Chapter Text
Wild was having a bad day. Why was he having a bad day? Because when was Wild not having a bad day.
It started off as it usually did - with him waking up from an awful nightmare that caused him to scream and thrash in his sleep. But instead of getting immediately comforted as he needed to be, everyone just patted him in the back and went to work.
It made him feel very unloved. But why would he be unloved? Other than being an absolute failure, of course.
He gasped!
His scars were probably the reason! Of course - how could anyone here not be appalled and disgusted by his failure that was quite literally marked on his face?
And with that extremely rational leap in logic, Wild pulled his hood over his face to hide from everyone. As he did, he could feel his throat closing up. He was too disgraced to say a single word now.
Silently, he made breakfast. Cooking is the only thing that can make him feel useful so he served some oatmeal with a smile despite the burning hot self-loathing within him.
“Mm!” Hyrule said as he ate. “Wild this is delicious!”
Wild smiled happily. At least he could do this one thing right.
“Hey, Wind. Can you pass me the salt?”
“Mmm? Yeah, here.”
Wild’s heart shattered into a thousand pieces.
Did hyrule not like his cooking after all? He just said he did, but then he asked for salt. Oh no! Did Hyrule secretly hate his cooking, and thus Wild, and was only pretending to like the oatmeal?!
Wild felt tears start welling up in his eyes. He knew it! No one could ever love someone - no, something like himself!
He jumped to his feet and Ran, ignoring everyone’s calls. He didn;t belong here after all! He could only ever belong in one place: the wild!
By the time he stopped running he had already made a vow to never ever go back to them. He didn’t have a place there with his ugly scars and long list of failures. He sobbed and sobbed. Then sobbed some more.
“Uh, Wild?”
Wild picked his head up to see Twilight standing nearby, looking very confused.
“Everything okay?” The rancher asked hesitantly, “You alright?”
No, nothing was alright! Wild couldn’t even run away properly. He cried and waved Twilight off, determined to be left alone.
“Can you tell me what’s wrong?” Twilight only got closer, reaching out to him.
Wild was suddenly scared that Twilight would hurt him. Despite nothing ever pointing to that and in fact plenty of evidence to the contrary, Wild pulled out a weapon to defend himself.
“Whoa!” Twilight took a step back, “Uh, you mind putting that down? I just want to talk.”
Talk? Wild couldn’t. He mimed not being able to speak.
“No talking? Okay, that’s fine. How about we sign?”
Wild suddenly felt his arms lock up. No, he couldn’t do that either. It was too much for him as he was so overwhelmed by Twilight’s calm and quiet demeanor. He shook his head.
“No?” Twilight dropped his hands. “Okay. How about yes or no questions only then. That alright?”
Egad! Wild suddenly felt his neck stiffen up. He was overwhelmed yet again! Twilight’s mere presence was too much! Despite the fact that he’d been perfectly capable of communicating just three seconds ago, Wild now found himself unable to do anything.
“Uh, Wild?” Twilight was realy confused now.
Just then, a familiar roar carried over the treetops.
Wild gasped at the sound.
A Lynel!
And it sounded like it was heading straight for the camp!
Wild burst into action, sprinting past Twilight without a word.
The others, Wild knew, could not handle a Lynel. They were simply too powerful for a party of seven heroes who had faced countless unknown threats before! No, the only one equipped for this battle was Wild!
Wild burst into the clearing the moment hte Lynel did.
He saw on the other side of the clearing the heroes were armed and ready. It looked like they were already in formation to fight the Lynel. Warriors was calling out positions while Legend was telling everyone what a Lynel is.
Twilight burst out the treeline right behind Wild and joined in, telling the group what one of Wild’s lynels were like and what their battle moves were, since he had seen them before as Wolfie and knew everything Wild knew.
Despite this, Wild knew that they could still not handle the fight. He drew out a fire rod and lit the grass on fire between them and the lynel to make sure the others would be safe.
“WILD WHAT THE FUCK?!” Wind screamed as he ran from the fire.
The heroes all scattered, some of them screaming and smoking as the fire licked their clothes. Meanwhile, Wild jumped at the Lynel now that the others were safe..
He ducked and fought, breaking weapon after weapon on it’s tough hide.
But before he could finish it, the other heroes joined him in battle.
“Champion I don’t know what the Fuck has gotten into you but we are going to have a serious discussion about it later!” Warriors growled, directing Wind to use his boomerang to stun the Lynel while Time and Twilight went in to do some damage. In just a few short minutes the Lynel was dead, having been absolutly no threat to a party of nine experienced heroes.
Wild, instead of celebrating, cried into the dirt when Warriors started to lecture him about friendly fire.
“Jeeze, Cap,” Wind said as he wandered over to watch Wild have a breakdown, “What did you say to the poor guy?”
“I just told him it was a stupid idea to set the field on fire while we were standing in it. If Legend and Four hadn;t had those ice rods we might have been burnt to death.” Warriors told him. “I wasn’t even that harsh about it, all things considered. I didn’t even get a word out before he started to cry.”
That made Wild cry even harder. But this time not because he felt unworthy. Now it was because the captain was being so cruel to him. How could he? Wild knows that he was unhelpful, uncooperative, and maybe even downright dangerous to the party - but did that really make it okay for the captain to scold him? As if he were a child?
Suddenly Wild became angry and stood up.
“None of you respect me,” He declared, filled with righteous fury, “You all don’t trust me. You didn’t even trust me to handle one of my own monsters without jumping in. But you are wrong about me. I am not a failure.”
“We didn’t say you were?” The captains brow furred in unhidden confusion, “And jumping in to help you fight a monster isn’t the same as not trusting you? It would be just really stupid to have a bunch of us sitting on the side while you fought for your life. I mean, this is just common sense here buddy.”
Wild ignored him and continued his rant. “I killed the Calamity and survived being killed. I endeavor to survive even without my memories except in those rare moments when my memories come back, but those don’t count because I only ever get back sad memories anyway. I live with my scars and my failures on my face and I refuse to be ashamed of it despite being ashamed of it like an hour ago”
“...What the actual fuck are you talking about?” Wind asked with a deadpan expression. “You never had a problem with your scars before, anyway. Wasn’t there literally a comic about that very thing? You know, where you subverted everyone’s expectations and were actually not sensitive about it at all?”
Again Wild ignored him. “I am the best archer here and the best survivalist too. I deserve beter than to be treated like a stupid kid who doesn’t know how to live without you. And I won’t stick around here and be treated like a second class hero. “
He marched off into the distance, settled with his decision to leave everyone who treated him horribly behind. He wandered off into the wildness, never to be seen again.