Archive of Our Own

Link was going to lose his mind.

It had been decades since he finished his last journey and honestly, he was married. He had a ranch and a mortgage. He had not thought it unreasonable to assume that his adventuring days were long behind him.

Except they weren’t. Patently, they weren’t. Hylia above, he just wanted to retire in peace. He thought that he had retired in peace. He had taken up gardening, for Hylia’s sake! He’d let his hair grow! But then a portal opened under his feet and he had tumbled through to an unfamiliar clearing in an unfamiliar wood and-

And. Uh.

He maybe. Just maybe. Possibly may have fucked up. Just a little.

Though, to be fair to himself, he hadn’t known when he decided to mess around with his old masks that things would go quite this wrong. He’d just been messing about. At first he had been checking the fences around the ranch and, for a laugh, had put on his old set of rabbit ears to help himself go faster. Then, job done far earlier than he had expected, he’d lingered in the barn and looked through his old bag of masks. Just for old time’s sake, of course. He’d laughed at the memories they evoked. He tried them on.

The Kamaro mask and its dancing powers. The Bremen mask and its effect on the mice and the old barn cat.

Then his eye had landed on a wooden mask wrapped carefully in an old, embroidered cloth.

The deku mask.

He… hadn’t worn it since he left Termina. The transformation was by no means pleasant and he was happy to know that he would never have to go through it again.

But… well. It had been twenty years since then. He couldn’t help but wonder if the effect would still be the same. If it would still turn him into the infant deku scrub he had once been or if-

It couldn’t hurt to try, right?

…

And this was how he ended up falling through a portal and into an unfamiliar woodland, stuck in the body of a deku scrub.

But not just any deku scrub. No no. Because he’d been right about one thing - he no longer transformed into the little wooden child when he put the mask on. No, now that he was a fully grown adult, he transformed into an eight foot tall, massive, gnarled, hulking tree-monster.

There was no other way to describe it. His limbs were knotted branches, his hands made up of three long fingers of twisted wood with twigs and sprouts growing at random. A thick clump of gnarled foliage grew from his head like the branches of a tree.

When he felt his face, yes, he had the standard deku-snout that he remembered, but he also had only one eye, his left lid covered in knotted wood and sealed shut.

Great. Link moved to take off the mask. The last thing he needed when stuck in a strange new world was to be a terrifying tree monster.

…

The mask did not come off.

Oh, balls.

Across the clearing, the trees rustled. Link spun around, reaching for his sword. Because yes, he had his sword with him. He didn’t know how - his bag of masks hadn’t fallen through the portal, but somehow his sword and fully packed but now much too small bedroll had.

Goddesses, he thought with a sigh. Bloody typical.

He needn’t have worried about causing a panic, though. The rustling quieted, and from between the trees a blind man stepped out. He was wearing a white cape, which seemed a little optimistic for the woods, and had a sword on his back, which seemed a little optimistic full-stop. He was using a long, carved cane to feel his way forwards, but was walking with enough confidence that honestly the cane seemed like an afterthought.

The man paused as he entered the clearing and cocked his head, listening.

“Hello?” he called. “Are you Link?”

Wait.

What?

Link made to ask him how he knew that - to ask how he knew there was someone else here at all, when he realised with a jolt that yes. Of course. Deku scrubs may have had distinctive snouts, but they didn’t have mouths. He couldn’t speak in this form. The best he could manage was to hum a little. He tried this and it sounded more like the creaking of trees. Great.

“Um.” the blind man said, stepping closer. “Can you speak? It’s okay if not, I carry the Master Sword and she can translate sign for me! I - um. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. Zelda had a dream from the goddess that I was going on a journey and would meet nine other Heroes from across time, so I guess this is it. I’m Link, by the way. Or - the Master Sword called me the Hero of Skies, so you can call me Sky, if you prefer.”

Well that sounded normal.

Sure. Why not? Link was a giant tree. This guy was another hero from across time. He’d met with weirder. Probably. He could deal with this.

Link looked down at his hands, two spindly fingers and a thumb on each. There was no way that he could sign anything but the most basic of phrases like this. He’d have to make do.

Experimentally, he waved. Sky, who clearly had no idea that he was a giant tree monster, lit up.

“Hi! Whew, I was worried I was talking to the air for a second. Do you wanna hold the Master Sword? I think she’ll give you a title too. Might be awkward if we’re all called Link.”

Which was how Link suddenly found himself designated as ‘Time’ and carefully sidestepping whenever Sky moved close enough to accidentally touch him. He knew he probably couldn’t keep the charade up forever, but right now it was kind of nice that the other hero thought he was just a normal, if taller than average, hylian.

That said, Sky seemed like he was very okay with a lot of things, to be honest. He didn’t seem particularly phased that his Zelda - because yes, apparently he had a Zelda of his own and as far as Time could tell was in a very happy relationship with her - had somehow had a prophetic dream that he was about to go adventuring through time with a bunch of duplicates of his own soul. Nine duplicates, to be precise, ten heroes in total.

Time personally wished that he had a mouth so that he could have a drink, but Sky seemed to be taking it in his stride.

Either that or he was just very good at controlling his emotions.

Hmmm. He wasn’t sure.

Either way, it wasn’t long before they heard footsteps approaching the clearing and looked around - or, well. In Sky’s case turned around and used his weird psychic connection to the Master Sword to look, because that was apparently a thing - to see not one, but two more people approaching the clearing.

Two familiar people. Sure, both looked maybe a year or two older, but there was no mistaking either them or the bickering that accompanied them. The Captain, looking stressed as ever, was bent over and gripping the ear of the Sailor, pulling him along beside him and apparently halfway through a lecture. The Sailor was, predictably, cussing him out, hammering his hands against his older brother’s side and tugging at his brilliantly blue scarf. It was… not terribly effective.

It was all Time could do not to immediately rush up to them and drag them into a hug but - well - given his current appearance that probably wouldn’t be a very good idea. Instead he had to settle for waiting as their bickering grew louder.

“...can’t believe that the first time I see you in four years you try to use your damn magic wand to blow me into a river!”

“Hey, it was funny and- WHOAAA!”

The sailor broke off as he spied Time, vast and hulking and clearly not hylian. The Captain looked up a second later and immediately clenched his jaw, shoving the very put-out pirate behind him (“Hey!”) and drawing his sword.

“Hello!” Sky said right on time. “Um. I’m not sure why you’re drawing your sword? But it’s okay, we’re friends!”

The Captain, bless his army training, spared a quick glance to take in Sky and then looked right back at Time, his eyes narrowed. Behind him, the Sailor wriggled out of his grasp and grinned at them.

“Hello!” he replied cheerfully. “I’m Link! Did you know your friend’s a giant tree?”

“Um.” Sky said. “What?”

Time shrugged at the two of them and ghosted a hand over his eyes by way of explanation. The kid was blind, he couldn’t exactly explain! It was enough, at least, that the Captain sheathed his sword with a sigh and relaxed long enough for Sky to go on his spiel about magical predestiny and time travel and multiple iterations of the same soul.

The Captain and the Sailor, much like Time himself, had been through something similar in the war, and just sighed in acceptance.

“I guess it’d be too much to ask for a break.” the Captain muttered. “Whatever. Okay. We’re all heroes. This might as well happen again.”

The Captain and the Sailor were named Warriors and Wind by the sword, respectively. With this established, they all found a space to sit down and start to set out camp, as it was starting to look as if they would be in the grove until all of their new brothers showed up. There were a few false starts - namely when Wind gathered wood for a fire and then began to panic that burning it would somehow be disrespectful to Time. Which was… hilarious, but really not an issue. He’d just make sure he didn’t get too close, that’s all.

The Captain, bless him, seemed to take Time’s… unlikely appearance in his stride and made no further mention of him clearly being some sort of bizarre tree beast. The Master Sword had vouched for him, and that was good enough for Warriors. Wind was… less polite, and immediately pelted Time with questions that he had no way of answering, voiceless and without the correct limbs for sign. He could only hum and gesture vaguely, which seemed to be more than enough for the Sailor to draw his own, rather melodramatic conclusions and run with them.

Some things never changed.

Sky, meanwhile, outright apologised for not realising that he was a tree sooner, and when Time made it clear that he didn’t mind, gently ran his fingers over the rough bark of his arm, marvelling at the texture. Time was really starting to like this kid.

They passed an hour like this, Sky asking with interest how the Captain and the Sailor already knew each other and getting outrageous stories from Wind in return. Time wished that he could join in and explain that he was the third brother that they kept mentioning, but he had no choice but to sit there and laugh at Warriors’ increasingly pained expression as Wind’s tales grew taller and taller.

And then their peace was interrupted once more. Not by a hero, this time, not quite-

By a bokoblin.

By a very frightened bokoblin, fleeing in their direction and dripping black blood from an open wound on its throat.

The four of them were on their feet and drawing their swords in an instant, but before they could move to strike something small and very, very pink leapt from the grass and latched itself onto the bokoblin’s neck.

It gave out a final cry that turned into a gurgle as its head all but detached from its shoulders before the creature disintegrated in a puff of magic.

And there, where it had been slain, sat a very pink, very self-satisfied looking rabbit, covered in blood.

“Guys.” Sky said. “I think the sword is broken. Is that… a bunny?”

“Farore’s fucking fringe-lined undies.” Wind cursed.

Frankly, Time agreed with his sentiment.

-

The rabbit, the Master Sword announced, was none other than the Hero of Legend. The rabbit. The Hero of Legend was a rabbit.

Maybe Ganondorf had once reincarnated as a fox?

Actually getting the damn thing to touch the sword had been a whole rigmarole. The blade had chimed in recognition of the rabbit, and if its angry hissing and squeaking was anything to go by, the bunny somehow recognised it too and wanted nothing to do with it.

Time could understand that. But also.

A damn rabbit?

Really?

Warriors looked exhausted and was muttering under his breath about ‘divine jokes’ and ‘how do we know it’s even sentient?!’. The rabbit - Legend, Sky insisted - meanwhile, was pointedly hopping away every time Wind tried to pet it. Him. Whatever.

Eventually he settled down on Sky’s lap, but only after the blind hero offered to help get the blood out of his fur. The rabbit managed to look furious the whole time and was clearly doing his level best to glare at them all with his large, violet eyes. The effect, frankly, was adorable. Time was glad that he couldn’t currently speak, because he was pretty sure if he voiced this aloud, the rabbit would have come for him next.

Sky and Wind repeated the story of what they knew so far to the rabbit, although the jury was still out on whether or not he actually understood a word they were saying. Time understood, and he was currently a giant tree person, so he wasn’t exactly one to judge. Finally, Sky got the last of the blood from Legend’s fur and announced him clean, and the rabbit immediately hopped down, skittering to the other side of the fire and hunkering down alone, glaring at them all warily.

“Can you understand a word we’re saying?” Warriors asked warily.

The rabbit hissed at him, eyes narrowed and glaring.

Wind grinned. “That’s a yes, then! Don’t worry, Legend, that’s how I feel when he talks too.”

The rabbit seemed mollified by this and chittered quietly, not grumbling this time when Wind patted him gently on the head. Hey, they were getting somewhere!

An hour passed, and no more Links appeared. For a moment Time thought that he heard a tinkling of bells - the sound of a fairy, perhaps? - and he looked around in anticipation, his branches waving eagerly. The others turned with him, but when they asked if he’d seen anything he could only shrug and creak. Must have just been the wind.

Another hour passed, and just sitting and waiting was starting to grate on them all. Warriors and Sky began to compare what supplies they had in their travelling packs and set to roasting some skewers of meat and mushrooms. Sky found some chopped pumpkin in his own pack and offered it to Legend, who seemed only too delighted to dig in.

Honestly, Time was fairly certain that the rabbit would have taken the meat as well, but it was still nice of Sky to think of him.

Wind, meanwhile, had apparently decided that he didn’t want Time to feel left out while the others cooked - they’d had an awkward moment when Warriors had asked if their skewers were alright for him too and Time had to mime awkwardly that having no mouth, he didn’t need to eat. Deku Scrubs fed on sunlight and drank rainwater, after all. It was an understandable mistake but Sky and Warriors had looked mortified and apologised over and over, despite how Time tried to wave them off.

So Wind had apparently made it his mission to make sure that Time felt included. Where he had kept a few feet of distance before, he now actively was leaning against him, cheerfully chattering about the island he called home and asking the occasional question about Time’s own life.

…Time wasn’t sure when he shifted to sitting with an arm wrapped around the sailor. It just felt natural, and the kid seemed happy to snuggle into his side as he chatted.

Then, from the nearby brush, the tinkling of a fairy sounded again.

This time they all looked around. Something was rustling in a nearby bush, something small and close to the ground. Legend took the lead on this, hopping closer to the bush and snuffling at its edge.

Time… really hoped that it wasn’t another rabbit. He wasn’t sure if Warriors could take another rabbit.

…

Actually, in that case, another rabbit would be really fucking funny.

The bushes rustled again and not a rabbit, but a mouse stepped out.

No. Not a mouse. Mice didn’t wear dinky little four-coloured tunics or carry tiny little toothpick sized swords. Mice didn’t have a brightly coloured feather instead of a tail or have neatly combed blond hair. It was a-

What was it?

Wind, it seemed, had the answer. He gasped and clambered over Time’s legs to crouch in front of it, lowering himself to be eye level with the chittering creature.

“You’re a Picori!” he gasped in delight. “A Minish! Right? Grandma told me about you guys! But how come they can see you? I thought it was only kids, right?”

Time blinked. That was… a lot of jargon. The mouse creature - the Minish - chittered again.

“Are you a hero too?” Wind asked. “Is your name Link?”

The Minish paused and looked around at them, then chittered something again and darted back into the bush. A moment later he re-emerged, this time, with a friend.

A fairy.

The Minish was holding its hand as they both stepped out, the fairy fluttering just off of the ground. Okay, well, that was something! Even if the Minish couldn’t speak, the fairy would be able to! On instinct, Time crouched down beside Wind and lowered a hand for them to step onto.

Both creatures darted back a few inches in surprise and Legend turned to hiss at him - though that, at least, was nothing new. Slowly, though, the Minish and the fairy seemed to exchange glances and cautiously stepped onto his hand. Time creaked as gently as he could as he raised them to eye-level so that they could see around the rest of the camp.

Sky leaned forwards, his head cocked to the side in wonder, and Warriors was watching with a warm smile on his face. During the War, the Captain had rarely gone anywhere without his own beloved fairy friend, and while Proxi was clearly not with him now, his love for fairies had not diminished.

“Greetings, friends.” Warriors said softly, bowing his head in respect. “I think… we may have all been drawn here for a common purpose. Would… the two of you be called Link, by any chance?” He had clearly come to the same conclusion as Time and was hoping for the fairy to speak for them both.

This close to the pair, Time could now see beyond the fairy’s brilliantly green glow. He was small, even for one of the fae, with a mop of untidy brown hair and a tattered green tunic. Time had rarely seen a fairy in such poor condition before and felt a wave of sympathy rise in his chest.

The fairy turned to look at the Minish and tinkled but didn’t speak, instead pointing in surprise. The Minish chittered and did the same. Right. So they were both called Link, and were both equally surprised to learn this about each other.

Well. At least it wasn’t another rabbit.

Sky set about explaining his story to their two new guests, and at least this time there was no doubting that they were sentient. They both seemed a little confused when he asked them to touch the Master Sword, neither of them seeming to have seen it before. Still, they both did as they were asked, the fairy fluttering down first and being dubbed ‘The Hero of Hyrule’, and the Minish skittering over next and given the name ‘The Hero of the Four Sword’.

Hyrule and Four. Okay. They could work with that. As soon as their names were announced, Hyrule flitted back to Time’s branches, apparently deeming him as safe and finding a perch on his shoulder. After a moment Four joined him, less nervous but apparently unwilling to leave his new friend alone.

Time may or may not have noticed Legend looking up at them with jealousy. He might have to make space in his branches at some point for a bloodthirsty killer rabbit.

Just another day in the life of a Hero, he supposed.

After a few more questions from Warriors, it became clear that while Hyrule’s wings could ring like bells when he fluttered, he could not in fact speak. When they asked him if he knew any sign he seemed to shrink in on himself, shaking his head. Four, meanwhile, chittered in excitement and began to sign… something. A quick look at Warriors and Wind showed that neither of them understood him, and from the look on Sky’s face, his sword wasn’t able to translate.

Great. Just great. This wasn’t going to make things difficult at all.

But by now the sun was dipping below the treeline and the stars were winking into existence overhead. Warriors passed around the skewers to those who could eat them, then slid a few chunks of meat and mushroom and some of Sky’s pumpkin onto a spare dish for their smaller brothers to nibble on if they wished.

Four jumped down from Time’s branches and sat with Legend for a while, chittering and nibbling. The two didn’t seem to be able to understand each other, but were finding some sort of companionship at least. Hyrule also darted off after a few moments and grabbed a slice of pumpkin, but then returned to Time’s branches. He seemed a lot less outgoing than the other Heroes, and it didn’t escape Time’s notice that he seemed most wary of his hylian counterparts. Especially when, sorting through their packs, the clinking of bottles rang out across the grove.

Ah.

Yeah, that made sense. Time remembered the war, when the Captain had been shoved against his will into a bottle by a Great Fairy. He couldn’t imagine that Hyrule particularly enjoyed it either. Well, he was certain that his new brothers wouldn’t dream of bottling the fairy, but he was more than happy to keep Hyrule company until he felt more comfortable.

“We should set up a watch.” Warriors said as they began to yawn. “In case of monsters. Or. Um. Other Links.”

Time nodded in agreement and raised a hand to offer first watch. He had never needed as much sleep as a deku scrub and didn’t mind letting the others get more rest. He thought that Legend might have been trying to volunteer for second watch but, well. He was a rabbit and he could also have just been reaching for another piece of pumpkin. It was hard to tell.

They ended up with Warriors on second watch and they were pretty sure that Four’s chittering was him volunteering for third.

Probably.

Didn’t really matter, in the end.

None of them ended up sleeping much, anyway.

It started off alright. Wind and Warriors put their bedrolls together and snuggled up by the fire, Sky lying a few feet away. Legend began irritably trying to make himself a comfortable nest by the fire and seemed more than happy to accept Sky’s offer of a small pillow to snooze on. Four chittered for a moment and then jumped down to sleep snuggled up in his pink fur, and amazingly, the rabbit didn’t protest.

Hyrule fluttered out from Time’s branches and glanced between him and the cuddle pile, wavering on what to do. Time creaked in amusement and waved him towards his tiny friends. The fairy lingered for a moment longer, tinkling, and then darted over to the pillow. Legend looked up sleepily and then shifted slightly to make room. As the fairy settled into Legend’s fur, Four put an arm around him.

Time wished he had his pictobox on him. This was adorable.

After half an hour, though, it became obvious that Warriors was not going to be sleeping any time soon. Time watched as the Captain carefully extricated himself from the Sailor’s arms and made his way over to join him.

“What a day.” he sighed as he sat down. “Sorry. I- I can’t sleep. Do you mind some company?”

Time creaked and shook his head, branches rustling.

Warriors sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was staring at the fire, his shoulders hiked up to his ears. Time, though, couldn’t ask what was wrong, could only sit and wait for him to talk.

“I- I’m a Captain. In my era. I’m in the army.” Warriors explained. “I’m trying to think how to organise this group to fight. Because let’s face it: we’re not being pulled together for a social call, are we? We’re gonna have to fight something. Probably something big, if Sky says there’s gonna be ten of us.”

Time creaked and nodded again. Yeah. That was… a lot.

Warriors shrugged. “How am I supposed to wrangle an army that consists of a child, a blind man, a fairy, a mythical mouse man, and a damn rabbit?”

Time snorted. When he put it like that… yeah, it didn’t seem great. But still, everyone here was a hero in whatever era they came from, and if Hylia had decided they could work together… well. Time was going to say ‘who were they to argue’, but arguing with the goddess was his favourite pastime. Damnit, he was going to make this bizarre group of hylians and creatures work together in spite of the damn goddess!

He sighed, the sound coming out like a breeze rustling through his leaves, and reached around to pat the Captain on the back. His brother was, he knew, more goddess-fearing than himself, and likely saw this as a task given to him by Hylia. Who knew, maybe it was. But Warriors had a bad habit of trying to take the weight of the world on his shoulders. Some called it pride, but Time knew that it was more than that, that his brother wanted to protect those he cared about and had a bad habit of putting himself in the line of fire instead.

Warriors drew his knees up to his chest and huffed. “Sorry. I’ll get is sorted, just-”

Time punched him on the arm as gently as he could and hissed. Hey! He could make that sound! Fab!

“Uuuh…” Warriors said. “What - what was that for?”

Shit. How was he going to sign this when he really didn’t have the right shaped hands? Time creaked again and then curled his hands into fists, bringing them together. He repeated the gesture. It wasn’t quite the sign for together, but it wasn’t a million miles away from it. When the Captain continued to look at him blankly, he sighed and took Warriors’ hand in his and repeated the gesture. Together.

“Oh.” the Captain said, blinking. “I- right. We can - together. Yes. Right. Sorry.” He paused, and then was quiet for a moment. Around them, the nighttime forest was peaceful. Time waited.

“I-I’m not terribly good at asking for help.” Warriors admitted. “Thank you.”

Time huffed and was about to try and mime that the Captain should get some sleep when it happened.

“WHOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Time and Warriors both jumped to their feet at the cry, both drawing their swords and the Captain shouting in alarm. Something bright and glowing was whizzing around them in a ring, much larger than a fairy and somehow… intangible. It was laughing, but it didn’t seem malicious.

Experimentally, Time slung his sword back onto his back and then darted out to grab at what he thought was a limb.

“HEY- WHOAAAA!”

It was-

It was a… ghost? Of what looked like a teen - a boy really. He was wearing dark overalls and a little cap and was staring down at where Time had grabbed his ankle in wonder. He- he looked uncomfortably similar to the Sailor.

“How are you doing that?” the ghost asked, small spirit flames erupting and vanishing around him as he wiggled. “People can’t normally touch ghosts! Is that something all tree-people can do? That’s so cool! Can you tell your friend to put his sword away? It can’t hurt me cause yanno. Ghost. But it’s still kinda rude!”

“Uuuuuh.” Warriors said again as he sheathed his sword. “Hello? Are you… Link?”

“Yep!” the ghost wiggled free from Time’s grip. “Who’re you and why do you know my name? Also where am I? I was hanging out with Zelda then a portal ripped me away and like? This is fun and stuff I guess but my body is still back in the castle and I kinda like being able to touch things?”

Time and Warriors exchanged a glance. Well then. It looked like they had another one.

The others had woken with the commotion and were looking around in alarm, which honestly, Time could understand. It’s not every day you’re woken up in the middle of the night in a strange era to the ghost of a literal child bouncing around. Especially not when said child is a carbon copy of the Sailor already camping with you.

Time could feel a migraine coming on. Could Deku Scrubs get migraines? Whatever, they could now.

The Master Sword - once they figured out that the kid phasing his hand through it counted as touching - named the new Link ‘Spirit’, which both the kid and Wind seemed to find hilarious and which the rest of them, being both grown up and more sensible, were more than a little disturbed by.

Spirit swore that he wasn’t normally a - well. a spirit, but that something similar had happened to his Zelda during his journey, and he and her had been messing around with some artefacts to see if he could manage something similar. The results had been… surprisingly effective and, apparently, deeply hilarious.

Time definitely could feel a migraine coming on. Especially when it turned out that Spirit could completely turn himself invisible - to all but Wind, that is, who claimed a proclivity for seeing ghosts. He dreaded to think the hijinks that those two, who were already showing signs of becoming fast friends, would get into.

Hylia above, this was getting weirder by the minute.

By the time they were all settled down once more it was more or less time for Warriors’ watch. Time did have a bedroll with him, but tall as he normally was, he wasn’t convinced that all eight feet of him - plus bonus sticky-out branches - would fit. Whatever. He’d slept in worse places.

He nestled down against the trunk of a tree and tried to doze. Hey, this wasn’t too bad, he maybe could just sleep like this for a bit. Yeah. Okay. He could make this work…

He awoke several hours later to Warriors shaking his arm. He hummed, squinting up in the darkness. Spirit was floating nervously at his side - right, ghosts don’t sleep - and it looked like Sky was awake too and - was that Four on his shoulder? He hummed and made to sit up - only to meet with some resistance from his limbs.

Had he fucking begun to put down roots?

Hissing, Time yanked himself up, trying to ignore the sharp tugs as his roots snapped. He’d forgotten about that - he’d have to be more careful in future. He could naturally pull the roots up if he had time, but right now it looked like he needed to move fast. He blinked at Warriors, tilting his head in question.

“We have a wolf.” he murmured. “Stalking the camp. It’s Four’s watch but… he’s not really in a position to deal with it.” Well. That was a very polite way of saying the Minish hadn’t a hope in Hyrule of defeating something as large as a wolf, but okay. “Sky and I tried chasing it off but… it keeps coming back.”

“We’re going to have to be more final.” Sky said. He’d left his cane by his bedroll and was drawing his sword from its sheath, the blade glowing softly. “And we’d appreciate the help. It’s… pretty big.”

Time nodded, turning to where - yes, there it was, a rustling in the darkness just beyond the camp. And something else too. A… clinking? Almost like a chain.

Wait.

Time squinted. Took a step forwards and crouched down, extending a hand to the darkness.

“Wait - what the hell are you-” Warriors started to say.

In the darkness, something big moved. Metal chimed against metal.

Slowly, cautiously, an absolutely massive wolf began to pad towards them. A massive, familiar wolf.

Time knew this wolf. He’d had a series of dreams a few years ago, night after night, where he’d taken the form of a spectral wolf and a living corpse, mentoring a Hero of the future. A Hero cursed with another form. If this wolf was here-

“GAAH!” Sky shouted suddenly as something clattered to the ground. “She burned me! Why would the Master Sword burn me? …Unless-”

The wolf - the Hero - wasted no time. He darted forwards and lifted the Master Sword between his teeth.

Nothing happened. The twilit curse stayed firmly wrapped around his body. If wolves could swear, Time was pretty sure that this Link would be cursing up a storm right now. Instead he stood there, hilt of the Master Sword in his mouth, as Sky fumbled around.

“Is that - oh. Uh… thank you… um? Wolfie?” he said as he found the blade and took it from their newest companion. On his shoulder, Four chittered nervously.

Beside them, Warriors looked as if he was about to have a stroke.

“Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?”

Sky inclines his head towards him as he resheathed his sword. Time once again reached out for the wolf. Even though he knew there was actually a hylian in there- well. He was very fluffy.

“The wolf is another Link.” Sky explained. “The sword called him the Hero of Twilight.”

“Whoaaaaaa.” Spirit said.

Warriors blinked. His shoulders slumped. He shook his head.

“Yeah. You know what? Yeah. Whatever. That tracks. Why not? Cmon, Wolf-Link. Twilight. Fuck. Just… Time do you think you can herd him over to the fire? Possibly away from the rabbit?”

Time snorted as the wolf huffed indignantly and trotted over to the fire, looking pointedly at Warriors. Good boy. Warriors sighed and dropped down on his bedroll, ready to have this conversation again.

The wolf may have been a trapped hylian - of that, Time was certain - but he apparently wasn’t entirely against snuggling up with one of his less bestial counterparts. Especially not when they woke the rest and Wind declared the existence of a wolf-hero to be ‘the most badass shit he’d ever seen’.

Once they had explained their situation - Warriors still clearly unconvinced about how sentient the wolf actually was - Twilight padded over to the sailor and curled up on his bedroll. Wind was clearly delighted and Spirit was pretty obviously jealous of his ability to pet him.

“He’s so fluffy!” He crowed. “Oooh and he - wait- guys! There’s a big scar on his neck, why would anyone do that? And why would there be a chain around his leg? Wolfie, are you okay?”

“His name is Twilight.” Warriors said weakly.

“It’s probably from his adventure.” Spirit mused.

Wind gasped and hugged Twilight harder. “But you’re so precious.” He whispered.

Twilight huffed. He was clearly regretting his decision to sit with the twins.

Huh. When had Time started to think of the two boys as twins? Of them all as brothers?

Weird.

After that they managed to settle down and get a little more sleep. Twilight very quickly tired of the attention that Wind was lavishing on him and pulled away, shaking him off and padding around to find somewhere else to sleep.

To everyone’s surprise - after a brief standoff where he and Legend both glared at each other - he settled down with the smaller members of their group. The rabbit contentedly snuggled into his fur and the other two followed suit, the four of them curling up into a huddle.

It looked extremely comfortable. And very, very cute.

Time hoped that one day he would be invited to the snuggle pile. He wished he could tell Twilight who he was.

Someday. He couldn’t possibly be stuck in this form forever, after all. Someday, hopefully soon, they would both be transformed and could laugh about it. Then he could properly talk to Warriors and Wind too, and get to know his other brothers.

Yeah. It would all be fine.

When he woke up the next morning they all seemed a bit more settled. Spirit was floating belly down in front of Four and apparently very seriously trying to understand his chitters- to no apparent effect. Wind was lavishing affection on an extremely put out looking Legend, who was grumpily chewing on some pumpkin.

Time moved slowly, branches creaking as he focused on pulling up the roots that he had put down in the night. He really needed to figure out how to deal with this, or get a bedroll to stop it from happening, because even going slow when pulling them up wasn’t pleasant. Hyrule darted over to him, hovering uncertainly in front of him for a moment before diving down and fluttering around his newly shorn roots. All at once the stinging disappeared - had Hyrule… healed him?

Time held out a finger and the fairy haltingly landed on it. This close, he looked awkward and embarrassed, chewing on his lip as he stood there. Time felt his heart swell. How could he show his gratitude?

He hummed, creaking, as he closed his eye and bowed his head, pressing his free fist to his heart. There. Hopefully that got the message across.

It certainly seemed to as Hyrules wings tinkled as he fluttered up, whizzing happily once around Time’s head before returning to Four’s side. Time pulled himself up and looked around.

Sky was sitting nearby, chatting to Twilight and resting a hand on his haunches. He turned his head as Time approached, smiling.

“That you, Time? Twi and I are making a plan for if I ever need him to guide me - some places I guess might not want me carrying a sword about and then no one could say he can’t come in! Cause he’d be my guide-wolf!”

Time chuckled. It was actually a pretty good idea - he hadn’t thought about how difficult it might be if any of them wanted to visit a town or village. Twilight could maybe be passed off as a very large guide-dog. Spirit could turn invisible, Hyrule and Four could probably hide in someone’s coat.

He hummed. Legend was a little big to be hidden on someone’s person. Maybe hidden in a hat? And Time… they’d just have to tell everyone he was an unusual coat rack. Or he could hang about outside. Great.

Still, he shot a thumbs up, only to realise that Sky couldn’t actually see it. Maybe the sword would translate it?

“Hey guys.”

Time turned around at the sound of Warriors’ voice as the Captain plodded back into the clearing from the tree line. He looked exhausted, and a moment later Time saw why. Because behind him emerged another figure.

Time really shouldn’t have been surprised. At this point anything really was on the table. But he really hadn’t been anticipating their tenth Hero being a seven foot tall shirtless cat man.

Warriors sighed, coming to a stop. “Apparently I can’t even go for a whiz without meeting a new Link. Seems like he arrived a bit ago but was nervous of coming in. Which is fair. You’re a bunch of ugly motherfuckers.”

“HEY!” Shouted Wind.

Wild purred softly and raised a hand to wave. Because of course he did. Of course it would be too easy for him to have a common language with the rest of them.

The cat-Link was named ‘Wild’ by the Master Sword and he appeared totally mortified by this. In fact, he seemed pretty mortified by everything, second guessing where he put his tail and cutting himself off whenever he made a particularly animal sound. Poor guy clearly had never been the only one of his kind before and seemed deeply nervous about interacting, especially as it turned out that his sign was completely foreign to everyone.

Time went out of his way to make space for him when he nervously sat down, and he could see the others moving to accommodate their new brother too. If he could have smiled, he would have. They were a good crowd.

And that was them. Ten heroes from across time, brought together to fight… something. Hylia, as per usual, wasn’t exactly clear.

But they managed. It wasn’t always easy - sure they were pretty sure that they could all understand hylian, but more than half of them couldn’t actually speak back. Going into towns wasn’t always easy, and in some eras it just wasn’t possible.

But they managed. They got better at communicating even without a common language and they got to know one another. It became quickly apparent that Legend and Twilight could understand one another, and while Wild swore he couldn’t speak to the animals, he got along with Twilight like a house on fire. Hyrule and Legend became fast friends, and both him and Four frequently rode the rabbit into battle (which was a shockingly bloody affair every time).

Still, the longer the journey stretched on, the more the language barrier grated on them. Finally they landed in Wind’s world and the sailor suggested visiting his Great Deku Tree in the hope that he could maybe help them communicate. A spell maybe, or a potion. At this point, they’d settle for just about anything.

That said, they had not been expecting the Deku tree to burst out laughing when they presented their conundrum. Or for him to keep laughing so hard that some of his leaves began to fall. Time didn’t personally see what was so funny; they’d been trying to communicate for months now and were reaching their limit and-

The Deku tree said something in a language he didn’t understand, a spell of some sort, and there was a flare of light. Then it died down. And Time suddenly understood what was so funny.

They were all hylian.

Time was back in his own body, at his own height. Where Four had been resting on his shoulder, now an admittedly small hylian was slipping to the ground with a yelp. Hyrule, now wingless and clearly mortal, tumbled out of the air and was only narrowly caught by Twilight, now a lanky rancher with a wolf pelt across his shoulders. Wild was now a short blond who was curiously wearing only his underwear, while Legend had hair the same violent pink as his fur had been and the worst case of resting bitch face that Time had ever seen. Even Spirit was back in his body, newly solid and alive and making the most of it by grabbing Wind in a massive hug.

“You… you’re all hylians?” Sky asked softly. “All this time?”

Warriors looked around slowly, his jaw dropping. He breathed in. He breathed out. He slowly raked a hand through his hair.

“Are you telling me.” He said, clearly struggling to moderate his tone. “That I’ve been herding a group of barnyard animals and fairytale creatures… when I could have had a small army of actual experienced warriors?”

Twilight snorted and whistled for attention as he set Hyrule back on his feet and lifted his hands to sign. “Legend, you owe me fifty rupees, I told you it was the same for the rest of them!”

“Can’t fuckin believe this.” Grumbled Legend. “Even the tree? And the cat?”

“Hylia’s tits, man!” Wild croaked. “I think we were more likely to be sentient than a fuckin rabbit!”

Someone started to laugh, and it took Time a moment to pinpoint them down as himself. He couldn’t help it - it was all too ridiculous! All of them, all this time! They’d all been hylians trapped in another form! No wonder the Deku Tree had laughed so hard at their predicament, the whole thing was ridiculous!

Gradually, the rest started to laugh too, cackling and giggling along with him. Time clutched his stomach and had to sit down, tears of mirth running down his cheeks. Hylia above, it was over - he was hylian again and so were all of his brothers. By the time he regained his composure they were all sitting on the ground, leaning against each other and crying with laughter.

Hylia, they were all idiots. Now that he looked back all the signs were there. Hyrule didn’t look like a normal fairy. Rabbits weren’t generally pink. If Wild had really been a giant cat he wouldn’t have been so constantly astounded by his tail.

They camped that night in the shade of the Deku Tree, eagerly chattering and laughing and sharing their stories properly, now that they could. The atmosphere was celebratory, joyful, better than they ever could have expected. Time was properly reunited with Warriors and Wind for the first time since the war and then pulled Twilight into a tight hug. He was surrounded by his family, and they finally knew he was their family. It was perfect. Beyond perfect, it was -

“Uuuuuh, guys?” Spirit said suddenly. “I’m alive again.”

Wild blinked. “We… know that already?” He said.

“Yeah but.” Spirit flushed furiously red. “I wasn’t transformed into a ghost. I left my body behind. If I’m in it now it must have vanished from my era - oh MAN, Zelda’s gonna be so mad!”

“Don’t worry about it, kid.” Four laughed, slinging an arm around his shoulders. “We’ve all got some awkward conversations coming up. Times just told us he has a wife and now he’s gonna have to tell her how he spent three months running around as a tree. Imagine how that conversations gonna go!”

Wait, what? Time went over what he said and then groaned, covering his face with his hands. He was right, and there would be no getting away from it.

Malon would never let him live this down.

“Balls.”