Thanks to the copious amount of potions on hand, everyone got up the next morning more or less fine. Four had a headache (but when didn't he) and Legend and Warriors were giving each other headaches (but when didn't they).
The only thing that needed careful treatment was the fragile sense of normalcy they had.
And fragile it proved to be, when it abruptly shattered.
Wind was just stuffing the last of his omelet into his face-hole when the massive portal appeared behind him. The portal, like all the others, was utterly imposing, yet appeared without a sound. Despite this, all could feel its deep presence, as demonstrated by Wind freezing mid-chew.
It was silent, yet it was deafening. It was a now common sight which felt utterly alien.
The time had come.
By unspoken accord, the group rose as one, gathered their things (Wind swallowed the last of the egg whole), and walked through.
Wild smelt the chimney smoke of Hateno Village before he saw it. He breathed the crisp night air deeply, the crickets creating a welcoming chorus. It was good to be home.
The other Heroes gathered up beside him, the calming atmosphere causing unconscious tensions to slip and shoulders to slump.
The Champion suddenly began to laugh. It was a quiet thing at first, a relieved chuckle, but quickly evolved into a slightly hysterical guffaw as he ran his hands through his long and tangly hair. Everyone else was quick to join in.
All the stress, fighting, and anticipation was over; they had won. Wind had a smile cartoonishly stretching from ear to ear. Even Legend couldn't hold back his good cheer, slapping Hyrule on the back and punching Warriors in the shoulder good naturedly (as opposed to being in reprisal).
Time gave Warriors a firm arm clasp before ruffling Twilight's hair, the rancher being too busy getting hugged by Sky to fight back.
Four and Hyrule shared relieved grins, settling for a fistbump.
"I'm going to cook… everything." Wild said, out of breath. "Come on."
The Chain rushed along behind the Champion as he navigated Hateno Village with practiced ease. Not many people were out at such an hour, but the few that were waved or shouted greetings to the group. These were rather rudely ignored by Wild on his single track train of thought.
"Oh hiya Link~" Greeted Bolson from his camp on the Champion's front yard, "We were just stopping by to look for ya. And my! Where'd you find all these-"
Wild blew right by him. "No time to explain; just saved the timeline." He rushed.
The others offered a varied array of sympathetic smiles, waves, and shrugs to the affronted builder before following the cook inside. Hylia knew that they had precious little time left.
Though speaking of Hylia, the current incarnation nearly had to be reincarnated when the door was practically kicked down and a crowd of rowdy boys pressed in during her quiet reading time before bed.
"Link! Links, rather. I almost had a heart attack! What in the world is the meaning of all this?!"
"We won!" Wild proclaimed, throwing his cloak off to the side. "We won, Zelda!"
"But of course, of that I had no dou-!" Flora was cut off with a squeak by Wild bodily lifting her out of her chair and twirling her around in an impressive feat of strength. He set her down firmly on her feet, her face frozen in shock, finger raised in a reprimand that wouldn't come.
"Oh, but we can't have much time!" The cook realized as he practically flew over to his modest kitchen in the corner, "Sky, Old Man, come!"
As the two strode forward to comply, one eager and the other bemused, Flora finally rebooted.
"Yes, well, do make yourselves at home, Heroes." She made to sit back down but halted suddenly, shooting back up. Crack went her knee against the table, but she showed no sign of noticing.
"You won't be coming back!" Flora exclaimed.
"Yeah…?" Legend questioned, "Unless something goes really, really wrong I guess."
"Oh, I'm a failure!" The princess lamented, slapping her hand to her forehead as she finally fell down into her seat.
"Hey, we talked about this," Wild rebuked without turning from his frantic work. "We all were failures… or something. How did Impa phrase it…?" He slowed slightly to ponder this.
"Not that," Flora waved it off, "I just realized I never properly got to ask you all questions! Thousands of years of history, right before me, and I have nary a note."
"We… probably still have time, right?" Twilight said uncertainty, "May as well start now-"
He was interrupted by Flora knocking her poor chair down in her haste to rush up the stairs where drawers were frantically ripped open and slammed shut. The bewildered rancher turned to look at his compatriots standing about the entryway. Hyrule shrugged back at him while Legend made the 'crazy' hand gesture and whistled.
"Aha!" She took the stairs down two at a time with a thick notebook in hand. "Now, where do we begin?"
Four opened his mouth to speak.
"No, wait; not enough time. Everyone just go at once, and I shall write everything down. I will sort it out later."
Four closed his mouth, considered it, then shrugged.
"So before me was the Hero of Men who-"
"-and all the different worlds were colliding so we-"
"-a wave, as tall as the sky!"
"-but now I could turn into a wolf, which was strange at first-"
"-beat Ganon, again-"
"-gambled with an old man in a cave-"
"-and it turned out that she was Impa all along!"
"Then the moon fell, almost."
"Dinner's ready!"
"Gah, my hand!" Flora's practically smoking pencil was dropped so that she could grip her terribly cramped wrist, "But I've done it. History!"
Wind leaned over to look at the paper. Every square inch was filled with nearly illegible scrawl, all going in different directions and in vastly differing sizes. He figured it was probably fine; what did he know about fancy note taking anyways?
Meanwhile, Wild was practically throwing plates at everyone, laden with fresh food from all over Hyrule (the place) and time.
"Didn't we just have breakfast?" Hyrule (the person) eyed the steaming hot plate that slid precariously before him.
"And?" Warriors was half finished.
"And what?" Hyrule pushed his empty plate aside, taking on a new one.
For several minutes the sounds of utensils scraping against ceramic dominated the small house. Wild, having only three chairs to his name, had everyone besides Flora (the perks of royalty), Time (the perks of seniority), and himself (the perks of owning the damn place) sit about the room on the floor. No one particularly minded, not even Warriors, so busy were they ingraining the Champion's cooking into their taste buds so that they might remember what good food tasted like. Not that Time would be caught dead badmouthing Malon like that, or Wind Grandma.
"So," Flora dabbed at her mouth daintily with a napkin, "How do you know when you must leave? Is it some sort of physical sensation? A feeling?"
"Nah, one of these great big portal thingies just boom! Pops up." Wind showed no such decorum, talking with his mouth half full.
Warriors flicked him on the side of the head in reprimand. Wind glared at him and once more swallowed his food whole, not unlike a pelican.
"What the little scoundrel means to say, is that we only know from seeing a gateway appear. Though after a while, there is an uncomfortable pulling sensation to nudge us along."
"Just how big are these… gateways?" Flora glanced at Wild in worry, Wild who had abruptly stopped moving at all mid-chew.
"They're fairly big," Sky answered helpfully. "You could fly a loftwing through one. Er, a horse? No, two horses. Some amount of horses?"
Sky rubbed his chin in thought before leaning over to whisper to Wind, "Is Epona average horse size?"
Wind shrugged unhelpfully.
"Out! Everybody get out!" Wild leaped out of his chair, the helpless thing clattering behind him.
"What the hell?!" Legend shouted as the cook pulled him up to his feet. The others soon followed suit, alarmed.
"Portal! Bloody massive portal; in my house! My old wooden house! Bolson is not getting another rupee out of me, so move move move!"
Properly motivated, the Chain plus the resident semi-demigoddess bustled their way back outside into the cool night air.
"Well I'll be! Here to apologize, mister big and important?" Bolson demanded, seconds before the dreaded gateway formed out of thin air at the foot of the bridge.
"Aieee! Run Karson, save yourself!" The builder cried, scrambling away into the dark, "Aliens! Black magic! Health and safety inspectors!"
Karson looked at the ominous tear in space-time, looked at the gaggle of heavily armed strangers, shrugged, and followed his boss into the wilderness at a considerably more sedate pace.
"Oh thank Hylia. I should probably put a fence up now that he's finally gone." Wild let his breath out in one gust. "So, who's first?"
Time put a steadying hand on his shoulder. "At ease, Cub. You've been rushing about like a cucco out of its coop. Let's just take a moment, hm?"
"Right, yeah. I guess I am being a little crazy. It's just… I'm not so good with goodbyes, you know?"
Flora put her hand on his other shoulder with a sympathetic smile.
"How 'bout a pictograph?" Wind suggested cheerily. "To remember us by."
"A fine idea." Time smiled.
Wild shook his head fondly.
"It'd take more than dying to forget you. But sure, let's be safe."
And so the Chain bunched up for one last time, Flora behind the camera.
Time pulled Twilight and Wild close on both sides with a proud smile.
Hyrule knowingly didn't let Legend stray to the edge.
Four and Wind got in a competition to use the other as an armrest.
Warriors and Sky raised their swords together in a salute.
Smiles were wide, Twilight and Sky both gave Legend bunny ears, and the portal swirled menacingly behind them all.
Click, snap, and they were gone.
"Hmm." Zelda hummed, staring down at her 'notes' intensely. The morning sun provided quaint lighting, but no amount of atmosphere could turn that mess into anything resembling language.
"What's up?" Wild, now simply 'Link' once more, was sitting across from her and reorganizing the Sheikah Slate. His fingers kept taking him back to the album however.
"I am just trying to get the order of events straight. Do you know if the world was flooded before or after the shadow war?"
Link shrugged, "Does it matter?"
He once more found himself staring at the picture. They looked… different than how he remembered.
"Of course it matters, Link!" Zelda glared at him accusatively, "One does not just stick a great flood wherever they feel like!"
"Whatever." He said as tried to refocus on his assortment of junk. Should he mix the timey-wimey things with his normal gear? Was it even safe to keep that stuff now that he was going to stay in the now? ...Could he sell it?
"You are impossible," the princess huffed, once more trying to discern her own 'handwriting', "I suppose the moon crashing down would cause a flood… but how did we get a new one? And what in the world is a 'Triforce'?"