Chapter Text
It was dead silent.
He was dead.
Everyone sat around Flora, Hyrule, and Wild. Just sitting there. Watching. Hoping. Praying.
Their brother was gone. Really gone. No one ever thought this could have happened. Obviously their quest was dangerous, but somebody actually dying? One of their own, one who had a whole life to live after this adventure? He was 17 for Hylia’s sake, he had the world to explore!
Wild had so much he could have done. He still had so many mountains and valleys of his home world to explore. He had people to talk to and horses to tame. He had reckless shots to pull off and dangerous games to play. He had a carefree smile that needed to be shone to the world.
He had people to love, friends to care for, brothers to share his adventure with.
He had a life he still needed to live.
It wasn’t fair. He was still so young. He still had so much to do. His life was taken from him once already, why did fate have to take it again? For 17 years of his life he was stuck as an emotionless guard. And when he finally became free to do as he pleased? He only had less than a year to revel in it.
And now he was gone.
It was a quiet atmosphere. It would almost be peaceful if the group in the clearing weren’t so clearly distressed.
Wind was crying the hardest. He was sniffling and sobbing and buried in Twilight’s fur pelt. Twilight himself was weeping for his lost cub.
Sky was openly crying, holding Four. He scooted closer to Twilight and Wind and the four of them just held on to each other for a long time.
Hyrule still had a hold on Wild’s hand but had turned to Legend and was trying to hide his tears. Legend looked unblinkingly at Wild’s prone face, no tears falling, but grief clearly etched into his face.
Time and Warriors were leaning together, silently crying and taking comfort in the other. They had experienced the loss of people in battle before, but never someone so close. Never before had they experienced the loss of a brother. A son.
Flora held on to Wild. Brushing her fingers through his blond hair and letting her tears drop onto his face.
They sat like that for several minutes. No one moving. No one daring to break the quiet. No one having the strength to try.
Wind turned around in Twilight’s arms, looking at the rest of his brothers instead of suffocating himself in wolf fur. He looked at Wild, still and quiet. A single silent princess laid on his chest. He looked peaceful in that moment, still, quiet, almost glowing.
Wait. He was glowing.
Wild had a blue shimmer to him, which started into flames. Tiny sparks started around the grass and took hold of his tunic, rising into the sky.
“NO! He’s burning!” Wind immediately shouted, escaping Twilight’s grasp and running toward his dead companion, only to be held back by Warriors.
“Sailor, Sailor, he’s fine.” Warriors gently said, trying to hold him.
“But the fire! The fire, can you not see the fire?” Wind asked, looking up at the captain and then back towards where the blue shimmered and disappeared.
“Wind, there’s no fire,” Sky tried reassuring him, only to catch his gaze on something above Wild.
The rest of the group turned to look, and in fact, there was fire. Small blue flames licked up his side and into the air.
They surrounded Flora and Hyrule’s hands where they were near the champion, and crossed over them in their path.
“They’re not, it’s not actual fire,” Hyrule said, lifting up his unburnt hand from where it had held Wild. He swept his hand across the blue glow in awe.
“Guys, look!” Sky said, still looking towards the sky above Wild’s body.
There was another blue glow, coming down from the sky to meet them. It was one of Wild’s zora, with a spear in one hand and a glow in the other.
“Mipha.” Flora gasped, trying to draw closer to the spirit. She held out a hand, and the spirit took it, using it to guide herself down to rest next to the group.
Mipha gave a small nod to the group and a sad, nostalgic smile towards Flora before turning her attention on Wild.
She grabbed his hand, somehow interacting with the world around her. She leaned up to the champion’s face and kissed him softly on the forehead.
“Be healed. And goodbye Link. I’m sorry, but this is the last time I will see you,” She said softly, speaking to Wild.
She didn’t move. She didn’t go back up into the sky or dance off. She simply sat there, holding onto Wild’s hand, as the blue flames licked up her legs and body, finally drifting off into the sky. She went with them, disappearing before their eyes, seemingly for the last time.
The heroes and Flora stared in awe as the blue glow disappeared and they were left once again in the field alone.
Hyrule gasped as he looked down at his hand, which was now resting on Wild’s chest. It was moving. Slowly at first, but steadily going up and down.
Wild was breathing again.
The heroes erupted into chaos. They bustled about, trying to get closer to their fallen companion, to see what was going on.
Wild opened his eyes slowly, squinting at the bright sun above him. His gaze moved around and finally met Flora’s. Flora was still crying slowly, but she had a smile on her face, and he broke into a smile at the sight of her.
Flora grabbed his hand and held it to her chest, clear teardrops dripping down her chin. But they were no longer because of the loss of her friend. It was instead for the miracle she had just seen.
Warriors got to his other side and slid an arm under Wild’s back, helping him to sit up slowly. He was dizzy and uncoordinated at first, but ended up leaning against Warrior’s chest as he looked at the rest of the group, still smiling at them.
There was nothing they could say, all they could do was smile and wipe away the tears as they looked at the miracle they had just seen.
“Link,” Fora said, whispering like any disturbance would shatter him once more.
“Zelda,” Wild smiled back. He leaned closer to her and she caught him in a tight embrace. No one would have been able to separate them before they were ready. They just held each other. The rest of the group closed in, not to crowd them, but to latch onto their now alive brother. To prove for themselves that he was alive.
After a long moment they were ready to go. Warriors ducked under one of Wild’s arms and helped him get to his feet. Whatever had happened clearly took a toll on Wild, he was tired and not able to get around as easily as the others. The group didn’t mind, they would go as slow as he needed.
So they all made their way back through the forest and up to where they had first come out of the portal. Turns out they had landed next to Hatino village. Flora guided them towards where she had been staying and what was apparently Wild’s own house.
“You have a house?!” Wind gasped as soon as they crossed the bridge and he could see the handmade sign Bolson had put outside the door.
“Yeah, I have a house,” Wild chuckled. His voice was quiet and a little hoarse, but it was stronger than the last time he talked.
Flora led them into the building and started moving chairs to sit everyone in the front entrance. Warriors lowered Wild into a chair next to the fireplace and Flora placed herself next to him, grabbing onto his hand like a lifeline.
Hyrule grabbed some handfuls from his pouch and wandered over to Wild’s other side, where he asked if there were any cuts or other injuries.
The stab through his heart had healed, not even leaving a mark, but there were other cuts and bruises where the yiga had hurt him beforehand.
Hyrule grabbed what he needed and started patching Wild up. Legend grabbed some wood to stoke the dying fire with and Twilight went to the kitchen, returning with food for the tired travelers. The rest of the group settled down on the floor or in chairs.
“I think I speak for everyone when I say this,” Legend started, still next to the fire with a log in his hand, “but what in the world did we just witness?”
There was a general murmur of consent, and Wild started fumbling for his words. He was clearly trying to word it in an understandable way, but none of what had happened in the last while had been understandable, so it was quite difficult.
Wind tried to get the conversation started, talking around a mouthful of soup.
“Who was the ghost lady?”
Wild started out of his thoughts. “You guys could see her too?” He asked, clearly surprised.
The heroes nodded again, Flora squeezed his hand. “That was Mipha, wasn’t it?” She asked softly.
“Yeah, that was Mipha,” Wild sighed. He turned to the rest of the group to try to explain it. “Mipha was one of the champions before the calamity. She had the power to heal wounds. When I freed the divine beast in Zora’s domain, I freed her spirit, which had been waiting for me.”
His face fell and he stared intently at the floor. Flora gave his hand another squeeze.
“She decided to stay with the divine beast to help me when I confronted Ganon, but gave me a gift. She said she would always be there for me during my adventure. She healed me when I was to hurt to keep going.
“This wasn’t the first time she’s brought me back.”
The room erupted at that point. Questions flying every which direction and pointed at a variety of topics. When the group settled down a bit, Wild continued.
“Yes, I’ve died more than twice now. When she was with me on my journey it wasn’t quite death though, it was like she caught me right after I technically died, and gave me a push back towards life. It was quick, sometimes I couldn’t tell if I had died or merely passed out.”
More questions were being asked, but he continued on.
“When I killed Ganon, I thought she had left me. The rest of them did, they had stayed with me and fulfilled their promise, and afterwards took their leave. I thought she had left. But I guess she didn’t considering what happened. But I think this was it. I think she really did leave this time.”
He looked towards the floor, stirring the spoon around his bowl of soup. He looked sad, lonely in a way they hadn’t seen before, he clearly missed Mipha, even though he hadn’t known she was still around till very recently.
“She loved me.” he murmured quietly, though only Twilight and Warriors, the two nearest him, actually heard. Twilight put a comforting hand on his back and Wild leaned into the weight, grounding himself.
Warriors sensed that the conversation was over for the moment, “Let Wild rest for a minute guys, you all eat the soup Miss Flora has given us,” he said, smiling at the young princess.
Courses of thank yous and complements about the soup came from each of the heroes as they dug into their meal. You would think that Wild never fed them the way they scooped up their soup and shoved it in their mouths as fast as possible, asking for seconds when they were done.
-
The grass swayed as Warriors walked through the field, making enough noise to alert Wild that he was coming, though he was sure the champion had already heard him, he did have some of the best hearing of the chain.
Wild was sitting on a bench overlooking the pond and the forest below it. His hair blew in the slight wind and his ears pricked up as he caught the sound of Warriors’ steps.
“Can I join?” The captain asked. Wild only nodded in response.
Warriors simply sat on the grass in front of the bench, groaning as his knees protested, but otherwise staying silent.
They sat like that for a long while.
More footsteps started approaching, one heavy and secure and the other lighter but purposeful. Warriors turned his head to see Time and Twilight, now out of their armor and relaxed, walking towards them. He smiled slightly as they made their way over.
Wild’s ears twitched again, but otherwise didn’t react to their presence.
Twilight took a seat on the bench next to Wild as Time sat on the grass opposite of Warriors. He also made a grunt of distaste as his knees creaked and Warriors gave him a smile of sympathy, they had both gotten old.
They sat in silence for a long moment.
“Wild, can we ask you something?” Twilight started, uneasy, but earnest.
Wild shrugged.
“What’s been going on?”
Wild made a noise of confusion and cocked an eyebrow at Twilight before looking back into the woods below him.
“You sacrificing yourself. You’ve done it for all of us, and now Flora. Wild-” Twilight’s voice cracked, “Wild, you died.”
“Yeah,” Wild said softly.
“What’s going on Wild?” Warriors prodded gently.
“It’s, well, it’s kinda from my training.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck and fiddling with the hems of his pants.
“My knight training,” He clarified a few moments later.
Time and Warriors sighed, that’s been the problem, the knight training. They had both been in wars, they knew what happened, but it’s different for every person.
“They told you to sacrifice yourself for Flora, didn’t they?” Warriors guessed, cursing every knight institution he could think of aside from Sky’s. He had been told the very same thing before he was found out as the hero.
Wild nodded slowly.
“Wild, I know that was your training, I know you still have that instinct, but you don’t have to do that for us.” Time said, “We’re all heroes here, and we want to keep you safe as much as you want to keep us safe.”
“You don’t have to do that anymore, okay? Not for us.” Twilight added.
Wild nodded again minutely.
The three didn’t prod him any further, they were all familiar with the logic, after all. They all would have, or once did, throw themselves in front of someone to save their life. They knew it was the hero mindset, they knew they couldn’t stop Wild however much they talked, but they tried anyway. It was hypocritical in a way, but what was the hero’s spirit if not giving others care and advice while ignoring it yourself?
“Just, keep yourself safe Wild.”
A tear slipped down his cheek as he smiled.
“Okay.”