she would make someone eat a frog…."
"I feel as if there's a story somewhere," Sky said.
"Tetra's a pirate!" Wind exclaimed, saving Wild from explaining the Silent Princess story. "She sails the Great Sea with her gang of pirates! Turned into a ghost for some time, that was really strange—and a statue…. She's the captain of her ship!"
"What about you, old man?" Legend nudged Time. "Anything to say about your Zelda?"
Time thought. "Lullaby is… independent. She's a great leader, a great person, and a very close friend."
"Friend?" Artemis wondered. "Is she not…?"
Time shook his head. "No. Although she is my friend, my heart belongs to my wife, Malon."
Artemis was quiet for a moment, thinking, as Twilight clapped Sky on the shoulder. "If you want to hear a story about the Hero and the princess, you should ask Sky. He's head over heels for Sun."
"I wouldn't say I'm 'head over heels'…" Sky corrected.
"Then you haven't heard yourself talk about Sun," Warriors said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you two were in a relationship."
"Well…"
"Really!?" Wind exclaimed. "You're dating Sun!"
Legend froze.
Sky nodded. "Yeah. Though, we haven't told anyone. We're waiting until I return."
"Congrats!"
As the others went to congratulate Sky, Hyrule glanced at Legend. "Legend? You okay?"
Finally shaking himself from his thoughts, Legend nodded. "Yeah… I'm fine."
He didn't sound convinced.
Legend acted weird.
Well, weirder than the man normally acted.
Each of the Links had their own quirks, something unique about each of them.
Legend was normally the spicy member, able to retort back and forth with Warriors at any given moment, the one who was loud and experienced—though was shy to explain his adventures.
Well, not shy… but enigmatic.
Legend was not one to avoid a member of their group.
To be fair, he didn't totally avoid Sky—just acted strange around him.
Before, the man would barely listen to what Sky had to say, and would often point out stuff about his carelessness. Now, Legend would listen to Sky's stories, and was more distant from him.
As much as Sky tried to not show it, it stung.
The thought that maybe Legend didn't like him, of how Sky did something wrong to him, or how Legend could hate him, flooded his mind. He couldn't help the insecurities.
Of course, it was Hyrule Sky spoke too.
Hyrule was their medic—he literally had a spell called Life. He was also an attentive listener, and could offer feedback unlike Wolfie, who could only listen.
Hyrule didn't judge.
When Sky asked him if Legend hated him, Hyrule knew that he needed to speak with Legend. Insecure thoughts could cloud the mind, which could make Sky less focused in battle.
So, when Hyrule went scouting with Legend, he made sure to bring it up. "Is there something between you and Sky?"
Legend turned to glance at him. "No. What makes you say that?"
Hyrule shrugged. "I just noticed how you've been avoiding him lately."
"Oh." Legend paused. "There's nothing wrong. In case you forgot, I'm not the most personal person."
"I know—but it seems as if you're avoiding him more."
Legend turned away from Hyrule. "Well, I'm not. So, stop worrying."
That didn't sound very convincing.
"If you're sure…"
"I'm sure, Hyrule. Come on, let's focus on scouting."
In Hyrule's land, there wasn't really a monarch.
Once, there was the princesses of Hyrule, the prince of Hyrule, and the king of Hyrule. The king died, the prince disappeared six hundred years ago, and the princesses were comatose and captured by Ganon, respectively.
Dawn and Aurora had been trying to clean up the mess made by the decline of the world, but it was a lot of work. The world was overrun with monsters and beings of darkness. Civilisation was scarce, and population was dwindling. Dawn mostly ran the kingdom, for Aurora was younger than her brother, the prince, and wasn't expected to have to run it at all. While she had the bare minimum of training, Dawn had received full training for she was expected to run the kingdom. Much like how the prince was expected to run the kingdom in Aurora's time.
Ah, yes.
The prince.
The prince was left unnamed in the stories of Hyrule before Aurora's sleep. There was barely any information regarding him; it was so long between Hyrule's time and the time of the prince that no one knew if he became the king or not.
All that was known was that he decreed that all princesses born of the royal line must be named Zelda.
There were not a lot of princes marked in the history of Hyrule. And most of them were kept unnamed for various reasons—the most common reason being the noble's hatred for bloodborne princes. In the eyes of many of the nobles, for the scarce amount of them left, a prince born to the royal family was a disease.
Only those who married into the family were respected.
There were horror stories of young princes disappearing into the dead of night, never to be seen again. Of young princes being murdered for who they are, for something they had no say in.
The unnamed prince may be the reason why princes were disrespected in the royal family.
He was the reason why Aurora fell under a six hundred-year slumber.
But, given the state of Hyrule when Hyrule was born, it was no wonder no one knew about him. What was left of society was kept to the small towns scattered throughout the kingdom, no one would worry about a half-Hylian child.
No one knew about the half-Hylian child.
The only parts of the monarch that were to be respected were captured by Ganon, and sleeping in a tower.
All records of the royal family were either destroyed by Ganon's forces, or rotted away from age and neglect.
So, the current Hyrule had only three monarchs. The queen, the princess, and the lost prince.
Dawn was wonderfully fulfilling her duties as the Queen of Hyrule, bringing the kingdom back from the depths of hell. The dawning of a new era of prosperity.
Aurora, though older, was still a princess. A duty she was never expected to leave. She felt as if she could help the kingdom as a princess rather than a queen—Dawn agreed; a princess could get closer to commoners than a queen ever could.
And Link was only a prince in name.
He could still remember the day he was told. It was a month after he saved Aurora, and the lost princess was finally getting used to consciousness. Hyrule had visited the Great Fairies, a suggestion given to him by Impa—who knew a majority of the information regarding the royal family.
Once Hyrule arrived at the Great Fairy Fountain, he was greeted by Tera. The oldest of the sisters felt it was time for him to know about his heritage.
So, she explained to him the story of Prince Link the II—the brother of Princess Zelda the VII, the saviour of Hyrule, and the Hero of Legends.
She explained how the current royal line was descended from Zelda VII, how Link II had a different line of descendants, and how Hyrule was the distant cousin of Queen Zelda the XIII and Princess Zelda the IX—Dawn and Aurora, respectively.
Dawn and Aurora had no idea.
The reason why Hyrule was kept quiet through his childhood was because of the fear of backlash. Tera and the Great Fairies feared what might happen to the half-Hylian child if the nobles of Hyrule found out about his birth. How the Hero was, in fact, the Prince.
They feared that he would be executed.
Hyrule wasn't the first prince to have been kept hidden from the nobility. Prince Link the II was hidden as well, growing up in the town, unknowing about his birth.
The more Hyrule got to know about Legend, the more he thought that the man didn't know he was royalty.
Of course, Legend could just be hiding it. He wasn't an open book; the group didn't know what he did on half of his adventures.
Well, except Hyrule. He did have stories about the guy after all—but none of them went into detail, and many were lost to time.
The moment the group nicknamed each other, and Legend said that he was the Hero of Legend, one thought flashed through Hyrule's mind.
That's my ancestor.
And then many other thoughts raced—mostly revolving around the fact that if Legend died, would he die as well? And if the stories told the truth about him.
Legend was nothing like how the stories claimed the Hero to be. He was snarky, sarcastic, and witty; the stories claimed him to be wise, compassionate, and caring.
Of course, Hyrule wasn't surprised that the person from a story that survived 600+ years was different. It wasn't as if Legend wrote the legends, they were written from an outsider—so the interpretations differed.
So, when Legend started to act up, Hyrule got concerned.
There was something on his mind lately—most likely stemming from his attitude to Sky. But it caused Legend to become distracted in battle.
If Legend died because he was distracted by Sky, then Hyrule would find his ghost and haunt him in the afterlife.
Because if Legend died, then Hyrule died as well.
(And also, the fact that Legend was his friend and he didn't want him to die because that would be sad.)
There was no reason why he should be acting up, Sky hadn't done anything to him. But it's been days, and Legend's attitude hadn't improved. Normally, grudges only lasted a few hours.
The longest one was twelve hours, and it was between Four and Legend. The grudge could've lasted longer if they didn't get attacked by horseback riding Bokoblins, and they realised that maybe avoiding one of the people wasn't very… smart.
(Legend wouldn't admit it, but he almost caved in before the attack.
Four held the grudge purely for spite.)
It wasn't just Hyrule who noticed Legend's shift in attitude. Warriors noticed right away, after Legend ignored a small tease—something he would have gotten a full-blown argument for. Wind also noticed, and brought it up with Hyrule.
"Do you know if there's something bothering Legend?"
Looking up from the campfire he was constructing from rocks, Hyrule sighed, "That's what I've been trying to know. Every time I ask, he diverts the conversation."
"Maybe he's homesick?"
Hyrule shrugged. "Can't be, we're in his Hyrule."
"We should ask him when he returns!"
"Ah, no." Hyrule shook his head. "I don't think he'd want to chat at the moment…"
The group had landed in a different Hyrule, the day before, in what seemed to be a forest. Legend slowly looked around before cursing out loud.
The group quickly realised that they were in his Hyrule.
We're by the Fairy Pond, he had explained, in Hyrule. Which means my house is to the east, and the castle is to the north. Bout a days walk in either direction.
Oh! Wind exclaimed; Let's go meet your Zelda!
Legend paused. …Why?
Well, Warriors thought, we've only met Dot and Artemis. Besides, I wonder if your Zelda is a female you.
Glaring at Warriors, Legend spoke, She may be busy. She has the whole kingdom to run, you know.
Calm down, Time said, we don't need to meet anyone's Zelda if they don't want us too. I'm sure they have their reasons.
Legend crossed his arms as Warriors mused, Hmm… I guess if he's being fussy over there…
You know what? Legend huffed. Fine, let's meet Zelda. I'm going to go ahead and warn her of you fools.
Is that a smart idea? Twilight asked. What if there's monsters?
Legend sighed, My Pegasus Boots can get me from here to there in half a day. I'll be able to outrun any enemy I find.
I don't think it's a good idea to let you go on your own, Time said. Even scouting groups are in pairs.
Unless any of you have Pegasus Boots, then I'm going alone.
Actually, Four said, I have some.
You have Pegasus Boots? Legend cocked an eyebrow.
Why is that so shocking? Four reached into his bag. I just don't wear them.
Much to the disbelief of Legend, Four pulled out a pair of Pegasus Boots.
So… Four and Legend go and warn Zelda…? Why does she need warning? Wild wondered.
It's more of a warning for her, Legend said. Doesn't matter. Besides, I highly doubt you want to be there for when she yells at me for disappearing again.
Sky raised his hand. Why don't we all go…? Why do we need to split the group?
Well, this is Legend's world, Time said, I suppose the option's up for him. Either we stay here while he and Four go up ahead, or we all head together.
Legend thought. If we leave now, we should be back tomorrow.
And so, Four quickly put on his Pegasus Boots. The two of them waved before turning and heading through the forest, running at a speed faster than average. Once their footsteps silenced, the rest of the group got ready to set up camp.
Twilight and Wild went to hunt for dinner, Time and Sky went to find water, Warriors scouted the nearby trees for firewood, and Wind and Hyrule had the job of setting up camp.
"Besides," Hyrule added, "he'll probably be too busy with his Zelda."
Wind sighed before joining Hyrule on his log. "Maybe…"
Hyrule, sensing that he needed to divert the conversation, wondered, "Hey… what's Tetra like?"
Wind perked up. "Tetra? She's a pirate! She's the captain of a pirate ship! She has her own crew and everything…"
As Wind spoke about Tetra, Warriors returned to the camp. In his arms was the campfire wood they needed—from logs to tinder. He placed it down by the little fireplace area Hyrule was constructing before moving to sit down. Wind didn't hesitate in his storytelling, and Hyrule couldn't help but notice how nostalgic Warriors got.
He must've been thinking about his relationship with Artemis.
"What's your Zeldas like, Hyrule?" Warriors couldn't help but wonder once Wind finished.
Wind nodded. "Yeah! We've heard you mention them before, but you never speak about them!"
Hyrule smiled at his memories. "Well… Aurora's definitely more immature than Dawn, but both are good leaders. And Dawn's an amazing leader, she's smart and wise and… smart! And she's an amazing queen! Our people have been thriving under her reign. Aurora travels around a lot, going from Ruto Town to Saria and back, so I would say she's close with the people."
He didn't mention how Aurora would head to the graveyard by Mido Town, and search for the missing tomb of her brother.
"They sound nice," Warriors said.
Hyrule nodded. "They are."
He sighed, "They're probably worried sick over me…"
"Well, that means they care," Warriors said. "If they worry about you, then they care about you."
"That's true," Hyrule said, nodding. "Besides, I've blown off our 'game's' night since I first left…"
"Game's night?" Wind turned to him. "Like when we had that chessboard Wild broke?"
Hyrule shook his head. "No… it's more of… Aurora tries to get me to learn an instrument."
"It's practically law that the members of the royal family, and the Hero, must be able to play an instrument," Zelda IX explained, grabbing Link's flute. "And being able to play one tune does hardly a musician make."
"It's a magic flute, though. Do I get any points there?"
Zelda IX stared him dead in the eye. "You get points taken off. Now, I can't trust if you can play the instrument, or if the instrument plays you."
The three members of the royal family were in the north tower of North Castle, so Link glanced over to where Zelda XIII was looking through a pile of papers. "You mentioned not being able to play an instrument before! Why am I the one getting the lecture! I'm not apart of the royal family! All I did was fight Ganon—something anyone else could've done! Now, I'm getting music lessons! I know songs! Those songs are useful, and have saved my life! I don't understand why I need to learn not useful songs…"
Zelda XIII didn't look up as she deadpanned, "Oh no, Link's going to strengthen his mind. Someone call the guards."
"Music is useful," Zelda IX chastised. "It allows you to expand your mind—you learn to speak another language, one that is universal. Everyone knows of music, being able to create it is useful."
Zelda IX placed the flute on the table as she grabbed a similar looking instrument. "Now, Link, this is a recorder. It's not magical, and it's an easier instrument."
Link turned to where she held the woodwind out for him. Sighing, he grabbed the instrument and looked it over. "It's a flute."
"It's a recorder," Zelda IX corrected. "Or a whistle, if you like." She grabbed a small piece of paper from the table. "Now, you can do the normal treble clef on the recorder. Bass clef… not so much."
"I don't even know what that means."
Zelda IX said, "That's why I'm going to teach you. Now, look at where my fingers are on my recorder. Copy it."
She held up her recorder and Link tried to copy the motions. It wasn't that off from the flute. Though, he had to admit, the feeling of the back circle against his thumb was… odd.
"Good." Zelda IX nodded. "Now, watch carefully."
Bringing the recorder to her lips, Zelda IX begun to play a small song.
GG GG AA AA B A G
"That's 'Food For Bait'," Zelda IX said.
At his blank expression, she sung, "Food for bait. Food for bait. Hundred rupees, many rupees. Food for bait. Do you know that song?"
"No."
Zelda IX frowned. "Oh. Well, you're going to learn it now."
Without much of a hassle, Link followed her instructions. After a few tries, he was able to perform the beginning three notes of 'Food For Bait'.
As small as that accomplishment was, it was exciting. This was the first song he learnt without it being needed for survival. He could play a song for fun.
And… Link enjoyed making music.
"Were you any good?" Wind wondered. "I haven't heard you play before!"
Hyrule rubbed the back of his neck. "Well… compared to the others, not very. I only know one song on the recorder."
"What song?"
"Food For Bait," Hyrule said. "Apparently, it's common on the recorder."
He was met with two blank expressions.
"Neither of you know it, do you?"
Warriors shook his head. "No. Can't say I do."
"Me neither," Wind said, shrugging.
Warriors stored that information away as another difference between the worlds.
Hyrule sighed. "Well, 'game's' night also consisted of boring Hylian lessons."
"Oh! Link, check this out!" Zelda XIII plopped down next to him. "This one is about Link II!"
Link looked up from the sentence he was copying. Zelda IX and Zelda XIII were trying to get him to read and write better, so he was copying down some sentences to familiarise himself with the written language. Since Zelda IX had been sleeping for 600 years, she also needed to learn the updated Hylian.
So far, between them both, they could write two sentences.
"That's cool, Zelda." Link looked back down at his paper. "What story is it?"
"Link II?" Zelda IX piped up. "He's my granduncle."
"Oh!" Zelda XIII turned to her. "Have you met him?"
She shook her head. "No. I've never met him, he died before I could."
"How'd he die?" Link wondered.
Zelda IX shrugged. "I was never told."
"Anyway!" Zelda XIII opened the book. "This is about the first time he saved Hyrule! It was when he discovered that he was related to the princess."
Link nodded. "The princess' nurse told him, right?"
"That's what the legends say."
Zelda IX furrowed her brow. "I thought Grandmother said it was his uncle."
The two turned to Zelda IX and realised: she was a third-hand witness.
Zelda XIII slid the book over to her. "I feel that the kingdom will greatly improve if you were to… check through these legends. We cannot thrive in the future if our past is a lie."
"I do need to practice my new Hylian…" Zelda IX said. "Very well, I shall look through these stories."
Link smirked. "Well… I need to get back to… sword fighting—fishing—monster hunting." He stood up. "Farewell."
"You're not leaving this lesson so soon," Zelda XIII turned to him, "you haven't finished your writing."
"Must I…?"
"Yes."
Link sighed.
"You got the princess of Hyrule to fact-check?" Warriors clarified. "To fact check stories about Legend?"
Hyrule nodded. "Yeah. She was around during his era—and Heroes are normally close to the royal family. It wouldn't be far off to think that she'd met him before, or heard of his adventures while he was alive. Besides, Legend's the only Hero we have documented."
"Well!" Wind piped up. "Now you can fact check with the actual Legend."
Warriors laughed. "Hah! Try getting that guy to talk about his adventures is impossible. I don't think I would've known he saved places other than Hyrule if you didn't mention it before."
"Yeah…. I thought it was common knowledge."
"No offense, but I've never heard of him before," Warriors said. "I've heard of people like him before, from my grandfather. And of other Heroes from other people."
"Like him?" Wind asked. "Who's like him?"
Warriors shrugged. "Misplaced people through time."
"Right! Artemis mentioned something about portals," Hyrule said. "You never did explain that."
Warriors rubbed the back of his neck. "Well… it's a long story—and one I think should wait."
Wind pouted. "Aw… no fair. I want to hear the story about the time-misplaced people."
"You will," Warriors assured. "Trust me."
After Hyrule finished the campfire base, he wiped the wood off his hands. "Alright, don't tell Legend."
"Don't tell Legend what—"
Before Wind could finish his sentence, Hyrule pulled out his sword and whispered, "Fire."
The sword blade heated up and he swung it at the wood, a fireball erupted from it and struck the inflammable material. Quickly, the campfire was started.
"Oh."
It was during dinner the next day when Four and Legend returned.
The two leisurely strolled into the camp, gaining most of the group pointing their weapons at them. At the sight, Legend cocked an eyebrow. "Chill, it's just us."
Hyrule let out a sigh of relief he had been holding since Legend and Four departed. They were safe. They were alive. All was well.
Relieved that it wasn't a monster, everyone resumed dinner around the fire. Wild poured some of the stew into bowls for them.
"Can we meet your Zelda now?" Wind wondered, hiding his excitement.
Legend sighed, "Yeah."
"We'll pack up in the morning," Time said. "We all need to rest."
Four nodded. "Good. I'm exhausted."
"Well, everyone should finish up dinner and head to sleep soon." Time surveyed the group. "I'll take first watch."
Wind groaned, "Who's turn is it for second…?"
"I did it last time!" Hyrule piped up.
"I think it's… Sky's," Twilight said.
The named Hero looked up from his stew. "…Alright."
As Four and Legend ate their stew, Warriors couldn't help but wonder. "So… how was Zelda?"
"Bout how she always is," Legend said, shrugging.
Four turned to him. "…She threw her hot cup of tea at you when you walked through the doors."
"Like I said, how she always is."
Hyrule blinked.
Huh. I guess violence doesn't run in the family… Aurora has never thrown a cup of tea at me…
Then again, does she even drink tea…?
"She threw tea?" Warriors clarified.
Legend nodded. "It's what she was drinking."
"…Why?"
"Because I've been gone for a long time without telling her where I went," Legend said. "She got worried."
"And threw tea at you?"
Four added, "She did mention it was so that he doesn't disappear again…"
"At least it wasn't a shoe," Legend said. "What kind of stew is this?"
"…Vegetable."
"Ignore him, Wild," Twilight spoke up, "he's trying to change the subject."
"It's really good. The texture is nice."
Warriors sighed, "Legend…"
"And what kind of vegetable is this? Turnip?" Legend ate some of his stew. "Don't even taste it."
"Legend…. Don't change the subject, Legend."
"You know, I think I'm going to bed now." Legend placed down his bowl.
"Legend…. Why did Zelda throw a shoe at you?"
Without so much of a 'goodnight', Legend found his bedroll and climbed inside. Hyrule blinked, and Wind mused slowly, "So… is this a turnip…?"
Wild shook his head. "It's a Hearty Radish."
"Wait, your Zelda is crashing at your house?"
"Yup. I'm actually surprised she wasn't there last time."
"Is your home a stowaway house or something?"
"Din and Nayru, I hope not."
Once the sun had arisen in the morning, and breakfast was devoured, the group set off. They had a whole day of walking to do if they wanted to reach Legend's house before sundown—which was where Fable was staying at.
The walk to Legend's house wasn't as long as he claimed it to be, only a few hours journey. But when they arrived, nearing the dawning of twilight, they were relieved to see the wooden building in the distance.
Just as they stepped onto the property, the door swung open. Legend sighed as a cloaked figure stepped out.
"Ah, Link! You're back already!" the figure greeted. "You said it would be a day's journey."
"They move faster than I accounted for," Legend said. "Where's Ravio? Scamming the whole of Hyrule?"
"He's inside." The figure moved to meet them at the gate. "You've yet to introduce me to your friends."
Legend gestured to the group. "Guys, meet Zelda. Zel, meet the group."
Removing her hood, the group of Links were able to see that this was Queen Zelda of Hyrule, who was nicknamed Fable.
"It's so good to meet you all," Fable said. "Link has told me about you. Now, let's see if I can guess who is who…"
As she surveyed the group, she would point at her guess. "Well, I've met Four…. And I remember meeting Sky in Kakariko Village."
"Hello, again," Sky said, nodding.
Fable looked at Warriors. "City/pretty boy, obnoxiously long scarf—you must be Warriors."
"Hey!"
Legend merely shrugged at Warriors' outburst.
"Old man—you must be Time," Fable continued. "Looks innocent, brunet—you must be Hyrule. Energetic, lobster, short—you must be Wind."
"I'm not that short!"
"Welcome to the club," Four deadpanned.
Fable ignored them. "Long hair, weird contraption—you must be Wild. And, that leaves you to be Twilight."
"Hit the Bokoblin straight on the head," Legend said. "I don't know about you, but I'm heading inside."
"Don't forget to be a good host!" Fable called after him. He waved her off as she turned to the others. "Come inside! Ravio and I were just having some tea."
Legend had claimed Fable to be 'sarcastic, witty, and annoying', yet Fable seemed to be nothing like how he described.
In Hyrule's opinion, she was much like Dawn and Aurora.
She also didn't act like royalty; and given how she chastised Warriors when he acted like she was royalty, didn't want to be treated as one either. Fable was nice, kind, and easy to talk to.
It seemed that, no matter what world the Links found themselves, Zelda was always someone they could trust.
Everyone was comfortable and relaxed around Fable and Ravio—who had quickly gone off somewhere when the Links arrived—yet Legend seemed tensed. It was as if he was worried about something.
"So, Zelda," Warriors begun, "I heard that you threw a shoe at Leg—Link."
Fable, smiling into her teacup, nodded. "Yes, I did."
"Any reason why…?"
Legend sighed as Fable spoke, "Well… it was about a week after he arrived back from Holodrum—"
"What's that?" Wind piped up, much to the distain of Legend, who wanted the conversation to end.
"Oh! You haven't spoken about Holodrum?" Fable questioned Legend.
Legend scoffed, "I haven't spoken about anything. And, I would rather you didn't, as well."
Cocking an eyebrow, Warriors wondered, "What does that have to do with the shoe…?"
"Right!" Fable turned to him. "I was trying to say that I was worried for Link after Holodrum—so, when he goes off missing for a week, I panic."
Legend interrupted, "I did not go missing. I was in my house."
"For a week?" Sky took a sip from his tea.
Failing at hiding his glare, Legend spoke, "I had a lot of reading to do."
"Well," Fable continued, "I finally managed to avoid my advisors—er, Impa and I took a stroll—it doesn't matter really… I entered his house and I find him surrounded by books, looking like he hadn't slept in days! His house was a mess."
"My house looked like this," Legend said, muttering and looking around his house. It was tidy, with only a few books from his bookshelf scrawled around the living room—it did, although, seem a bit messy. The organisation was in a way that only he understood
"Exactly my point," Fable agreed. "Well, I was in such a fury of anger and relief that I picked up the closest thing to me—"
"Which was my shoe."
"—And threw it at him!" Fable paused. "You know, I still don't know what you were researching…" Legend didn't look at her, so he didn't see when she stood up and grabbed a book from the living room. "…'The Complete Guide to Electrical Injuries'… oh…"
Standing up in a rush, Legend grabbed the book from her hands. "I didn't think I needed to tell you not to go through my stuff."
Twilight, who was also in the living room, blinked at the title of a different book. "I… why did I think I could read this…?"
"Yeah. None of you read my Hylian." Legend grabbed the book from Twilight, he glanced at the title. "Or… Labrynnian, in this case."
Fable perked up, "Oh? You got a book from Labrynna?"
Flipping through the water-stained pages, Legend shrugged. "Well, if you can salvage what's in it—and no, I'm not allowing you to read my books."
Fable, and Four, disappointedly lowered their hands.
"We should teach each other our Hylians!" Wind suggested.
Time thought, "Well, it would be better to understand what signs say, if we get lost."
"It certainly would be interesting to see how much the language has changed and developed over the years," Four admitted, his eyes a violet hue from the lighting.
Hyrule awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.
Heh… how could I teach someone my Hylian if I don't know it.
Learning the different Hylians was… an interesting experience.
Four was eager to learn, and eager to teach—and seemed to be the only one who knew how to explain his written Hylian.
At least, praise the goddesses, their semantics were basically the same with their sentences being subject-verb-object.
As Hyrule stared at the paper where everyone had written out 'pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs', his mind blanked. Everyone, willing or not to teach, had to write out this one sentence—which used all the letters of their alphabet. After assuring them that Hyrule could write that sentence—it was one of the two sentences he could write, but they didn't need to know that—his mind didn't seem to work.
"You okay, Hyrule?" Sky wondered, glancing at the frozen Hero.
"Uh, yeah… my mind has completely blanked," Hyrule admitted. "Let's skip and come back…?"
Without much of a complaint, Warriors took the paper from him. Twirling the pen around his fingers, Warriors debated for a moment before signing the paper with his Hylian. Wind, peering over his shoulder, gasped.
"Hey! That's my Hylian!"
Grabbing the pen from him, Wind wrote out the exact same line. But the way he wrote it was in a confident manner—not as if he just saw the sentence for the first time.
"Well," Time clapped Warriors on the shoulder, "I think we found your successor, Wind."
Fable stole the paper from Warriors. Since Legend scoffed at the whole idea, and Fable was interested, she volunteered to write in their Hylian. Theirs was the final Hylian, and she looked through the different scripts. From a quick glance, it seemed that everyone's Hylian was much lengthier than theirs.
Glancing over her shoulder as she wrote, Hyrule recognised some of the symbols. "Hey! I've seen that word… it's… goddesses, what is it?" He racked his mind for an answer. "I feel as if it's a number…"
"Yup." Fable nodded. "It's five."
Legend cocked an eyebrow. "Didn't know they still wrote in my Hylian."
"Oh, they don't," Hyrule said. At the insulted looks of both Fable and Legend, he backtracked. "Well… most people don't write so… it kinda faded—we have our own written Hylian, but a lot of people can't read books, just signs and such."
Twilight wondered, "Then, is your Hylian close to Legend's?"
Hyrule shook his head. "No, I only recognise it cause Aurora writes her numbers in that Hylian."
At everyone's puzzled looks, he continued, "I… I thought I mentioned the fact she's been asleep for six hundred years…?"
"You mentioned something like that before…" Warriors mentioned. "When you talked about your 'boring Hylian lessons', and how Aurora needed to learn the new language."
"Yeah. They're still boring."
Fable blinked. "Six hundred years…?"
Rubbing the back of his head, Legend sighed, "Right… Hyrule's from our future."
"Really!?"
Hyrule, equally as awkward as Legend, nodded. "Yeah. About six hundred years or so."
"Link!" Fable reached out and smacked Legend's arm, "You didn't tell me that!"
"Slipped my mind."
"You forgot that he's from our future?" Fable shrieked, skeptical. "I wouldn't think that's something you'd forget."
"Well, you'll be surprised with everything I need to focus on," Legend said. "Anyway. Hyrule, you ready to write down your sentence?"
For a second, Hyrule felt his heart skip. "Uh… pass? I mean, I don't have to if I don't want to, right?"
"No," Time said. "You don't. Well," he turned his attention back to the paper, "it seems that the style of Hylian has rapidly changed through the eras."
Twilight looked at Sky's writing. "Huh, that looks like the Sky Writing of the Oocca…. A little different in many ways, but similar as well."
"Really?" Sky asked.
"Yeah."
"Well," Warriors started, "it's getting late and I'm exhausted."
"You didn't even do anything," Legend said.
"Still," Warriors said. "Where would we be staying?"
Fable straightened. "Oh! I can show you. Follow me."
As they moved through the house, Twilight asked, "Fable, can I speak with you for a second? I just have something I want to ask you?" Wild nudged him with his elbow.
Hyrule wasn't able to fall asleep that night. No matter how hard he tried, it was either too warm or his mind was buzzing with too much activity. From his spot, he could see the moon in the night sky. Quickly, he sat up, and seeing that no one else was awake, he got out of bed.
There was light from the bottom of the door and he was able to hear hushed whispers.
"…tell me what's the matter?" Hyrule recognised the voice of Fable. "I know you're upset."
"I'm not upset," Legend said.
A third voice chimed. "No, you are. You're making that face again." Hyrule realised that the third voice must've been Ravio.
"Come on, Link," Fable said, "you know you can tell us."
Legend was silent for a moment before he sighed. "Alright, but you can't tell anyone. And I mean anyone, not any of the others, and not anyone from either Hyrule or Lorule. Or Labrynna, Holodrum,Subrosia and Hytopia; I know what you're thinking, Zel, and no."
"…Alright, you caught me."
"Sure," Ravio said. "Though you might have to buy my silence!"
"I'm letting you live in my house."
"Hmmm… we'll discuss negotiations at a later date."
Legend sighed again. "It's about Sky."
"What about him?" Fable asked.
"He's in a relationship with his Zelda," Legend said. Hyrule cocked an eyebrow. "And remember those stories about Hyrule's beginning?"
Ravio spoke up, "I don't know what stories you're talking about…"
"I do," Fable said. "There were these poems, songs, about the very first Queen of Hyrule. How do they go again…?
"From the sky fell the life of the kingdom./The Hero to be King, the Goddess to be Queen,/ruled in courage and ruled in wisdom./Together they will build, together they will thrive,/and the land of Hyrule: strong willed for all of time." Fable finished the song with a soft d.
Hyrule stumbled from the door, tripping over Wind and causing the pirate to snap awake. "Hey! Watch it, Hyrule! You nearly stepped on me."
"Sorry!" Hyrule said, hushed. "I didn't see you there."
Wind sighed, "It's alright. Just be more cautious." He rolled over on his side, his back facing the fallen Hero.
For a moment, Hyrule simply sat there counting his breaths, Fable's lyrics repeating in his ears.
The Hero to be King, the Goddess to be Queen.
He had a lot of thinking to do.
The next world they arrived at, of course, was Hyrule's own. They landed just outside of the castle, so when they emerged from the portal, they were greeted by the Royal Guards pointing spears at them. Hyrule lightly pushed his way to the front. "It's alright!" he said. "You can stand down. They're with me."
"Sir Link," one of the guards started, lowering her spear. "Where have you been? The queen and princess have been looking for you everywhere?!"
Hyrule rubbed his arm, surprised at not feeling dizzy. "It's a long story. Where exactly is Zelda?"
The other guard answered, "Her Royal Highness has gone to speak with the Great Fairies. Her Majesty is in the castle. If I may, Sir Link, Her Majesty would be thrilled to see you."
"Yeah…"
The Links moved over to the side, away from the entrance to the castle. "So, Sir Link," Legend said, teasing, "this is your Hyrule?"
"Yup," Hyrule said. "We're in the heart of the kingdom." That was for the better. There, they wouldn't see the desertion of his home. The caste, although small, made it seem like there was life in the kingdom. "We can go inside the castle, if you guys want? I should probably tell Dawn I'm back."
"If you'd like," Time said. "This is, after all, your Hyrule."
For a moment, there was the thought of not going into the castle. Quickly, he squished that thought. The castle was the safest place for them.
"Come on," he said. "Let's meet Zelda."
"Link!" Dawn greeted when she saw him enter the Throne Room. "How great to see you again!"
Against the wishes of the advisors who stood to her side, Dawn stood up and moved across the room. She embraced Hyrule in a hug. "Advisors," she said, still hugging Hyrule, "you are dismissed."
One of the advisors looked like they wanted to argue, but stopped themself. "Of course, Your Majesty." One by one, the advisors exited through side doors.
Dawn let Hyrule go free when they were finally alone. "My! You've seen to have brought many guests! My name is Queen Zelda the XIII. You may simply call me Zelda."
Queen Zelda the XIII had thick ginger hair that sat still on her shoulders. She wore an elaborate pink ballgown with an ankle-length dark pink bouffant skirt with white ribbon trimmings that almost segmented the dress. A pink pearl necklace was strung around her neck, and even though Hyrule couldn't see the knotting, he knew that there were knots between each of the pearls. A crown sat on her head, the gold shimmering from the light of the chandelier.
"Actually," Hyrule said, "they each know a different Zelda. I've been calling you Dawn to stop confusion."
She paused. "Dawn? Hmm… I like it! Dawn it is! Now," she looked at everyone, "who may you be?"
Everyone quickly announced themselves, Dawn nodding along at each of them. "Well, it seems like you have a full party," she said.
Her attention turned to Hyrule. "Link. Where have you been? I've been worried sick! It's not strange for you disappear for sometime, but it's been months!"
"That's a long story," Hyrule said, scratching the back of his head. "And it's also a confusing story…" He glanced at the others and saw amused expressions on Warriors', Time's, Wind's, and Twilight's faces. Everyone else looked surprised.
Dawn hmphed. "Well, Zelda should be returning to the castle soon. I suppose it would be best to explain everything when we're both here. Well," she addressed the other Links, "if you're friends of Link then you're friends of Hyrule—" Wind snickered—"so, we should have a feast to celebrate!"
"Isn't a feast a bit much?" Hyrule asked.
"Oh please," Dawn said, "you haven't attended a feast in two years, Link. If I'm throwing it in your honour then it's mandatory that you come. Your hunting, fishing, and adventuring can wait until later."
Warriors nudged Hyrule. "Not attending a feast in two years is nearly a crime, Hyrule. Artemis would have my head."
"You like being the center of attention," Hyrule said. "I don't."
"Trust me," Legend sighed, "you're not going to be able to escape ceremonies or celebrations. Sometimes it's easier to just go and avoid the conflict."
"With the way you and Fable bicker," Warriors said, "I'm not surprised you think that."
Time stepped forward. "Your Majesty—"
"Please," Dawn said, "call me Zelda, or Dawn, I suppose."
"Dawn," Time corrected, "where would we be staying for the night? I have a feeling that some of us would want to place our belongings somewhere."
"Oh! Yes," Dawn said. "You must've been walking for ages! Come, Link and I can show you to the quest quarters."
"Is it really permitted for the queen to show guests around?" Hyrule asked as Dawn led them from the Throne Room. They entered a long stone corridor lined with windows that allowed them to see the mountains to the west.
"It is when I say it is," she said, latching arms with Hyrule before he could slip away to the back of the group. "Besides, these are guests of the Hero! Your guests Mr. Saves-Hyrule-from-Ganon-but-then-tries-to-hide-back-in-a-cave-as-if-saving-everyone-twice-doesn't-make-you-a-Hero. Zelda told me that some of the people in Ruto Town consider you a cryptid that would go into town, buy what you need, and go and hide out in the cave again."
Hyrule felt his cheeks warm. "I don't hide in caves."
"Oh, really, and what do you do? Not your music nor your Hylian, that I know for sure," Dawn said. "Speaking of that, we need to continue your lessons, and I'm sure that Zelda would say the same."
"I didn't know you played music, Hyrule," Time said.
Wind chuckled. "Oh! He complained about a 'game's' night before."
Dawn gasped, "Link! Have you been complaining about your studies?"
"No…" Hyrule said, lying. "I was just… talking about it…. And I don't play much music, just one song."
"One song is more than zero songs," Sky said. "And knowing one song means you know how to play music."
"We should have a music night one night!" Wind chimed in. "I can conduct!"
"Count me out," Legend said. "I don't play music for people."
"Says the man with a room full of instruments," Twilight said.
"I'll have you know that most of those are magical and, therefore, aren't made to be played for leisure."
"You have a magical harp?" Wind asked. "I saw one in your storage."
Sky perked up. "A magical harp?"
Legend groaned, "It's a story I'd rather not tell."
"But that's just every story," Hyrule said.
Dawn laughed loudly, causing everyone to pause and turn to her. "It seems that everyone knows each other, that's for sure! You've got to tell me how each of you met!"
Hyrule, as the Hero, had his own room separate from the guest rooms. He went there instead of sticking with everyone because he knew that Dawn would be expecting him to dress nicely for the feast, and all of his 'nice' clothing was in his room. The feast would be starting in two hours, which was when everyone should start to get ready so that they can actually get to the feast on time.
As he laid his red tunic on his bed, almost getting ready to change, the door to his room flung open. "LINK!" Aurora exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell us!?"
Hyrule flinched and jumped back, reaching for his sword except meeting air because his sword was currently balanced against the chair. "Wha—what?"
Her Royal Highness Princess Zelda the IX had long straight brunette hair that was braided down her back. She wore a rich red evening gown, a dress that wasn't as obnoxiously wide as Dawn's but still bouffant. A tiara made of silver sat on her head. Her eyes, a black compared to Dawn's blue, was shadowed by very dark red eyeshadow. Tied around her waist was a peach sash, the colour similar to her own skin.
"I spoke with the Great Fairies," Aurora said. Dawn entered the room behind her and shut the door. "I know you've spoken with them many times, so I believed that was where you would be. But I was wrong. The Great Fairy told me information that you yourself neglected to tell us instead of a location."
"Link," Dawn said softly, "when were you going to tell us we're related?"
Hyrule's heart skipped a beat. "What?"
"The Great Fairy," Aurora said, "told us that you're the descendent of Link II. You're my first cousin a whole bunch removed."
"And you're my sixth cousin," Dawn finished.
"Oh," Hyrule said. "I didn't… plan on telling you."
Both of their faces fell. "What? Why?" Aurora asked. "Why not?"
"I…" Hyrule struggled to find the words. "There's a lot that… well, it's hard to explain. Our relation is… very distant. I didn't think it mattered."
Aurora reached forward and pulled Hyrule into a hug. "Of course, it matters. You're family."
Tears swelled up at the edges of Hyrule's eyes as emotions he didn't know he was repressing rose to the surface of his mind. "I… don't. It's not what you think."
"I don't know why you didn't live here before," Dawn said, lightly rubbing his back as he grabbed onto Aurora as if she was a lifeline, "but you do now."
Hyrule nearly choked on his own saliva as he begun to weep. Both of the women stayed with him as his reality crashed. They knew his secret. Well. One of his secrets.
"I." Hyrule coughed, freeing himself from the hug and wiping his tears on his sleeve. "I'm not even fully Hylian."
"Duh," Aurora said, much to his surprise. "You can do straight magic. Even in the stories of old, magic was only done by witches and fae. Hylians can use magical objects, but not straight magic spells."
"Oh."
Dawn continued to rub his back. "Don't worry, I don't think anyone else knows. Although, it would be best if people knew that you're Prince Link the IV."
Hyrule shook his head. "No. If word gets out about our relation then monsters will start attacking you and I will not have that happen."
Sighing, Aurora started, "It won't be that—"
A knock on the door shattered her thoughts.
Hyrule cleared his throat. "Yes?"
"Hey, Hyrule," Legend said through the closed door, "just checking to see if you're ready or not."
"Oh," he said. "Uh, not yet!"
"Alright." Legend paused. "Guess I'll go and tell the others that…"
As Legend's footsteps disappeared, Hyrule wiped his nose. "Guess we should all get ready…"
Aurora looked down at her dress. "Guess I should change again. Wouldn't want to go out there in a wrinkled dress."
"Sorry," Hyrule said.
"It's not your fault." Aurora stood.
Dawn stood as well. "Come on, Zelda. Let's leave him to change."
The two women left his room and Hyrule collapsed on his bed.
That. Just happened.
The feast, as Hyrule hoped, was only for the Zeldas and the Links. Lavish food covered the table as everyone conversed with each other. Hyrule sat to Dawn's right, Legend was beside him. Across the table sat Aurora, who was speaking with Warriors about something Hyrule couldn't hear. Dawn was speaking with Sky about Hyrule.
The kingdom, not the Hero.
"In your time," Dawn said, having been informed about the adventure, "Hyrule isn't there?"
"It is, in a sense," Sky said. "It's not a kingdom as you know it, it's not even a city. So far, Sun and I have been working on building a town, at first, for everyone who wants to live on the Surface. That, I hope, is the beginning of Hyrule."
"So, you're the king?"
Sky vehemently shook his head. "Oh no, we don't have titles like king or queen yet. If anything, Zeld—Sun would be the queen. But, there's not even a castle for people to live in."
"And you," Dawn said, turning her attention to Legend, "what about your time?"
Legend sighed, "It's a kingdom. There's Hyrule Castle, there's Kakariko Village, there's the Desert Palace. Fable, my Zelda, is our queen."
"And you're the Hero?"
"Yup."
Dawn nodded her head. "I don't think I asked this yet, but what are your titles? Zelda has told me that the Heroes of the past had different titles to signify what they did."
"Titles?" Sky asked. "Well… mine's a little obnoxious but they call me the Chosen One. Please, though, just call me Sky."
"Hero of Legend," Legend said. "It's why we're called what we all. Otherwise it would just be everyone calling each other 'Link'."
Dawn paused for a moment. "I've heard stories of you, Legend."
"Hyrule said that I'm the only Hero he knew of," Legend said. "So, that's not very surprising."
"Then, Fable, your Zelda," Dawn continued to the demise of Hyrule, "would be Queen Zelda VII?"
"Yes, that's her name. How do you know this?"
Dawn placed down her goblet. "Zelda?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"What was the name of your grandmother again? Number included?"
Aurora paused. "Queen Zelda the VII."
"Thank you!" Dawn turned back to the conversation, as did Aurora with her own. "It seems that your queen is our princess' grandmother."
Legend looked shell-shocked for a moment. "It would seem that way," he said in a tight voice.
Trying to ignore the conversation, Hyrule grabbed the sugar and poured some in his water.
"That's interesting," Sky said. "Then, maybe Aurora has met Legend when he is older."
"Aurora?" Dawn asked.
Hyrule took a sip from his sugar-water. "That's what we called Zelda IX."
"Ah, I see," Dawn said. "But sadly, Sky, I always asked her if she met her granduncle, but she hadn't. He was dead before she was born. Oops!" For a second, a mortifying look crossed her face and she covered her mouth. "I apologise, Legend. I don't think it's smart to talk about someone's future when they're right here."
Legend didn't look at Dawn. "It's fine. I already figured I probably wouldn't live till I'm a hundred anyways. Heroes rarely do."
"Granduncle?" Sky asked. "Did you just say that?"
"What uncle are we talking about?" Warriors leant towards Sky.
Legend's face paled. "I'm sure it was just a slip of the tongue."
"Pardon me? No, it wasn't," Dawn said. "I thought you knew already…?"
"Knew what exactly?" Warriors asked, now more intrigued in the conversation. Most of the other conversations simmered down as Dawn said:
"Well, that the Hero of Legend is the brother to the queen."
Warriors let his knife fall with a clatter. "Uh, what?"
His face heating up, Legend groaned and moved to hide his face behind his hands. "I'm not—no. I'm not Fable's brother."
"Really?" Dawn asked, taking a sip from her goblet. "Our history says otherwise."
"History lies," Legend said.
Aurora spoke up, "Maybe so. But my grandmother told me herself. Prince Link II, the Hero of Legends, was—is—the brother to my grandmother."
Laughing, Warriors slapped Legend's back. "Seems like there's been stuff you've been neglecting to tell us, Veteran."
Legend brushed his hand off. "Don't use my words against me."
"I apologise," Dawn said at the stunned face of the Heroes, "I truly thought you all knew."
Four paused. "Well, I think this explains a lot."
"Oh, really," Legend said, crossing his arms. His face was still beat red. "Like what?"
"Well, for one," Four said, "it explains why you've been avoiding Sky."
Sky perked up. "What?"
"Well, think of it," Four said to Sky, "Legend begun avoiding you a few days after you told everyone you and Sun were in a relationship. History dictates that you two start the Hyrulean Royal Family. If Legend really is Fable's brother then that means he's your descendent, Sky."
Sky sat there, shocked.
"I agree with what Four said about you starting the Royal Family," Hyrule said. "There's even a song about it in Legend's time!"
"How do you know about that song?!"
On the other side of the table, Wild handed Twilight a red rupee. "I did tell you not to bet on this," Time said to Wild as he sat there, twenty rupees pourer.
"Hold on," Legend said, "you were betting on this?!"
"Yes," Twilight said. "I figured out that you were related to Sky, Wild overheard me tell Time, and he betted against me. I won."
"You cheated," Wild said, crossing his arms.
"How could I have cheated?"
"I don't know, but you still did."
Legend sighed, "How'd you figure it out, Twilight?"
"The same way Four explained," he said. "I couldn't think of what Sky did recently that would make you avoid him, but then I remembered how shocked you looked in Warriors' Hyrule. It took only a little investigation to figure out the truth."
"You asked Fable and she told you, didn't she?" Legend asked. "That's why you wanted to speak with her!"
Twilight merely shrugged.
"Uh, Sky?" Warriors asked, waving a hand across the Skyloftian's face, "you still there?"
Slowly, a smile flickered its way onto Sky's face. Legend glanced away for a second as Sky stood. He walked around the table and hugged Legend. "You don't, you don't have to hug me."
"Yes, I do!" Sky said. "Yes, I really do!"
"Then why aren't you hugging Dawn or Aurora, they're your great granddaughters," Legend said, gesturing to them before crossing his arms.
"I will!" Sky freed Legend before moving to hug Dawn. Unlike Legend, she accepted the hug.
"Why do I have the feeling he's going to try and hug all the Zeldas," Wind whispered to Warriors.
"Shush," Warriors whispered back, "let him have this."
As Sky moved across the table to hug Aurora, Hyrule was still in shock that Sky was, if he was Legend's ancestor, his ancestor as well. Of course, he was beginning to think that—but history, like Legend says, lies. But it just makes sense! If Legend is the prince, and Sky is the first king, and history doesn't lie, then of course they're related. And since Hyrule was Legend's descendent, he was Sky's as well.
Relations were weird. And too complicated.
Dawn and Aurora were both looking at Hyrule, and he shot them glares. No. He wasn't going to tell everyone they were related. If he said that, then he would have to tell the rest of Hyrule, and there were still a lot of nobles who didn't like the idea of princes. All the other Links were fine with explaining relations, they would be leaving here to return to their own Hyrule, but Hyrule was stuck here.
So, no, he couldn't tell Sky and Legend now. Not before he proved to them that he was worthy of the Hero title. Once he caught up with the skill of the others, he'll tell them. Maybe. He knows that they're good people but, he wasn't as accomplished as them. Sky finding out Legend was his descendent was good because Legend was the most experienced Hero out of all of them—Sky also forged the Master Sword.
Hyrule was going to do something amazing so that they'd be proud to be his family.
He just wanted this surprise to be a good one.
Hope you enjoyed!
The reason this story is long is because I wanted to write this as its own story but lacked the motivation for it. I thought of an idea similar for this for the Linktober prompt and just thought of continuing the story. I already had 7,000 words written when I changed this for Linktober, I just added about 4,000 more.
The song 'Food For Bait' is to the tune of 'Hot Cross Buns', which are the notes mentioned in the story—I spent too much time creating that song…
Finally put my recorder knowledge to use!
Okay, so, I know that the translations of the Hylians differ for Ancient/Old/New/Logographic—but, if the morphology was different, then they wouldn't be able to understand each other when spoken. So, I had the morphology be the same. Unless they had a completely different set of rules for written Hylian morphology, then it would similar if not the same.
And, since they can understand each other, it stayed the same.
Fun fact! You can sing Fable's song to the Song of Time if you sing each verse as its own version of the song. I didn't write it to be that, but I wanted to see if it was possible to sing it to those notes, and it is!
I don't know if there was any information regarding the designs of Dawn and Aurora, so I took creative liberties. Dawn's I based on the artwork for Zelda from The Legend of Zelda while I based Aurora's off the sprite from Zelda II: The Adventures of Link since the artwork for Zelda I and II show the same princess.
Anyway, I don't know what else to write…
Fiddlerinthewoods OUT!