Chapter Text
The portal appeared with no warning, just as everyone was finishing with breakfast. It was smaller than usual, and louder, breaking the calm atmosphere with a loud humming.
“We're leaving already?” Hyrule remarked, confused. They had just landed in this era a day earlier, hot on the heels of the Shadow. Why would another portal come to take them away when they were so close? “Unless… the Shadow somehow left too?”
As he reached for his strewn about items to start packing them up again with a sigh of resignation, Wild spoke up. “Wait, no. It's just like the one that came for me.”
They all remembered that particular day. At the end of a long night and a longer series of tough battles, a portal had appeared, and Wild had claimed it was “calling” to him. After an extensive argument about whether or not it was safe, and him insisting he needed to go in alone, Wild had lost his patience and bolted for the portal. Dodging all the shouts and lunges for him, he had jumped inside - and returned not one second later with significantly longer, dirtier hair and a missing arm.
Things had been hectic for a while after that - but eventually they all understood that Hylia had Called him away for another adventure. That his Hyrule had needed saving, again. The idea of that was easy enough to accept for their group, at least.
But now another oh so similar portal sat in front of them, and at Wild’s words, the camp went still. Wind shattered the silence a few moments later, sounding almost excited. “Ooh!! I hope it's for me, I want to go on another adventure!” He grinned, standing up and puffing out his chest.
Before he could take a single step towards the portal, Twilight reached out and grabbed the back of his tunic, preventing him from moving. “You want another adventure?” Warriors questioned from behind them, and Wind stopped glaring at Twilight long enough to give a reply.
“Yeah!! I've only been on two so far - and besides the obvious danger and doom part, sailing and exploring dungeons like that can be really fun. Besides, someone's gotta catch up to the vet!”
Stepping up between them, Wild shook his head. “You would know if it was yours, Sailor. Like I've said, it feels like… an incredibly strong pull that you can't ignore. If you don't feel that…”
Wind visibly deflated at that, letting out a quiet, “Aww.”
Confident that he wouldn't make a run for it, Twilight let go of his tunic and ruffled his hair. Wind swatted at his hand, pretending to be annoyed, though his smile gave him away. “So who's quest is it then?” He asked.
“... It's mine.” The voice came from the back of their group, quiet and low, almost unnoticeable. They all turned to see - Legend, standing with all of his gear already on and packed, a resigned little smile on his face. “I can feel it. … It's for me.”
The silence stretched on for just a little bit too long before Warriors spoke up with a touch of wonder in his voice. “Goddesses, you really never do get a break, do you?”
Legend shrugged. “Getting an adventure in the middle of another one is a new one, I'll admit.”
“That's surprising. I thought you said you did everything already.” Warriors replied, and Legend flipped him off in return as he walked towards the portal.
He was stopped in his tracks by Hyrule running into him and giving him a tight hug. “We'll miss you. Stay safe, okay?”
Surprised, Legend hugged back for a couple of seconds before releasing his successor with a smile. “Nah, you won't miss me. I'll be right back, remember? And don't worry, I always stay safe.”
The others all crowded around him, giving their earnest goodbyes. He was spun around to face Sky, who held a dark navy cloak in his hands. “Here, take this. Sun made some bits of clothing for everybody that she wanted me to give to you guys, and I was going to wait until she sent me the other half to give them out, but you should have this now. I know you've said that the people in your world aren't… the most welcoming, so I hope this can help hide you from them. Maybe that will make things a little easier.”
Legend took the soft and durable-looking fabric out of Sky’s hands, his eyes shining with gratitude. “Thank you,” He said softly, smiling. “And tell Sun I said thank you as well.”
“Come back safely and tell her yourself, yeah?”
Unable to help rolling his eyes a little at that, Legend scoffed as Four pushed a green potion into his hands on top of the cloak. “Guys, I'm going to be fine! This is far from my first adventure, I know how to keep myself safe. Wild didn't get all of this, either!”
“Wild ran straight at the portal against all of our objections,” Twilight pointed out, and the Champion grinned in reply.
Dropping his now stack of bottles into a pouch, Legend quickly fastened the cloak around his shoulders and waved his hands in the air to try to clear the crowd. “Fine, fine! But let me go at least. Her stupid Call is actually starting to hurt.”
At that, they finally cleared, allowing Legend to take a deep breath and start aiming for the portal once more. “Good luck out there! Give them hell,” Warriors called from somewhere behind him.
Legend grinned over his shoulder as he put one foot through the portal. “You know I will.”
-
In the wake of his departure, everything fell silent. Even the ambient forest noise seemed to dull behind them as they waited anxiously for the portal to reappear.
Minutes passed, and it never did.
Finally, Wild broke the silence, his voice uncharacteristically quiet as he clipped and unclipped the mechanism that held his fake arm to his body, a nervous habit of his.“Maybe… he's taking longer than expected?” The excitement was gone now, replaced by a growing feeling of dread and anxiety that only grew as time continued to stretch in with no portal in sight.
“But didn't you spend months in your world and the portal still-”
“Shut up, Wind.” Hyrule snapped, the words coming out harsh enough for Wind to stumble back in surprise. He was right, of course, but none of them wanted to think about that right now.
Overhead, the sun continued its slow march up to the peak of the sky, the shadows shrinking and the heat rising as morning turned to noon and nobody spoke again. The air felt positively stifling.
Eventually, Time turned away from the spot where the portal should have appeared, the first time that any of them had moved more than to breathe the whole morning. His face betrayed nothing of his true feelings as he spoke. “Come on. The Shadow is getting away.”
The words caused an instant uproar, with everybody shouting over each other to be heard. “We're not leaving him!” Hyrule’s voice rose to the top, full of desperation.
“Boys.” Time’s voice was loud and firm, instantly quieting everyone down. “We're not abandoning Legend. But we can't abandon our mission, either. Whatever happens to him is out of our hands now.”
Fire burned in Hyrule's eyes, but he said nothing. He recognized the logic there - even if he didn't want to admit it. “Fine.” He spat, tears burning his cheeks. “But we should have at least given him a full day.”
Sky's hand settled on his shoulder, soft and warm. “Time's right. And it'll be okay… I'm sure Hylia has a plan. He'll be okay.”
All Hyrule could do was nod, praying that was the truth.
Packing was swift and quiet, with none of their usual jokes or easy banter. Not having the vet there - and maybe even worse, not knowing what had happened to him - had all of them in varying states of despair. It hurt to admit that what Time said was true, that they could do nothing to help their brother.
And before any of them knew it, they were on the road again, a somber procession following the trail of the Shadow. They found nothing but faint wisps of shadow on leaves and branches to mark the Shadow’s passing, and the small blackened corpses of small animals, slashed through the middle for seemingly no other reason than its own sick amusement.
Normally, the sight of them would be nothing more than another clue to its whereabouts, albeit a morbid one. But today, Hyrule couldn't stop thinking about Legend, bloodied and lifeless just like them, forgotten alone somewhere with nobody to even bury him. The very thought made him nauseous, and by the looks on his brothers’ faces, they had similar dark thoughts stuck in their heads.
Even that night’s fire seemed to bring back bad memories (“It's my fire rod, fuck you, go pay for your own if you want one so badly.”), the crackling of sparks the only sound within their circle. None of them seemed to know how to fix this, how to keep going when they had lost a brother.
Four was the first one to suggest it, his sad eyes a stunning red - or perhaps that was just the reflection of the fire. “Should we make some sort of a gra-”
“No!” Hyrule shouted, shooting to his feet. “He's not dead.”
“I agree with the Traveller,” Warriors added, his voice rough. “We should wait longer. There's no way of knowing yet whether or not he's…”
“His portal didn't come back.” Four continued, quiet but steady. “What else could that mean?”
Hyrule’s breaths came raggedly as his hands clenched into fists, anger and sorrow flaring in his chest. “Do you fucking want him to be dead? Is that what this is?”
“Woah, woah, let's all calm down here-” Twilight tried, holding up his hands. Nobody listened, and Four stood up as well, looking up at Hyrule with a firm expression.
“Of course I don't want him to be dead. I'm just trying to be realistic here.”
Stepping in the middle of them, Sky gave a weak smile. “We just have to trust that he's okay. Hylia-”
“Fuck Hylia.” Hyrule snarled. “She couldn't let him just be done?” He turned on his heel and stalked away into where the trees grew more thickly, his figure quickly vanishing in the darkness. Four sat back down as Sky’s whole body seemed to drop in defeat.
Someone was crying softly, or perhaps more than one of them was. Warriors groaned and stood up, not saying a word except to shoot a glare at all of their faces lit by flickering firelight as he walked deeper into the forest in the same direction that Hyrule had.
Even though it was dark, he had little trouble finding his way. Hyrule was experienced in travelling through the forest undetected, true, but in his distress he'd still left a trail. The forest closed in on Warriors chokingly as he walked, branches hitting his face and snagging on his tunic. He tried to walk as quietly as he could through the undergrowth, but it was a bit of a lost cause.
Soon, the sound of sobbing made it abundantly obvious where Hyrule was. He was sitting on top of a decently sized rock, curled up with his knees to his chest and crying uncontrollably. Careful not to startle him, Warriors came up from the side and met Hyrule's tearful brown eyes. “If you're here to lecture me…” Hyrule whispered, trailing off.
Warriors shook his head. “I'm not.” Slowly he sat down on the rock beside Hyrule, and after a moment the Traveller broke and leaned over into him, shaking with sobs. Warriors held him there gently, unable to think of anything to say or do that would make this hurt any less. So instead he just let his own tears fall, one after the other, and felt the last spark of hope he had held onto slipping away with them.
-
A couple weeks later, when Wild this time suggested that they make some sort of memorial for Legend, nobody objected. They put together a pile of small objects, little things that still reminded them of him, and left them along with a plaque Sky had carved to beat his name, and left it there. Left it in some deep, forgotten corner of the woods (just like where Legend himself had likely found his final rest, Hyrule couldn't help but think. What had it been? Some simple, stupid mistake? And he was taken from them forever.)
-
After nearly a month without Legend, some semblance of normalcy had begun to settle over their group again. There were still awkward moments - when they all hurt too much or when eight just wasn't enough, but slowly and painfully, they started to try to heal. Laughter returned to their journey, and the sheer relief of the first time that they all started to speak freely and share stories again was felt by every person around the fire that night.
And then, of course, it happened. “Hell, I don't know how you ever show your face in civilized places,” Warriors teased Twilight, who had returned from what should have been a five minute scouting trip with mud all over him, some of it already drying into chunks in his hair. And of course, he hadn't bothered to clean it out more than shaking his head roughly a few times to send some of the mud flying off.
The Rancher just leaned forward and flicked dirt at Warriors, who let out a sound of annoyance as it hit him. “What are you, a wild animal? Never heard of a bath?”
Twilight grinned. “Something like that. Every time you complain, I'm going to wait an extra day before I take one now.”
Making a face, Warriors shook his head. “Does anyone here have a water creation item they want to let me borrow for a second? Vet, I kn-”
He froze, realizing what he said, and everybody else froze with him. Tension seeped thickly into the air as Warriors’ eyes remained fixed on the spot across the campfire from him that shouldn't have been empty. He groaned and slumped forwards, running a hand through his hair. “Shit, I-”
Suddenly, Sky stood up, his eyes fierce. “Fuck Hylia.” He spat, full of venom and hatred.
Nobody argued.
-
And the next day, when they all stepped through the waiting portal, they found themselves in front of Legend's house.