Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I was just taking a stroll in the forest like any normal Hylians would do when a portal appeared in front of me. I take a step back, only able to stare at it.

A normal Hylian might have run to get one of the useless guards—or if they had any braincells left in their brain, they would get Link—and never go into the forest again.

But I barely count as a Hylian, so I don't. I'm technically a sword spirit if anything, but I like to call myself a shadow, since that's how I meant to be, at least.

Even though normal shadows don't have a physical form like I do, I can still melt into the ground just as easily, and turn into a spirit—or as I jokingly call it, my ghost form—at command.

But I don't like my spirit form that much, so sometimes I would just go into my sword—which is a replica of the Four Sword that I always have on me—instead. But it is fun to be able to phrase through walls, so not like I absolutely hate it.

Wait, where was I again? Ah yeah, the portal!!

I can feel—and see—that it's made out of dark magic. Why would this be in the middle of the forest? Link was here yesterday and he didn't see one, and it didn't look like he was lying about there being nothing special either.

Who would make this then? Vaati is sealed, Ganon's dead, and I have no recollection of making this either. The only other person that could make this would be Vio, but Link wasn't split when he came home yesterday. He could have split in the forest, but why?

And I know making a portal takes a lot of magic, so unless he brought some magic potions with him, there's no way he wouldn't come home exhausted.

I should go back home and ask him about it. He needs to be ready to fight a new evil bad guy if this isn't him doing a prank on me. Having some kind of warning before their girlfriend gets kidnapped and/or turned to stone again would be nice.

Oh Demise, what if they split again but now into 8. How much bigger would be need to make the house? Our 2 rooms barely fit all 5 of us...but that's mostly because I always sleep in their room and not mine.

I begin to go out of the Minish forest, thankful that it doesn't take too long to go from the house from here. I hope they don't get too scared by the appearance of a random portal.

But before I can properly leave, the portal appears right in front of me. First off, rude. Second, why the fuck is it following me?

"Oi, can you like...piss off?", I ask the portal. I know it can't talk, but better to try than give up immideatly. Sadly, it doesn't move.

I try to move around it, but it only moved to block my way. I can feel the magic tugging on me, wanting me to go in. I sigh, glaring at it.

"One moment, portal. Can't I go and speak with my brothers before you kidnap me?", I say to it, knowing it can't listen anyways.

I walk through the portal in silence, sad that I couldn't even say goodbye to Link.

I come out the other side in one piece, and the portal immideatly closes. I sigh, looking around to see that I'm in another forest, yet none of the magic from the Minish is here. Instead, it feels like fae magic, but I could be wrong.

This doesn't look like anywhere me and Link have been. Did I somehow time travel? No no, I couldn't...

"That dark Lizalfos went this way, right?"

"I sure hope so."

"Why did it have to go into the Korok forest? Do you think we'll find it again?"

"We have to try, at least."

Fuck, why is there people here? Also, what's a Korok? Definetly not from where I live. Shit, did I actually time travel?!

I hide behind a nearby tree, hoping they didn't see me earlier. Considering that I don't look like a normal Hylians at the moment—or at least a very evil one—it would be a death wish to reveal myself since they don't know me from before.

Fuck, what do I do?

...Wait, can't I just make myself look like a normal Hylian? Ah, I'll just make myself look like Link! Well, maybe leave out his weird hair choice, but otherwise it'll be perfect!!

It's quite easy to change my appearance—my clothes are all made out of dark magic so they would preserve even if I went into my sword. My hair is styled with it too, since I can't be bothered to use gallons of hair gel to make it point up every day.

Now, I just let my hair down naturally. Sadly, I decide to make it blond like Link's, even if it's uglier that way. Finally, I make my outfit an exact replica of Link's, but have it it be yellow instead of multi coloured.

By Demise do I not look good in yellow...

I begin to look around the forest, not hearing their voices anymore. Maybe they left? Well, they were searching for something—uhh, a black Lizalfos?—so they could have already found it.

Link never had to fight one, but I've met one of them—though it wasn't black—whilst I was residing in the dark world before being summoned by Vaati to fight against Link. The Lizalfos were hard to fight, due to it always blocking my attacks and easily avoiding those that didn't hit his steel armor.

I sigh, shaking my head to stop myself from thinking about that abomonation. I start walking towards a random direction, as I can't see any exit near here, nor can I hear anyone or anything to give me a clue on where to go.

It's hard to see where I'm going, as everything is foggy...

I walk and walk and walk. Why aren't I out of the forest already? And did those other Hylians truly leave the forest already?

But I continue onward, not really having any choice. But before long, I hear a screech. Shit, what was that?! Was one of the Hylians hurt? Well, they probably deserved it for trying to fight something likely stronger than them, but I should check it out.

I run towards where I heard the sound, and instead of Hylians, I find the black Lizalfos standing infront of a half circle portal—one that looks identical to the one I went into earlier. And it's bleeding...black blood?

It stares at me. I stare back, clutching my sword, ready to attack at any moment. The Lizalfos looks almost smug, but it dissapears as we both hear yells from the forest.

"Oi, come back here you fuckin' overgrown lizard!", I yell at him, and almost enter the portal before one of the voices stops me.

"What do you think you're doing?", someone asks, and I look to my side to see a Hylian man pointing his sharp sword at him.

"Chasing after that Lizalfos, duh. It looked like trouble, and I heard you guys talking about it earlier.", I answer truthfully, putting my sword away as I hope they don't attack. But I can just heal the cut if they do anyways, so it isn't that big of a deal.

"So you were spying on us?", another Hylian says, one with a blue scarf. And also blonde. Why are all the Hylians here blond or browned haired—and even one with partially pink. Where's all the black hair love?

"Nope. I had just gone through a random portal that wouldn't leave me alone, and I wanted to leave this weird forest as fast as possible. And it's not like I could follow you guys, since I could only hear your voices.", I respond, giving them a look. I'm guessing they're adventureres or something, but why so many? I haven't seen a group of 8 together like this ever, and the age gap is...weird.

...Unless he's just short, like how I and Link are. But at least Link looks kinda older, this kid looks barely 13, even if I'm not counting his height.

"Let me guess, your name is Link and you're a hero?", the kid asks, and I look at him suprised. Technically my name is Shadow Link, so saying that my name is Link wouldn't be a lie, per se...

"How'd ya know?", I ask. Why would they guess that I'm a hero too? I only know of 2 heroes before Link—The hero of Men and hero of the Sky—and neither looked like me. At most we were all blonde, but they all wore a green tunic, like Green does!

"Because we're all named Link, and are all heroes!", the kid says happily. What do you mean all 8 of them are heroes? Oh, that has to be bullshit!

"We also went through a portal, which is how we met. And if you're the same as us, it seems you don't really have much of a choice in believing in us.", another guy—hero?—says, and I immideatly notice his scarring. What monster can do so much damage?

"Now, for introductions. My name is Link, but I—all of us—go by our hero titles, and mine is Time. What's yours?", the old man says, and I take a moment too long to think of mine.

"I'm the hero of the Shadows! It's nice to meet you all!", I say with a grin, slightly worried at how they'll react at the name. I mean, it can't be that bad compared to theirs...right?

"So your name will be Shadows, then. Glad to have you in the team.", he says with a smile, and I look at him confused.

"Can't I just be called Shadow instead of Shadows? Having it be plural sounds weird.", I say, and he nods, but not without getting a glare from the guy with the blue scarf.

"Why can he be singular and I can't? You mean to tell me that I could just be Warrior instead of Warriors?", he says, and the others starts laughing.

I simply sigh, accepting my fate. Demise, have mercy...

We're finally out of that cursed forest, and we're following a small path to the nearest stable when I see a weird hole in the ground with a weird red...liquid around it.

"Don't touch that, it's gloom.", Wild says nonchalantly, and I look at him confused. What the fuck is gloom?

"And no jumping in the hole.", Twilight says, looking at Wind, who only pouts. Why would he willingly jump in there?...Though if I had the choice, I likely would also do that.

Still, I wonder what gloom does. Is it deadly?

It doesn't take long to get to the stable, and Wild quickly checks us in. Not being able to sleep at home feels weird, but at least we're not in that weird magic forest anymore.

I sigh. I don't really know how to act around these heroes. I likely have to to act like myself for the most part—it would be too much effort to take everything about me and keep it consistent, after all. But still, I know there's some things I can't do.

I can't prank them by going into their shadow, I can't help them with reaching things up high as I can't shapeshift, I can't curse on Demise and ask for duels, and so on it goes.

But even with that, I feel suprisingly safe with them. It's clear that we all have our secrets, and it seems none care enough to pry. And though I'm quite curious about what they have to hide, I respect them enough to not ask—at least until I'm ready to reveal some of mine.

"I can't believe you actually cut down a tree with a sword again.", the man in the Wolf pelt says, bringing me back to the present. He's talking to the hero with the green arm—Wild, I believe?—who's holding the damaged blade from earlier when a weird walking tree arrived. If Link was here I don't think Wild would even be alive at all.

I think over all the heroes here and they are definitely not what I expected. I thought they would be more like Green—or even red: Compassionate, passionate, a bit too fearless, and a born leader.

And yes, some have those traits—especially the fearless one—but they're all so much more than that. They all remind me of my brothers in some ways, even if I would rather not think about them right now, seeing as I likely can't meet them for a while.

I look around camp, and notice the kid hiding behind a big tree, having a shit eating grin on his face. Time's sitting by the tree and have clearly noticed him, but he doesn't seem to care much about getting pranked.

I can see Warriors and Legend bickering over something by the tables, and I wonder what they're talking about. At least they don't seem to be angry at each other, so it shouldn't be too important.

And by one of the other tables is Sky and Hyrule. I was suprised to find out about Sky, since he's the only one out these heroes that I've heard of before. I hope it wasn't obvious during the introductions...

It seems they're reading a book—a quite old one at that, judging by the creasing—but by what Time told me, they can't read each other's languages. Maybe it's an art book? There seems to be a drawing of a flower on the cover, so it could be the case...

"Hey, Shadow! Wanna come over here?", Sky says, and I come over, even if confused. Maybe they want to talk about the book with me?

"What are you two reading? I thought you couldn't read each other's languages.", I ask, sitting down besides Hyrule, who was holding the book in question.

"That's true, but I can just translate what it says anyways.", Hyrule says. Is it bad that I didn't think about that? I'll just chock that up to being partially illiterate.

"What's the book about anyways? Flowers?", I ask, and he shrugs.

"Technically. It's about herbs and plants! I live in the wild, so it's important to remember what I can and can't eat. We were both looking over my notes to see if we have any plants that were similar or the same, or if he has any new ones that I could write down.", I nod as Hyrule speaks, suprisingly intruiged. Though I'm not one to really care about those things much—that's more of Vio's thing—but it can be a good thing to know if we need to forage. Maybe the Minish have a list I can borrow as well?

"I'm lucky that I don't need to forage. I likely would have died hundreds of times over if I did.", I joke. I look at the drawings, and the mushrooms look practically identical. How can they even tell the difference?

"How do you get your food, then? Do you buy from local shops?", Sky asks.

"For the most part, yeah. But sometimes one of my brothers likes to go fishing or hunting, but most is just bought from the town.", I answer. Sometimes I join Vio or Blue as well, but I apparently scare of the fishes and deer too much to really be helpful.

"You have brothers?", Hyrule asks. Shit. What do I want to say about them?

"Yeah.", I say, and thankfully he doesn't pry.

These heroes are too nice. Kind of a pity, honestly. Not having anyone to bicker with anyone yet is boring, even if it's only been 2 hours or so.

It's the next morning, and after sleeping—even though I technically don't need to—and going outside to start my morning--

...There's a wolf?

There is a wolf sleeping by the big tree, and Wild is happily cuddling with the animal, also seemingly asleep. I stare at it, only stunned for a moment before looking at Legend with a questionning look.

"The wolf? That's Wolfie.", he says without batting an eye. Wolfie, really? By Demise, they're almost as bad at naming things as Red!

"It's not bitey, right?", I ask. Let's hope Link doesn't meet it, as he would have ran away the second he saw it. Link has gotten better at being with animals—and he isn't really scared of normal dogs either—but a feral animal like a wolf? Not a chance.

"He's not unless you try to hurt him.", Legend says, walking over to the pair to wake them up. Though Wild complains, he gets up rather quickly. The wolf stands up as Wild leaves him, now happily stretching.

"Oi, Wolfie. Come and say hi to Shadow.", Legend says, and I go over to the Wolf, crouching down to his level. Now that I can get a good look at him, he has the same markings on his face as Twilight. I can practically feel the dark magic surrounding him as well.

I take out my hand, letting him sniff me. Instead of that, however, he immideatly puts his head in my hands, and I start to pet him slowly. I move my hand to scratch his ear, and he seems to like that as his tail starts to wag.

He's suprisingly clean for a Wolf. Do the others clean him when he visits? Wait, if he's made of dark magic like me, couldn't he just clean himself like I do?

"Is this just a random Wolf that joins us sometimes?", I ask, and it almost looks like the Wolf is grinning.

"It's Twilight's Wolf, but don't know much about him.", he answers, giving the Wolf a look. Yeah, the Wolf is definetly Twilight. Why won't they just say it outright, though? Eh, it doesn't matter too much anyways.

"Do you know how to ride a horse?", Wild asks me. I shake my head, and he only nods

"You can ride with either me or Twilight.", he says. Where are we even going? I wish I had my dragon, since then it would be way easier. I hope she's doing well, since I haven't seen her in a while...

"Where are we going?", Twilight asks.

"Lookout Landing! It's about 4 hours from here, but we may need to stop to fight, as there's some monsters on the path.", he says. Ugh, let's hope the monsters aren't too strong.

We don't need to wait long until they get the horses, and I get to meet Twilight's horse, Epona. Is this his era than?

Thankfully, Epona doesn't make a fuss about me like most animals. I still kind of wonder why, but I do look different than usual now, so that could be a reason she doesn't mind me.

We start our journey to "Lookout Landing" without anymore problems, and I look over the landscape in awe. It's so...big! It's not like my era is small, but this just feels so different.

I look at the sky, seeing multiple floating...islands. Well, we do have some back home too, so it shouldn't be too suprising.

I hate being up there, though. After defeating Ganon and Vaati, I've gotten scared of heights due to being up in that tower. How come Zelda—who was literally trapped there—didn't get a phobia yet I did? Well, I don't want to her to have one, but still!

I clutch a little harder on Twilight's tunic, but I hope he doesn't notice.

After around 5 hours, we arrive at Lookout Landing, thankfully no one being heavily injured after the fights. How did not one get hit by a Boulder by that rock monster Wild called a Talus? If the colours were here, one of them would definitely be hit.

"Linky! Good to see that you're back!", someone tells out, and we all look for who it is, forgetting that she isn't talking to us.

"Oh, are those the same heroes as last time? Good to see them again!", she asks, and Wild simply nods. She looks over at us, confused for a second.

"Wasn't there only 8 last time?", she asks.

"We actually got a new Link yesterday!", he says happily, and I give her a sheepish smile, a bit emberessed.

"I'm Shadow, nice to meet you.", I say, and she looks me up and down, inspecting me.

"Another kid? I thought that 1 was enough.", she says. I know I look like a kid, but really?

"I'm actually 20.", I say, and she simply shrugs.

"Everyone's a kid to a 128 year old."

Yeah, I'm not going to question that.

She shows us around, introducing us to many people who clearly aren't Hylian. Is that a walking zora?? Big birds? Well, I at least recognize the Gorons, but even the people with the white hair are unknown. Is this a normal hair colour now?

Finally, we get to the little meeting room. Can all 10 of us even fit?

But before we can enter, a blonde woman with horns and a whole ass scaley tail comes out. Even her eyes are weird, being purple and yellow.

"Hey Zelda, found anything out in there?", Wild jokes, and I take a second to understand what he said. That's Zelda? I mean, she definitely looks cool, but I expected her to look like a normal Hylian.

The princess—is she even a princess?—simply rolls her eyes, her horns lighting up for a moment.

"No 'hey how are you my dear friend?'", she jokes, but her smile quickly goes turns into a frown.

"And to answer that question, no. We've been tracking the known appearances on the black blooded monsters, and there's little to no correlation with where they are. The only thing we know is that they haven't been reported again until recently. They dissapear around 2 weeks after you guys come here, and appear 2 weeks before you guys arrive.", she says, leading us into the small room, it having a map on the wall with lots of notes.

"That's...weird.", I mumble, and that seems to capture her attention.

"Wait, who're you?", she asks confused, and Wild lets out a snort. Wow, rude.

"I'm Shadow, one of the new Links. I met them yesterday.", I say with a grin, but her frown only grows deeper.

"Hero of the Shadow...Another hero I haven't heard of. That makes 2 of you, then.", honestly, I would be more suprised if she had heard of me. I'm not really a true hero, as most common people call me a monster and I can only be in town because of Link. But it's to be expected after what I've done.

"Have you heard of the hero of Minish or Four Swords? Or the hero of Men?", I ask. It'll be more dissapointing to know if my brothers' titles would be lost time time, as they deserve to be remembered more than me...And it would also be cool to know if they know anything more about the hero of Men, since I've only heard fairytales at most.

"I'm sorry, but no, I haven't.", she says, and I do my best to keep smiling. I don't want to make her sadder by revealing my dissapointment. It's not her fault their story got lost in time, after all.

"Though I have heard of the word Minish—a forest by Korok forest was named after it. Do you know what it means?", she asks, and my jaw drops. No no, maybe they just just know them as Picori...

"Have you heard a Picori?", I ask, and she shakes her head, mumbling something about a lake. Are they extinct, or are they so old that they never saw them and didn't believe when kids told them?

"Well, um--they're like the same size as a mouse—no, even smaller—and they have a little tail and ears. They often leave small gifts in the grass, or in pots. And usually only kids can see them.", I say, going off of what I remember Link saying about them and what I know from when I met them. Ugh, I wish I could draw them so I could show how adorable they are.

"Can you still see them?", Wild asks me, and I nod. If you're small enough then you can always see them, so it's easy enough for me to go and meet them whenever I want. But I can always see them in any form either way.

"How?"

"Magic."

The conversation continues around me, but I stay quiet. How much have changed? I don't know how long it's been since my era, nor if this is before or after mine. Everything's so...weird.

I hold in my sigh, and I can feel some of the heroes staring a hole in the back of my head. I can't exactly stop them, but I give them a look, and they thankfully stop.

They can stare as much as they want later, but when they're still talking, I would rather they not.

It's night time already, and it's hard to fall asleep. I was allowed to use the bed top floor of the small house we met Zelda—or as we now call her, Flora—with Hyrule sleeping on the other side of the 'curtain'. Along with him, Time and Warriors have rolled out their bedrolls on the floor right under mine. How do they both even fit in there? It's so tiny!

In the bunker lay Wind, Sky, and Legend. Wild—along with Twilight—decided to dissapear out of thin air, going back to Wild's home to sleep. I tried asking how it worked, but none of them knew either. Oh, how Vio would go crazy over that.

Speaking of Vio...I miss him. All of the colours, honestly. They're my brothers, even if we didn't grow up together. Well, we technically did.

I would lay in his shadow, being unable to do anything, be it moving or talking. I would hear and watch everything he did, and I loved it...to some extent.

It was painful to be ignored for so long. I hated no one knowing of my existence, even if I shouldn't be there in the first place. It is one of the reasons I was on the evil side in the beggining, after all.

Even whilst I wasn't watching over Link, I was being ridiculed over in the dark world. Shadows were seen as lesser and weak, no one appreciating us for what we were outside of that.

I'm glad that I'm not stuck as one again. If I was I think I would've gone crazy. When you get a lick of freedom, you never want to let go, after all.

I sigh, a bit sad that I can't even look out a window. Should I just turn into my spirit form to easily go and get some fresh air, or just teleport? It could work, but I would rather not accidently reveal anything to the others just yet.

I mean, I could just walk outside like a normal person. But that would likely just wake them up. If the colours are light sleepers, these heroes surely are as well.

I'm thankful that I don't need to actually sleep, else I'd be dead on my feet tommorow. What are we even going to do tommorow? I honestly didn't pay attention to what the cool Zelda talked about.

Speaking of Zelda...I wonder if she and Link are looking for me? I dissapeared without warning, so unless no time is passed between me leaving and me going back, they likely think I'm dead or at least heavily injured.

"...Shadow?", Hyrule mutters, and I jump. I did not let out a small sqeall, not at all.

"Sorry, did I wake you?", I whisper, but he only shakes his head, rubbing his eyes as he's clearly tired.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?", he asks, and I give him a sheepish smile. I should, but I'm not very good at being logical. At least according to Vio.

"I just couldn't sleep. My brain is busy trying to....understand everything that's happening right now, so unlikely I'll get any sleep tonight.", I answer, still making sure my voice is quiet. I would rather not wake up the two under us, after all.

"I understand. Took a while for me to comprehend everything too.", he says. I wish I could see his face, but we still have the small barrier between us, and I don't care enough to move it.

"You know, I remember when I first went through the portal. Well, it was only a few months ago, so it shouldn't be hard to forget. Anyways, the only other one there was Legend, and guess what we did?"

"I dunno, talked?"

"Nope! We had a fist fight—that I won, actually.", I can hear his grin, and I can't help but let out a small chuckle at the idea of them fighting. I don't really know how close they truly are, but they were talking with each other quite a bit at the stable, along with Hyrule sharing a horse with him to get here.

"Honestly would have likely fought one of you guys if you came alone.", I confess. What else would I do if I came 1 to 1 with them? I look evil, so though I would have rather not, they would have definetly picked fight before anything else.

"Really? You don't really seem like the type. I don't think any of us would fight you, since at least half of them would mistake you as a child.", I gasp. Do I really look that much like a child.

"I'm not that short...right?"

"You're shorter than Wind."

"And?!"

"He's 15."

"...He doesn't count."

We spent a big chunck of the night talking, but we both eventually fell asleep. Having someone to talk to casually is...fun. I can do that with my brothers, but it doesn't really feel the same as I know so much about them already.

I know all the stories grandpa and father told him when he was young. I know how he almost lost his fingers thrice in one day. I have to know, since I was there, looking at him through his shadow.

But it was extra cool as I find out something we share in common.

"My home...isn't the greatest, to be honest. The water and plants are often poisonous, the people are usually rude, and they won't let me inside of towns. I even live in a cave which could collapse any second! But...home is still home, you know. I've watched the land and people heal ever since I became a hero, and I can't help but feel proud."

How he talks about his home reminds me of the dark world. Though the lands tricks visitors or people trapped there into thinking it has everything they desire even though it does not, it doesn't try with us who was born and raised there.

The land and the people living in it is cruel. We have to actively fight for survival, and the weak ones get left in the dust the moment they become a burden. I'm thankful that I didn't need to live there constantly, but all the times I was there to get re-stock on magic was...not pleasant to say the least.

Obviously, his era is definitely better than my dark world, and I'm thankful for that. There's no healing the dark world, as all the monsters care about is to survive.

But still...I wonder if one day it can be a home I'm proud of. If one day, it wasn't the strong versus weak. If, one day, I can say I was born and partially raised there with a smile.

But I only shake my head at the though. It may happen in the far, far future, but certainly not now.

"Hyrule to Shadow?", Wild says, waving his hand infront of my face. I blink, only now noticing I had spaced out.

"Sorry.", I say with a sheepish smile. I didn't space out for too long, right?

"It's fine. Anyways, we're going to Goron village to check out some reports from the locals. And after that, we're going back to Korok forest to check out if the portal is still there.", he says. At least I know what a Goron is, so I thankfully don't need to ask...But why would we go back to that forest? Won't we just get lost?

"We have two options for getting there. Teleportation or going by foot. They can't seem to decide on either, so which do you want?", am I seriously being the one left with the decision?! Ugh, I should have left my room earlier...

"What does teleportation even feel like?", I ask. I can't really make good judgement if I don't anything about it. I have teleported before, but never for any long distances, and even so I didn't really feel it. Though it did make me a bit nasious after I did a few too many times in a row.

"Good question! I...don't really know how to describe it, to be honest. It's like melting but it doesn't hurt?", he explains, which doesn't help his case at all. But...

"I would rather not be on a horse for another 5 hours again, so I'm for teleportation.", I can see some—Legend and Hyrule especially—sigh at my desicion. I'm sorry, but holding onto Twilight for 5 hours isn't very fun.

"Everything packed?", Time asks, and thankfully everyone nods. It's not like we have a lot with us—I have literally only my sword and magical hairclip, not even a single rupee!—so I'm ready as ever.

It doesn't take long for Wild to take out a weird...thing. What even is that?! And how does it work? Ugh, I'm becoming like Vio with all these questions.

"Ready?", he asks, and before anyone can even respond, he puts his finger into the thing and we all dissapear. I blink and see a pair of trees and recognize the big rock monument from yesterday. It really did feel like melting!

I feel fine, but some of the others clearly aren't. By Demise let's hope they don't puke...

"Who's staying back to make sure Legend and Hyrule will be fine?"

"We don't need babysitter—well, at least I don't!"

"Legend, both of you look like you're gonna pass out.", Warriors says, but Legend only rolls his eyes.

"So, who's going to stay with them?"

"I can. Sky, you wanna stay too? I know you don't like going up there.", Twilight says, and Sky simply smiles, seemingly agreeing.

"Wind, you're staying down here incase we need to talk to you guys when we're up there. Shadow, do you want to join us or?", Wild asks, but I get a little distracted from Wind pouting. How is he the link (heh) between us?

"I think I would rather stay here. I don't like big, hot places.", I know the Gorons usually lives in places like death mountain, and it only reminds me of when I tried to kill Vio.

It isn't long before they depart and dissapear into a weird blue...thing. Was that how it looked when we teleported?

We help Hyrule down to the stable, though he looks emberessed as his balance is all out of wack. It reminds me of how I first was when shapeshifted into another creature and then back to my Hylian form. All disorinted and regretting the decision. Thankfully I have that under control by now.

And Legend doesn't look the best even if he's better at hiding it. He's holding his other arm and looks quite pale. I would offer to give some support, but—if he's anything like Blue—he'll just say no and go back to pretending. I would simply force him to accept it, but we're not friends yet, so the others can do it if they wish.

We finally sit down at the stable, Twilight checking us in. I know they've been here before, but are they so used to the people and area already? Or at least Twilight is, as he looks to be closer to Wild from the little I've seen.

Ugh, why am I suddenly using my brain now? I should not be the one with the braincell. Can I give it to Vio through throwing it in the portal again? Or is it lost forever?

"Did you also feel sick after teleporting?", Twilight says, now right in my face.

"Huh? Ah no, I'm just really good at zoning out."

"We've noticed.", Legend says, and I can feel his scowl. How many times have I zoned out these past 3 days?

I look over at Wind once Twilight leaves me be, seeing him talk to Hyrule very expressively. I bet if he and Red, they would hit it off right away. Red almost feel like an older version of him anyways—at least from what I've seen.

I look over to where Sky, Legend, and now Twilight are sitting. I wonder what they're talking about? I would simply sit over to them and ask, but that would be weird and awkward. Just because I'm quite socially inept does not mean that I don't know anything, even if it feels like it.

How long are Wild and the others going to be gone anyways? It's barely been a few minutes, but I'm already bored out of my mind. Should I have gone up there with them? No no no, it would likely be worse than whatever this is.

I sigh, silently hoping they don't take much longer than necessary.

Me and Twilight stand by the weird hole in the ground, and I really want to touch the red stuff. This body can't really be hurt—though it can feel pain—but they don't know that, so I refrain.

"I don't know much about this, but Wild told us it happened during his second adventure. Ganondorf woke up, made the castle float with the powers of this gloom stuff, and then a lot of holes with gloom around them appeared. And at the bottom you get to a place called the depths, which is filled with gloom.", he explains. That's...weird.

"Sounds like a pain.", I respond. What else can I say? I'm honestly a bit suprised that he agreed to explain it to me. He seems like the guy that wouldn't even let us look at it, nevertheless stand right beside it.

I look over at the forest. Weren't we supposed to check up on the portal too? We could easily check up on it now, as it seems Legend and Hyrule seem fine by now.

"By the way, are we going to check up on that portal?", I ask, and he looks conflicted.

"I would rather wait until Wild comes back. It's easy to get lost in the forest if you don't know the way. Especially with the fog.", I simply shrug. When I was there it was hard to see anything, and I'm thankful I manage to get to them before they left.

But I did notice some living creatures in the forest. They looked like leaves, but I noticed the were moving and had small bodies. I didn't approach them, though. Do they speak the same language as Minish? Hope they do, since they likely don't speak Hylian.

"What's taking you guys so long?", Legend says, now right besides us. I give him a sheepish smile, not really sure what to say.

"We were just talking about the hole and the forest.", Twilight answers, and Legend looks up at the path.

"I'm find with going there now if you two want. Sky'll make sure Hyrule and Wind don't burn anything to too badly.", he says. Twilight looks over at me, and I look back. He finally sighs.

"It's less likely to get lost with three instead of 2, isn't it? You've been there enough to know the route anyways."...How could Twilight know the way? Is he and Wild from the same era?

"Fine. But go and tell the other three before we go, just in case something happened.", Twilight says. I can't help but grin. Adventure is always fun, after all!

It isn't long until we go in, and we make sure to stay close together. But it's hard as the fog only get thicker and thicker, and we can't see any traces of the portal.

"Tch, where is it?", I say, slightly annoyed. I really shouldn't have suggested this...

"Shouldn't you be leading, farm boy? You always say you can smell a portal from a mile away, but when it's potentially right in front of us, you can't find anything!", Legend says, also regretting the desicion to come in here.

"I'm just not used to be here in this form, okay?"

"You're more used to it whilst a wolf?", I ask casually, and the two stop in their tracks, staring at me.

"What? Wait...I wasn't supposed to know that, did I?", I ask with a sheepish smile. Legend only sighs, whilst Twilight is still confused.

"Did someone tell you?", he asks, and I shake my head. It was pretty obvious if you paid any attention, which I did.

"Nope, I was simply able to figure it out myself. The most obvious outside of the markings being similar is the fact that we for some reason have a time travelling Wolf that isn't with us all the time. And that you were gone then too.", Legend gives him a look—as if to say "I told you so"—but Twilight only looks dissapointed.

Twilight reaches for his necklace, which I can now see is a dark crystal. He always brings it with him? That's a bit weird, especially since his era likely isn't the kindest with dark magic either.

I blink, and he's turned into the wolf! I look at him suprised for a moment before grinning.

"Should I still call you Twilight or just use Wolfie?", I ask, and he stares at me deadpan as he can't answer. At least not in any way I could understand in this form.

But he decides to ignore my future questioning, and starts to walk whilst smelling the ground. Is this how he's going to find the portal? I know animals have a stronger sense of smell, but it can't be that easy to find it in a seemingly magic forest. Could I find it if I shapeshiftet into a wolf?

I know that my senses change when I'm something that's not a Hylian. When I'm a cat, my vision is different. When I'm a dog, my hearing is better. But considering that I don't really know how to smell dark magic and portals, I would be as useless as I am now.

But I can't really consider this much longer as we're already at the portal...Did I just zone out for the 100th time or is he that good?

"Don't touch it.", Legend says, pushing my arm down with a sigh. I pout, but my expression goes back to normal as I see Twilight turn back into a Hylian.

"...Was those two the only reasons you knew I was Wolfie? Truly?", he asks, looking more stern that earlier. Ugh, that look reminds me of Blue whenever I did something 'wrong'. It wasn't my fault that Red's cookies were left in the counter without any note to say that I couldn't eat it!!

"Your dark magic felt the same in both forms, though the wolf's was way more noticeable, of course.", I answer. No reason not to say it, as they'll just press me to say more anyways.

"Even I can't feel his dark magic unless I specifically search for it, and it's practically impossible with all the natural magic in the air and with everyone else.", Legend says. Is it really that hard?

"Really? I mean, I did sit behind him for 5 or so hours on the way here. Plenty of time to notice the magic.", I say. I make sure not to mention anything about my own dark magic.

"People like Wild—who doesn't have any magic—can't sense any magic on any of us, or the environment. I can't feel any of your magic. Are you hiding it?", Twilight asks, and I hold in a curse. Why did I have to remove my magical 'aura' completely. It's pretty easy to fake one as well...

"I-I...um.", I stutter. I did not expect to be thrown into a corner like this. Ugh, it seems I left my braincell back at home after all!

"Hey, you guys okay?", a familiar voice says. Is that Wild?

"...Yeah. Why are you all here? Are we ready to go already?", Legend asks, still giving me a look. Wild seems to have noticed the tension, but he doesn't mention it.

"Already? You guys have been here for well over an hour by what they said.", he says, pointing to the heroes that were left by the stable. Were we lost for such a long time? It felt more like a few minutes...

"Ugh, I hate magical forests!", I say. We have a magical forests back home, but it's leagues better than this one.

I can see some of the other heroes nod in agreement, and even Wild seems to agree with me. But I do wonder; what's on the other side of the forest?

"Anyways, were there anything you didn't bring with you? And yes, they did being your bags.", Time says as Twilight opens his mouth to say something. He promptly closes it, looking like a lost puppy.

"No? Then it's time we get going.", he says. We're leaving this era, huh? I wonder what we'll see on the other side. A perfect utopia, or a completely dead land? Likely neither, but it's fun to imagine.

One by one, we start to enter the portal, leaving only me and Hyrule.

"What, nervous? Don't worry, it'll feel the same as when you first entered.", he says with a smile.

"Not nervous. I just...it feels weird. We've only been here for a few days, and now we're already leaving. I just wish I could stay a bit longer. I'll be long dead by now, so it's interesting to see what will happend, even if I can't control it.", I answer truthfully. The land is beautiful and flourishing. Yet, I can still see the damage, never truly being able to heal.

"Honestly, this is my favorite era—at least from what we've been to, anyway. It's a glimpse into what my era can be if we let it heal and take care of it. It gives me courage and hope to continue, knowing it won't all be for naught."

He puts his hand on my back, pushing me slightly forwards towards the portal.

"Let's go. We can't have them waiting too long for us, can we?"

Chapter Text

I sigh, looking up at the clear sky and the burning sun Can I still go blind if I stare at it too long? My eyes are artificial, after all.

I look around me, seeing everyone enjoying the sunny weather and the beach. Arriving here of all places was suprising, but it has been quite comfortable even though it shouldn't for someone like me.

Being out in the sun for too long is usually a death sentence—or at best, torture—to quite a few creatures from the dark world, including me. But thankfully I have a magic hair pin that helps shield me body from being damaged.

It doesn't work too well for long periods of time, but before now I didn't have to worry about it. If I've been out for too long I would simply go home and take it off for a few hours.

I don't fully understand how it works, but I don't need to anyways. The only things I need to know is: It slowly uses my magic up, I can transform it into another item, and—as mentioned earlier—I shouldn't use it for extended periods.

I usually keep it as either a hair pin or a necklace, so it's both cute and functional. Since it's so small, it isn't really noticeable either, so no one would suspect that it's made out of dark magic. Whenever I make it into something bigger, it's way more noticeable. Though it could just be me.

I can feel Twilight—or more specifically, Wolfie—staring at me, but I ignore it. What else can I do? It's to be expected after the small argument we had before coming here.

I look over at the others swimming, though not all are in the water. Outside of Wolfie, I can see Hyrule by the beach, looking over at them.

"Not interested in joining them?", I ask, now sitting next to him. He finally looks away from the water, seeming a bit sheepish.

"I can't swim very well, so I'd rather stay here than cause any trouble.", he answers, and I frown. I can't really swim well either, but...

"We could stay in the shallows if you want. I would at least be in the water a little instead of just staring at it.", I ask, and he looks at me as though he never even thought of that.

...Did he seriously not think of that?

"Are you sure you want to go in with me? Your shirt will most definetly get wet, even if we don't go that deep.", he asks. Honestly, I would go without a shirt—we are on a beach, after all—but I can't show them my scars just yet. It'll just ruin everything.

"It's fine. It won't be ruined just by getting wet anyways. Though maybe I should ask Wild if he's okay with it? No no, if he lent me it on a beach then he should really expect it.", I say with a grin. Wild doesn't use this shirt often anyways, and he just pulled it out of his weird teleporting slab thing. It can't be that important, right?

He stands up, and I can't help my grin turning more into a smile as we enter the water.

"I though you said you couldn't swim?", Wind says, appearing in front of us. Where did the kid even come from?!

"Yeah. That's why I'll be staying up here!", the hero says with a smile, but Wind just looks at us funny.

"Don't let him convince you to try. It's not even that warm in the water.", Legend says, and I look over at him--

Where are his legs.

I've seen big birds with Hylian intelligence, a Zelda being a weird...something, and now Legend somehow being part fish—or Zoren? Just Zora? I don't know anymore...

"What, never seen a mermaid? Well, a merman in this case.", he says. No, Legend, I have not seen a merman or whatever you are now. Is this normal in the future—or distant, distant past?

"Just...how?", I ask. I can tell that it's magic—duh—but usually it's pretty to tell what type of magic they used when doing any sort of transformation magic unless they willingly hide it. But maybe...

"Through an item or something?", I ask, and by his reaction, I can tell that I'm right.

"Yeah. In my third adventure I touched a weird tail...thing. After that, all the times I've been submerged in the water I've got a tail. It's annoying, but could be worse. It does let me breathe under water, which is nice.", he says. Honestly, I'm suprised he's letting me know so much after yesterday.

"How could you tell that it was from an item?", Hyrule asks. Though he sounds curious, I can tell that he's suspicous. I would rather not ruin the peace between us, so I decide to answer honestly.

"Transformation or shapeshifting magic have a very distinct feel, though it can be easily hidden. But since Legend doesn't have much of a reason to hide it, an item or curse is most likely.", I say. Ugh, I definetly sound line Vio when I explain stuff. It makes sense, but still annoying!

"Didn't know you knew so much about magic!", Hyrule says happily. Though I haven't seen him use any magic yet, I can feel it. Same with Legend. I wonder what magic they use? I'm good at sensing it, but not perfect.

But despite Hyrule's smile, I can feel the way he's looking at me. He's definetly suspicous. But...Of what? Was me guessing it was an item so weird? Let's just hope this doesn't lead to anything bigger.

It's the night of the first day in Wind's era, and I have two thoughts in my head as I try to sleep.

1. It's cramped.

2. By Demise do the scars hurt.

Do they even count as scars? They can't heal properly since they're a punishment for being brought back to life, so there's not much I can do about it.

Back home, I would use a special cream that Vio created, which would help them not feel bad as long as I don't do anything to annoy them. Sadly, I don't have this cream. And even worse of all, being in the water definetly annoyed them.

I sigh, getting out of the cuddle pile. Honestly, I would've liked this more if I trusted them more and if my back wasn't screaming in pain. Maybe I'll be able to sneak back into it later?

Either way, I go out of the little house. I would rather not be on the beach again, but I don't seem to have much of a choice.

But as I walk, I see someone sitting on the beach. Shit, is that Legend? Should I just turn back? I don't want to disturb him.

"I can hear you muttering to yourself, you know.", he says, and I do not—DO NOT!!—jump. I sigh. Guess it's too late to remove myself from the situation...

"Sorry to intrude, I didn't know you were out.", I say, walking closer. He simply shrugs, and I sit down besides him, not dating to make any eye contact? Where did all my cockiness and confidence go? Did it really go away the second I went out the portal?

"It's fine.", he says, and looks at the ocean again with a sad expression. Did...something happen between him and the ocean? He looked happy to be swimming in it earlier today.

Though I want to ask, I know I shouldn't. It isn't my place, and I can tell it's important just from the expression he's making. So, I decide to simply sit with him in silence. Not much else I can do, after all.

I look over at the empty beach, and can't help but think of home. There's not a lot of beaches where we live, but I remember Link having visited one when he was younger.

He was making sandcastles, swimming with father, and 'getting tan—honestly, more like suburnt—with grandpa. I wonder how he would like it here? Maybe we could make a sandcastles together.

"Do you know how to make a sandcastle?", I blurt out, snapping him back to reality. If my ears were real, they would most definetly be red.

"Can you...teach me how to make one?", I ask. He looks suprised, but that shouldn't be too suprising.

"If you want.", he says, and we get to it. Though it's a bit hard to see in the dark, we make it work. And finally, after what feels like an hour—though we likely didn't spend too much time on it—our little sandcastle is finished. At the end, Legend even puts a pretty little pink flowers by it.

He looks...sad. But not in the same way as earlier. Instead, he looks almost hopeful.

"We should convince the others to have a sandcastle competition. You would definitely win!", I say with a grin, but he only rolls his eyes.

"As if. Wind literally grew up here on the beach, so he's likely way better than me.", he says, but I can tell he secretly thinks that he'll win.

"Hm, maybe so! Either way, thank you for teaching me.", I say, standing up from the sand. Ugh, it's all over my legs!

"No need to thank me. Now, go and sleep. I'll be out here just a little longer.", he says, though I don't know if I believe him. Either way, I go back into the house, trying my best to be as quiet as possible as to not wake the others.

Though I respect Sky and will never hurt him unless I need to, I've decided to try to keep my distance. Why? Because of his master sword.

Link nor the colours used the Master Sword, and though they would love to wield it and see how good it is for themselves, they're not with us right now.

That sword radiates light magic, and almost feel like it was touched by the goddess herself. In other words, something that would probably be used to defeat myself and Vaati, or just any bad guy.

So, I stay away from it. Who knows what it can do to me? Kill me, hurt me, reveal my true identity which will definitely lead to the first 2 options?

"Shadow, are you okay?", Sky asks, and I only shrug. I used too much magic this last battle as I was hurt quite a lot—having a battle on a small island is not something I reccomend—, and though I'm not seriously impacted by the injuries, I need to heal them so they don't get even more suspicous...and because they usually hurt.

"I saw you were hit quite a lot by those monsters, can I check for any injuries? Trust me, it's better than Hyrule checking since he can get quite angry about it.", I stare at him in shock.

I know he only wants to check that I'm okay, but the possibility of him seeing them...

"Did the traveler heal you earlier?", he ask, making sure to keep his distance and being as careful as possible when talking.

"Yeah", I say, though he only frowns. Thankfully, it goes away after a small promise that I'm not lying or hiding anything.

"I don't know how many injuries you had, but I could tell it was enough for you to be tired.", he says sitting down besides me, his sword still not being off his back.

"You can take a quick nap, if you want.", he says, and I indulge. Even if I don't trust the sword nor the spirit within, I trust Sky enough for me lay my head on his shoulder...and falling asleep, even if I wasn't actually trying to.

It's dinner time, and though I don't need food, I like to eat and it'll just look suspicious of I say no. I sit next to Wild, as most of the others are just with other stuff. Chatting with Wild is fun, especially as he tells me more about his era.

"So when my second adventure started, I got his arm", he says, showing off the weird green arm he has, "and I never complained. I mean, it has cool magic powers, so why wouldn't I like it?"

"But then after I rescued Zelda and all, it suddenly fell off! It scared me so much that I stayed home for a full day, which never happends.", I look at him shocked. Few people have magical green arms, bur one that can fall off???

"Obviously, it's on again now. It took me a bit to figure out how to put it on and make it stay, though. And I still take it off when sleeping, obviously.", he says. No, it is not obvious!

"What, never seen a prostethic before?", he laughs, taking it off as he finishes with taking everything into the pot. He hands it over to me, and I accept. It would be rude to say no, after all.

"A prostethic...Ah! I've heard my brothers mention them, but aren't they usually steel or wooden?", I ask. They're blacksmiths, so they get commissioned to do a lot of stuff, including making people arms and legs.

"Yeah, but this is an old guy's arm. I don't really know how it works exactly, but it's cool!", he says with a grin, placing it back on his arm stump. By Demise, Vil will ask him so many questions when he meets Wild.

I feel...annoyingly weak. We've been sailing in Wind's era for a almost a week now—although only being on the boat for about an hour at a time—though we thankfully made stops at multiple islands. I always felt off when being on the boat, and Legend didn't like it either as he first tried to swim with us, but he decided to just be in the boat because "the water is too dangerous to be in for over an hour.". Honestly, would have liked to known that before we went swimming the other day. But instead of being able to relax or have fun on the islands, we had to fight weirdly hard enemies.

Well, it shouldn't be weird. They did have black blood, after all. Still doesn't make the situation much better! But they still managed to get quite a few hits on me, and every time, I had to use some magic to fix the injury.

And if I just use a little magic everyday, it adds up. Quickly. Especially since I have to use my hair pin often, though I make sure to take it off at night so I don't encounter even more problems.

"Are you sure you're okay, Shadow? You look...pale. You should really be sitting down.", Warriors says, putting his hand on my forehead to check my temperature. I simply groan, the magic exhausting making it hard to think.

He catches me when I'm about to pass out, mumbling something about 'why do none of you heroes have any self presentation skills...'

I blink, and instead of feeling the hardness of the wooden boards of a boat—or even the warmth of a Hylian—I feel something wet. Wait, wet? I'm clearly not in the ocean but this doesn't feel like sand either.

"Shadow. Link, hey you there?", I hear someone ask, and I can only hum. I can feel something being pressed against my lips, but I couldn't fight it even if I wanted to. But they wouldn't try to poison me, right? Wait, can I even be poisened? I do have a stomach—and some other organs—but it simply burns everything that comes down to it...

I can feel magic spreading across my body, and I"m finally able to open my eyes to see a worried Hyrule above me.

"...Hyrule?"

"Phew, you're finally awake again. You know, you almost gave Warriors a heart attack back at the ship.", he says as I manage to sit up, and I give him a sheepish smile.

"Sorry. I've never been that low on magic before, so I didn't really know what to do.", I say. Have I ever been so low on magic? Thankfully, it seems my spells didn't go away. I can't feel myself burning, the hair piece is working as intended. At least I don't have to be in more pain than usual...

"How and why are you using that much magic? I've never seen you use any in fights, and you know we can't sense it.", he says, and I give out an awkward laugh. I can't tell him I use dark magic, but what should I say instead?

"Shadow! Good to see that you're awake. Sky just went to get in contact with someone from Skyloft to help us get up. He and Crimson can't carry everyone, after all.", Crimson? If I remember the stories right, it's said that he—Sky—was from a place called Skyloft and rode on a Loftwing. Is that his Loftwing's name then?

Wait. If we're going to ride a Loftwing, then...

"Shit, he's getting pale again! Hey, don't pass out on us.", Warriors says, now suddenly in my face. Ugh, did I really get so pale just by thinking of being in the sky?

"I-I'm fine, I promise.", I say, finally able to stand up from the ground, thankful I don't need to sit in the wet grass any longer. I look around, seeing the other heroes chilling and chatting. Ugh, lucky.

"By the way...When did we come here?"

"Not too long ago, thankfully. You barely weigh anything, so it wasn't much trouble to get you through the portal. Honestly, you weigh scarely little, are you sure you eat enough?", he asks, and I can only let out an awkward laugh.

...Can I make myself heavier? I know I weigh the same as my sword, which is nothing like what a Hylian should weigh. Should I try to make the sword heavier? No no, that'll just be a burden.

"Wind, no cheating! And Wild, no eating the cards.", I hear Twilight say, as if both are completely normal. Are they...playing cards? Well, not much else to do when we're waiting for Sky.

"Want to join them?", Hyrule asks, but I shake my head. I always get too competitive when playing any games, so it's just going to turn into an argument if I don't win.

"Nah, I don't know how to play yet anyways. I can learn another day if I want.", at least it doesn't look like they're playing one I know. Though I don't really know many because of the aformentioned issue.

"Remember to say if you feel light headed or anything, okay? Rather not have you faint again.", Warriors says, and I simply nod. I don't feel that bad, and since we're hopefully actually sleeping inside with no watches I can actually get proper rest in the sword for once!

Well, we'll see. I don't know if I wanna run the chance of me getting caught. And since time can easily go very fast whilst I'm sleeping it it, I would rather not go "missing" on accident.

"By the ways Hyrule...Why do you get all bad with teleportation but not the portals?", I ask. Now that I think about it, he didn't seem bad when we first went to Wind's era as well.

"Mostly because I'm used to it. At first, I got even worse than when we teleported. It's all but stopped at this point though.", he explains, and I nod. I wonder how Rainbow would feel going through it. Mostly well I assume, especially for Vio, but I'll have to wait and see.

I look up at the sky, managing to see a weird island in the sky but it's hard to tell from here. I remember that Wild's era has islands—and my own has some places above the clouds too—so I can only guess that the floating island is the place in the stories.

Skyloft

Though I and Link heard plenty of stories—closer to fairytales, though—when we were younger, and Vio has been more interested in the history of the place recently.

Well, it's more that he's interested in the hero of the Sky, but just says he's only interested in the island of the past. He should know that I know his true intentions by now.

I blink, and I could swear something had changed. Two weird things—one being red, the other blue—suddenly being in the sky...wait, they're getting closer?

"Are they supposed to be coming this way?", I ask, fully ready to draw upon my sword if it's a flying enemy. They're annoying, but I know some of us have bows, so we should be able to at least scare them off.

"It's just Sky and Zelda, don't worry.", Warriors says. Ha, I bet Vio is jealous that I got to meet them and not him.

It's not long before they land, and I finally can get a good look at the big birds. They're suprisingly small, to be honest.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Wind freeze up. Is he afraid of the birds? Understandable. Meeting monsters that could fly is one thing, but ones that are at least double your size? No thanks.

I know Sky and Zelda are saying something, but I ignore it as the red Loftwing comes closer to me. It doesn't look big compared to Sky, but I feel like a child as it looks over me. Why must Link be so short, and why didn't I just make myself taller when I had the chance?

"Hello.", I say the bird, slowly raising my hand. If it bit, Sky would stop it, right? Though it'll hurt, I know I can't get permanent injuries from it anyways.

It puts its—his?—beak under my hand, and I slowly begin to pet it. Ah, this reminds me of...

"It seems he really likes you! Though Loftwings are very curious about people, they rarely let themself get pet by strangers.", Zelda says, taking my attention away from the Loftwing.

"Really?", I ask, though still looking at the Loftwing. This was Sky's, right? It was at least the one he rid on.

As I remove my hand, it leaves me be as Sky calls him over. I can see Wind staring at him, clearly ready to run the moment it does something. Thankfully, it seems Warriors has some control as he takes the hero away for now.

"You're Zelda, right? I'm Shadow.", I say, finally giving myself a proper introduction. Better than nothing, I guess.

"Yeah, but just call me Sun. Sky mentioned that you had passed out earlier, but I can see that you're feeling better already.", she says with a smile. Is she...glowing? Oh, she definetly has lots of light magic if that happends. Well, unless she's using a spell, but why would she do that? Not like it's very easy to see the glow anyway.

"Yeah, don't worry. By the way, are we using the birds to fly up to the island?", I ask. Though I'm afraid of heights, at least I have some experience with flying, even if I don't need to take the lead. Ugh, I miss my dragon. Flying around was so fun when I wasn't so afraid of it!

"Yup! Don't worry, it's perfectly safe...Maybe. Sky isn't the most well known for safe flights.", she says. I don't really know her, but I think I would rather fly with her than Sky just based off of that. But his Loftwing did like me, so I don't know if I have much of a choice.

I notice Wind and Warriors coming back, the younger seeming much more relaxed than earlier. Still tense, though. But we can't take away someone's fears immideatly, after all.

"Are we all ready to start going? It'll take a small while, but most that are trained to fly to the surface and back and busy right now, so we don't have much of a choice.", Sky says, and I reluctantly nods. I'll just close my eyes. It can't be that bad, right?

It was that bad.

I was paired up with Sky, and though he wasn't as reckless of a flyer—I was much more dangerous when I was flying back home at least—it still scared me to death.

I know he noticed. He could clearly feel how I shoved my face into his back, clutching so hard I could easily give him a bruise. Yet, he didn't mention it besides asking if I was fine to be alone.

Why are the heroes so nice? At this point I've clearly aqquired their trust, but I don't know if I should feel guilty about it or not. I mean, practically everything they know about me is a lie.

I sit by a bench near where I was dropped off. I would rather not get lost or fall off accidently, so it's the best I can do. I can feel some of the people giving me strange looks, but I ignore them. I'm quite used to it at this point.

"We're going to go stock up in the baazar, want to join?", Twilight says, dragging me out of my thoughts. Ugh, the heroes really are too nice. Can't they just let me mope for no reason? Still feels weird that he's so friendly after that argument...

"Sure.", I say. Likely better than staring at the edge and hoping the ground underneath me doesn't suddenly crumble or anything.

We enter, and I suddenly get hit with all the noise. How it there so many here? I'm used to the noise back home—even if I rarely experience it—but it's annoying when I wasn't expecting it.

"There's not as many as usual, but the potion, general store, and blacksmith are still here. Most are trying to focus on getting to the surface, but not everyone.", Sky says. A blacksmith?

I'm not that good at blacksmithing. Yeah, definetly better than the average person, but nowhere near my brothers and grandpa. But...

"I can see that something caught your attention.", Warriors says with a slight grin, and I can feel my face turn slightly redder.

"I didn't know there would be a blacksmith here, is all.", I answer. Warriors' teasing grin turns back to his usual smile, and Twilight pops in to ask me a question.

"Need to get your sword or shield fixed?", he asks, but I simply shake my head. Well, I do want to fix them up, but...

"I wanted to ask if I can use the space for a small while. My grandpa is a smith, so he's taught me some blacksmithing skills.", I say, and they both look suprised. I don't blame them, as it doesn't look like I have any of the muscles needed for blacksmithing.

"Really? It that why you cringe every time you look at Wild's weapons?", Sky asks, and I sigh. It's definetly a part of it, but anyone with common sense wouldn't like it.

"Either way, you can just ask him. I'll sure he'll let you use the space so long as you don't break anything.", Sky says.

"But remember to take breaks. I know you feel better now, but rather not have you pass out again.", Warriors says, ruffling my hair. I sigh, but nod before I leave.

I finally go over to him, thankful that I'm not interupting his work.

"Oh, hey kid! You need anything?", he says with a smile, and I make sure not to glare. I know I look young, but not the most fun to be called a kid.

"I was wonder if I could use the space for a little while. I just wanted to fix my sword and shield.", I say. He looks suprised, but it quickly goes away, getting replaced with a big smile instead.

"Of course, kid! Love seeing someone else actually being interested in this kinda stuff.", he says. I give him a small thanks as I get to work, feeling the other heroes looking at me. Eh, I'll just ignore them for now.

I've been working all day, and I'm so thankful that I don't get hungry or anything. If I did, my stomach would complain like all hell right now.

I would have continued if the blacksmith—his name was Gondo, if I remember right—didn't kick me out to actually get some sleep. He was very nice, but it felt weird seeing how differently he does some things in the forge.

I feel a bit tired, but blame it on forgetting to take off my hair pin—now a simple necklace. I should really get better at that, especially since I need to use it so often now.

But now I'm outside in the dark...and I have no idea where to go. Sky never showed me where we were supposed to sleep, and I wish he had come to get me earlier to show me.

Should I ask someone? No, I don't believe they know where I would be staying either. I can't really see many out and about either.

"Are you sure?", a familiar voice says, and I turn around to see Sky and his Zelda talking. It seems they haven't noticed me yet, but at least I have someone to--

"Yes. It's pretty easy to notice Shadow's dark magic. He's practically soaked in it, almost similar to Ghirahim.", Zelda says. She's...She noticed my magic? It's clear to tell how good she is at light magic, but does that make it easier to sense mine—even whilst I'm hiding it? And that name...where have I heard it before?

"He could be like Twilight, though. We both know why he has it, and he will never hurt us. I trust Shadow. If he wanted to hurt us, he would have done it already."

Sky trusts me. I already knew that he and the other do, but it still feels so wrong. Though I technically haven't lied much, none of them know the truth of who I am or what I did. Guilt pierced through my heart at the thought.

Will they ever know? Should I just say it now to avoid the pain, or never reveal it, hoping they don't find out by themself?

...Or will they—at least with some parts—be fine with it? Ugh, I'm thinking too much.

I sit down by a nearby bench, not wanting to eavesdrop. Let's at least hopes he notices me when he leaves, so I'll finally figure out where we'll be staying tonight.

"Meow!", I suddenly hear, and look down to see...What even is this? A weird cat? I mean, it did meow.

"Meow.", I say back to the little creature, not able to understand it but willing to speak its language. Outside of being a Hylian, the form I use most is that of a housecat, so I know quite a bit about them.

The little cat jumps on to the bench, smelling me before settling on my lap. Animals rarely like me, so to see this happen...It doesn't really feel real. I pet their head, and they're just as fluffy as they looked.

They purr, and I can't help the smile on my face. I don't need to sleep, so I could just stay up and pet this little cat until the others wake up...

"Shadow!", a familiar voice says, and I look to the side to see Sky, having finally finished his conversation with Zelda.

"Hi.", I say simply. He looks a bit apologetic, but it gets replaced by wonder by looking at the cat in my lap.

"Remlits are usually agressive at night, but it seems she really likes you.", he says, and I slightly frown. Does it only like me because I'm 'evil' too? But I shake my head, going back to what I wanted to talk about.

"Thank you for...trusting me. I heard a bit of the conversation earlier, and I'm glad you can look away from my magic.", I finally get out, definitely blushing a bit. Saying my true feelings are hard, why can't I just ignore them?

"You don't need to thank me, Shadow. I—and the others—will always trust you.", he says with a gentle smile, handing me his hand. I take it, the remlits jumping off my lap as he helps me stand up again.

"You're a hero, whether you believe it or not.", he finishes, adding the last part as my expression darkened at the mention of hero. I take a deep breath, not wanting to think about it any longer.

"Also, Sky...where are we staying for the night?"

My back hurts. It always does, but for some reason, it hurts more as I see Legend and Wild help each other with their scars.

They're putting on cream on each other, helping to reach those they can't reach themself. It's never a problem for me, but that's because I don't have bones. I should probably have some bones to protect my organs—even if they're artificial—since if they get hurt, I don't believe I can heal myself before passing out.

But it's not like I have any cream to put on myself, as the only thing I brought with me was my necklace, sword, shield, and...myself. No rupees, no adventure bag, no nothing.

I ignore the Red in my head screaming that I should try to open up to people and ask if I could use a little of their cream. Would their cream even work for me? My scars are a curse after all. Though they always hurt, today is what I would call a "flare up". It hurts extra, and though I can live and ignore it...it's hard. They can't go away, so I have to live with it until I die again. I excuse myself to the bathroom, and make some bandages out of dark magic. I know it won't help much, but it's better than nothing.

Whilst I love seeing Sky and the others happy, I'm so glad that it's already the 7th day, and we're already prepping for the portal.

Skyloft was beautiful, everyone was so kind, the kikwis of the surface were certainly something, and I may or may not have made the Smith mad by the amount of times I asked him questions.

But everything has to end one day. I can hear Wind let out a small yawn, not awake enough to be fully ready to leave this place as well.

"Sleep bad?", I ask the small hero—yes, I still call him small even if he's taller than me, I can literally shapeshift so it isn't Import—and he shrugs.

"Yeah, but I'll be fine!", he says with a smile. I grin at him before our attention goes back to the portal, with Wild and Twilight already going in.

"Ready?", I ask, and he grins back, and I enter the portal with him.

I blink, already being on the other side with him. Ugh, still not my era...I will admit, I'm getting a bit homesick. I've never gone so long without seeing my brothers or even Grandpa and father!

But I don't complain, as I know we'll have to visit soon...right?

"I believe this is mine.", Warriors finally says, and I hear the others groan. By Demise, what's wrong with this one?

"So, non-stop battles and too much formal bullshit?", Legend asks, and I sigh as well. I like battles, but I still need breaks from them every once in a while!

"We're pretty close to the castle, so we'll at least have a good place to stay. Are we ready to go, or does anyone need some more time to get over their portal sickness?", he asks, and we leave not long after.

I'm low on magic. Considering they know I use some sort of magic now, it should be easy to ask for a magic potion or something similar. But no, it isn't.

They never see me use it, and they don't seem to notice how I get more and more fatigued every fight. Though it does just look like I'm tired from the battle, so I won't blame them.

Now: Why don't I just ask them for a potion like last time?

The answer? We're fucking empty.

We got sent a long way out of the city by Zelda, as there's not as much or as good defense there as Castle town. And worst of all, they had reports of black blooded monsters as well.

So while the small town we're in has some necessary supplies—food, drink, health potions, and other random stuff—it does not have any magic potions left. We had just recently used our last up on Hyrule, who used way too much after multiple of us got some serious injuries.

...That includes me, but I can just heal myself. Even so, Hyrule forces me to let him see where my injury would be. When he saw nothing, I just said that though the monster hit me, it wasn't any deep.

And I even said that I had drank a health potions just in case. Even small injuries don't heal that fast, after all.

But back to my magic problem. I hate feeling fatigued. As far as I know, I can't get sick. So anything feeling physically bad is rare outside of the occasional injury.

I groan, not wanting to get out of bed. It's so comfy, and since I made sure to take off the necklace, I'm actually recovering my magic! Even if very, very slowly. I want to go in my sword, but considering I almost overslept too much when I last tried on Skyloft, I decide not to. Just because I managed to do it fine the first night does not mean I always can.

"Shadow, get up!", Wind says, practically right up in my face. I shrug him off, and I can tell that he rolled his eyes even if I can't see it. He murmers for himself a bit before seemingly getting an idea.

"We're supposed to go and hunt some monsters today, why don't I just take your sword and--"

"Do. Not. Touch. The. Sword.", I say, and he jumps as I'm suddenly right beside him. It almost seemed like I teleported, but I wouldn't dare

I take my sword...and promptly go back to bed.

Wind leaves without saying anything else, seemingly stunned into silence. I sigh as I cozy myself up in the bed again, already feeling close to sleep.

"Shadow.", a way too familiar voice says, and I look at the door to see Time. Oh shit

Annoyingly enough, we're still in Warriors' Hyrule. And worse: We're in combat.

I slash through another group of enemies, but it feels useless as another appears only moments after. Is this what Warriors had to deal with every battle? The enemies aren't hard to kill, and they're barely laid a scratch on us, but they just make us exhausted by how many they are.

I kill another group, thankful that I can't see anymore of these anywhere. I look around and notice Twilight and Legend fighting a small group of enemies, but some that's clearly stronger than whatever I've faced

I run up to them, managing to take out an enemy covored in armor. How does the sword even take it down? I don't know, ask Warriors how his weird era fucking works.

"Thanks, Shadow.", Twilight says, managing to take down another. I send him a grin before focusing back to the battle, noticing that Legend isn't doing as well as we are.

He's clearly tired. We all are, but his strikes are more sloppy than usual—even if way better than mine—and I can see him slightly limping, which makes my artificial heart beat too fast as he's right by the edge of the cliff. I take out another of the enemies, and it seems Legend finally finished of the one he was fighting as well.

"Show me your leg, vet. You're injured and we need to make sure it doesn't get worse.", Twilight says, using the little time without enemies to be productive. Legend nods, but before he can even move an arrow is shot his way, which he thankfully avoids--

He's falling.

It's as if time has stopped entirely as I see him loose his footing from dodging the arrow. Is he...going to die? No...No! He can't die!! I hear an arrow behind shot behind me, and I hope it's just the sound of Twilight killing the enemy. I can't feel any pain, so it has to be, right?

I run towards Legend, even if I can clearly see that he's already falling. I look down upon him, and it seems he's already accepted his fate. No...I won't accept it!

I jump after him, even after Twilight yells at me to not. I know I can't reach him, at least like this...but I do have another way of getting to him.

I teleport down with my magic, pulling him in my embrace even as he looks at me shocked. Not long after, we arrive back at the top of the cliff, but I still don't let him go.

"...Shadow?", Legend asks confused, but I can't answer. I only hold on to him, and I notice that my arms are shaking. Why am I shaking so hard? It isn't the first time someone I know almost died, so why do I have such a reaction?

"Shit, are you two alright?", Twilight asks, and I simply nod. I finally let go of Legend and take a deep breath.

"How the fuck did you do that, Shadow?", Legend finally asks, and I only know realise what I did.

"...I teleported with dark magic.", I admit. Was I expecting them to get to know one of my secrets? No. But considering that Legend is very not dead on the ground right now, I couldn't care less.

"Thanks, Shadow.", Legend says, but with none of the reluctanse he usually has when accepting help. It feels weird, but it makes me...happy.

"I don't need a thanks. I-I just really didn't want you to die. Not yet, at least.", I manage to get out, even though it feels like my throat is closing up.

"You know I hate giving thanks, so you're not allowed to downplay this. You fucking saved my life, okay? Even if you use dark magic, it doesn't make it any less impactfull. Now, help me up so we can check out injuries. All of us have to have some at this point.", Legend says, and instead of responding, I take his hand, helping him up from the ground.

I saved his life, huh. I've ended so many, yet saved only a few. Still, I can't help but smile. It shouldn't be suprised that they don't care about my magic—I mean, Sky didn't either—but I'm glad that I got to help someone.

I can't speak. Really, I had noticed it right after saving Legend, but I just hoped that I would have gone back to normal by now.

Ugh, now I really just want to stay in bed! We've been in this era for over a week now, but the others says it's nothing to be worried about. Before I joined, they often were in an era for around two weeks, so it was stranger when it suddenly went to only 1 week. I wonder why?

Either way, I really don't like this era. The people give weird looks to the captain, the food isn't even that great, and all the battles are 100 versus 1...The last point may be a bit overdriven, but it sure feels like it!

Do any of them know sign language? I'm not that good at it, but I have been learning ever since we learnt that I also get non-verbal at times. All 5 of us go non-verbal on occasion, but most often with Green and Vio. Vio is trying to find out why, but we haven't really gotten a proper answer as to why it happeneds yet.

"Shade, ready to go?", Warriors asks, calling me by my nickname. Well, nickname of a nickname? It's just shortening our already short nicknames anyways.

I only give him a nod, and it's not long before we're on our way back to Castle town. Normally, we would ride on a horse for this, but the portal could appear any moment now, so we have to leave them back in the small town we've rested for for the past few days.

I stay in the back of the group alongside Time. He walks suprisingly fast for an old man, but he always stays at the back. I don't know why, but I won't complain about the company.

We walk in silence. It's fun listening to what the others are talking about, even if I can't join in. Even if I could talk, I don't know if I would want to join the conversation. The fatigue just makes everything more annoying, and I don't really know much about what they're talking about.

"Shadow.", Time asks, and I snap to attention. Did someone try to talk to me but I zoned out again?

"Are you feeling well? If have any injuries that you're hiding, please reveal them before they get infected.", he asks, and I can't seem to look him in the eyes. I don't have any injuries, but how can I say that?

I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. I try again, yet no results. He looks at me strange, before realising...something.

"Can't speak?", he signs, and I immideatly perk up. So they do know sign language! Well, at least Time does. I nod, and he continues.

"We all know sign language. I think most of have some periods where we just couldn't talk, so no need to be ashamed of it.", he signs, and I finally smile. Guess we're not alone in this, huh...

Finally, after a solid two weeks—and barely not reaching castle town—another portal arrives and we do not greet my home. No, instead we're in Time's era. I shouldn't be jealous about it, but...

Everyone's happy as we arrive to a place called 'Lon Lon Ranch' after only around an hour of walking. There, we meet Malon who's way too kind to all of us.

We thankfully don't get sent to work immideatly, as instead we're sent right to the bath. Honestly, it isn't suprising. Though we got to bathe in Warriors' era, it's already been a few days since then, and we're undoubtedly dirty. Well, except for me, of course.

Whilst I wait, I decide to look around. Not like I have anything else to do anyways.

"If you want something to do, ya can help me with dinner.", Malon says, ripping me away from my thoughts. I haven't helped with dinner before, as it's usually Father or Blue who cooks—and I'm banned for setting it on fire that one time.

I join her wordlesly, and simply follow her instructions. I can't be that bad, right? The burning down the kitchen was slightly Red's idea too, so it wasn't all my fault.

"Shadow, you're quite pale. Are you feeling alright?", she asks, and suddenly all eyes are on me. Fuck, am I that low on magic already? I mean, the necklace still works and though I feel fatigue, it's not that bad.

"I'm fine. I'm a bit fatigued, though.", I respond honestly, and the staring from the others get worse. If I was close to fainting again, I would admit it!

I definetly do not pout as I continue making dinner. Yeah, I need rest and more magic, but it doesn't stop me from doing stuff. And it's not like I'm tired as well. It's just that my scars hurt—like always—and my head's a bit fuzzy...and that my limbs don't really like me as well, but they have no choice other than to work.

"You really have no self preservation skills, huh.", Legend says, and I give him a glare. I know my limits even if it doesn't always seem like it.

"A Link's a Link's, after all. As annoying as it can be, there's not much we can do.", Malon says, giving a look to Time. He only rolls his eyes, even as he's smiling. To be fair, Vio has a much worse self preservation skill than me, so it checks out.

"But that doesn't mean we can't force them to relax when we have the chance.", Warriors says as he grabs me out of the kitchen, and I'm very tempted to change my weight so he'll be unable to drag me and make a fool of himself. Maybe another day...

He forces me go sit by the table as Time helps his wife instead. I take of my necklace as I forgot to take it off earlier. I get my magic back faster than it uses it, but it's still way slower with it—and I shouldn't use it for long at a time either way.

"Wild, do you know how to make a magic recovery potion?", Warriors asks as the hero finally gets out of the bathroom, still drying his hair.

"Not yet.", he responds with, signaling for the next person to get ready. Warriors sighs, and I don't mention that I know how to make one. Well, technically only Vio does, but I've gone through his potion book enough times to know it by heart.

...But it's not like we have the ingredients to make it anyways. If we were in a more dire situation, I likely would have revealed it, but having some not so important secrets is fun.

Ugh, I really got the liking secrets from Vio, huh.

Sadly, we're only here for a week. All of us wish we could be here longer—no one'll complain about a nice bed and free food, even if we have to work a bit—but the portal did appear right in the living room, so we can't really ignore it.

But the portal this time feels...off. I can't tell why, and it's annoying. But though I can speak up about it, I don't want to cause unnecesary stress. Like before, we walk in pairs, and I enter with Wild this time.

I blink, and we're finally on the other side. The air feels thick, and it's hard to breathe. Everything's so dark, and...I'm shorter?

I look down, and see that instead of legs, I have black paws. I look up again, and artificial heart beats faster. We're in the fucking dark world!

I look around, and the landscape is scarily familiar. When I wanted to get back to my era, I didn't mean it like this! Let's just hope this is after that adventure, as I them to run into me whilst we're here.

...Wait, where's the others?

"Wild? Link, are you here?", I yell out, being thankful that we're in a place with few monsters. Even if there was, I could easily defeat them—or just scare them—by myself but it'll just be a hassle.

I look up and oh, that weird flying creature that looks like a worm with small arms is Wild, isn't it? At least it seems to have heard my calling so he comes down, that prostethic arm of his in his mouth.

I sigh. How are we going to get anything done like this? Wild's too busy learning to not float sideways and can't attack anyone with his arm in his mouth, and I'm a fucking housecat! I would have liked to avoid this, but...

I turn into my Hylian form, and thankfully my spells stayed put. At least I don't need to explain that yet.

"Hey hey, I'll take care of your arm, okay?", I say, and though he looks a bit skeptical, he drops it in my hand...with a little spit, but I am not going to mention that.

His suprisingly small body goes to lay atop my shoulder like how Twilight's fur does on him, and giving out a small roar that's weirdly scary.

"This is my Hyrule—well, my dark world. I know my way around, but let's see if the others are in a safe place as well. I can also fight the dark magic trying to transform me here, but it's hard and sucks up my magic pretty quickly.", I say, and he only makes a weird sound as a way to say yes. It strangely sounds like a purr, although I don't think flying worms can purr.

Now that I think about it, why am I effected? Do I not count as a resident of the dark world anymore? After all, I am just a sword spirit now, even if I can shapeshift and turn into a shadow.

Ah, I shouldn't question it. I'll just ask Vio when I come home.

"Where could they be...", I mutter to myself, making sure to check the skies for any other creatures that could be flying up there. Also making sure to not step on anyone incase they got turned into a mouse or anything small.

We walk around in silence for a while, my left hand clutching his prostethic, the other giving small scratches to Wild's head, which he seemingly likes as he melts into my shoulder.

"...Is that? Hey, Legend", I yell out, Wild looking up and seeing 'Wolfie' and...a Hylian Legend? He glares at me—even having his hand on his sword—before letting my come closer, realising that I'm not a random monster. "You have a Moon pearl too?", Legend asks me after a moment, but I shake my head. Rainbow has one, but I don't need it. "I know how to repel the dark magic, but it does suck up quite a bit of my magic.", I say, and he nods. If he didn't know I used dark magic, this would be so suspicious. Well, if Wild used his braincell, he would've thought of this as suspicious too. But he doesn't seem to care, as he only floats down to Wolfie. "And by the way, that's Wild.", I say, as if me holding his arm and him having his Purah pad on him wasn't obvious enough.

"I've noticed. Anyways, shouldn't we be going? I don't know how familiar the others are with any sort of dark world, so they could easily be in danger.", Legend says, and I only nod. I ask them to follow my lead, and we go back to searching.

I try to avoid the areas I know are filled with monsters, as I would like to avoid conflict. I make sure the other heroes are quite, as sound in this place is a death sentence. Honestly, just being here in general is a death sentence.

We continue walking through the world, spotting Sky as a Hylian—because if the master sword's magic—Wind as a seagull, Warriors as a dog, Time as a golden wolf, and lastly, Hyrule as a fairy.

I would gush about how cute some of them are—especially Hyrule. I will talk about him being part fae later—but not yet.

Whilst we were searching, I decided to turn back into my animal form. Wild can fly and hold his own arm, and since we already have Sky and Legend, there isn't much to worry about incase of enemies appearing. I usually feel at least a bit off right after transforming, but I don't now. Eh, I won't complain.

"Should we search for a way out or wait until a portal arrives? Both could take quite a long time.", I say, knowing we would need to enter the castle if we wanted to reach the mirror, and that would require planning and a lot of preparation. Even then, I haven't figured out if this is before, during, or after that adventure. For all we know, the mirror could already be broken.

"I think we should wait. I know this is your dark world, but I don't expect that you know where the exit even is. It's likely protected by a magical force so we can't go through it anyways.", Legend says, and I only nod even if he doesn't notice it.

I can feel Wild's chin rub against the top of my head, and it seems he agrees with Legend. Thankfully, no one else tries to argue the desicion—as much as they could even talk outside of random noises—so we continue and try to find a safe place to keep camp for now.

It seems they've all started to form groups already. Wind is showing off his flying skills to Sky, and also watching out for enemies. Hyrule laying right on Time's head. Legend, Twilight, and Warriors staying together even as Legend teases Warriors about not being good at using his dog body, Twilight showing him some tips so he can move a bit faster. And lastly, we of course have Wild laying on me just like earlier...Although it seems he's fallen asleep. He's a bit harder to carry in cat form, but I'll manage.

"Stop, there's enemies.", I say, making the animals stop in their tracks as Wild wakes up, looking over to ones I don't think they know too much about.

"I'll take care of them. Just...stand here, okay?", I say, and though Legend and Sky look at me confused, they let me do as I say.

I slowly walk over to them, and they don't seem to notice me. I've been hiding my magic so the others can't sense it well—even if it doesn't always work, like with Sun and Sky—but it also makes it harder for enemies to sense my presence.

I turn into my Hylian form, black and all, and approach the monsters from behind, though letting them sense my magic. They cover in fear as they turn around, and I simply grin.

"You'll let us past, right? Because you wouldn't like him to know that more of his subordenetes died a pointless death, would he?", they all run away, either being scared by me or the threat of Vaati. Either way, I couldn't care less.

I take a deep breath, my magical aura going back into it's cell, and I turn around to look at the others who look at my worried, or in Warriors' case, suspicious. This was probably not a good idea, but oh well.

"Don't worry, it's just something I can do here! I use all the dark magic that attached itself to my body here to simply scare them away, since it's easier to do.", I explain, and they thankfully accept it...even if Warriors isn't entirely convinced.

I notice Legend rolling his eyes, but I ignore it. What, does he think I'm going to tell everybody at once? Nope, never!

"Wild, can you check out what we have in the pad?", I ask, and he floats down to the ground and tries to touch the screen. It doesn't work.

"...Oh.", I say. No one outside of him and potentially Twilight knows how it works, but since they're both stuck as animals, we're at a loss.

"Wait, what if he uses the master sword to turn into a Hylian! If so, he could just explain how to use it.", I says feeling very smart. Wild likes the idea too, letting a still kind of terrifying roar.

"Sky and the others are gone hunting.", Legend says. I pout, but then something clicks in my head. I grin, and he already knows what I'm going to ask by his terrefied expression.

"No, I am not giving him my Moon pearl, not even for a moment!", Legend says, red—no, honestly more pink—in the face. I give him my best puppy dog eyes, and he glares.

And glares, glares, glares...

"Ugh, fine! Just stop looking at me like that, okay? And give it back the second he stood explaining the pad.", he says, handing the moon pearl over to Wild and--

Oh my Demise, he's a pink bunny!!

"Yeah yeah, laugh that I'm a fluffy and cute little bunny all you want. I can and will bite your ankles.", he threatends, and I finally stop laughing. Considering I live with Link, I know getting bitten there is not fun.

"Okay Wild, let's get started!"

Time passes fast, and it's not long before I know how everything in this pad works. The first thing I do is put my necklace in it, and I feel the gradual magic loss going away—even if I'm still using a lot by being in my Hylian form.

And thankfully, the other heroes return too. Including Sky, who has a smug look as he looks at a certain hero.

"Legend, why is your hair pink again?"

"Shut. Up."

It hurts.

It seems my scars hurt even more when in the dark world, as my back is killing me and I feel like I'm going to cry. I won't actually cry, as my body can't produce tears unless I specifically make it able to, but I sure can get emotional.

It doesn't seem like the others have noticed, as they're either asleep, or in Warriors' case, having watch. A little part of me wants him to notice and help me, but I know I have to deal with this myself. Just the idea of them finding out about my scars in a place like this is something I would rather avoid, especially as he's already suspicious of me.

I hear a little whimper from my side, seeing Wars standing besides me, his tail lower than it was earlier. So much for him not noticing...

"I'm fine. Just...can't sleep, is all.", I mutter, managing to sit up as to not have much back scream at me any longer. Hylia, why does it hurt so much?

He lays his head on my lap, trying his best to copy what Wolfie does whenever someone in the chain feels down, but I only chuckle as he's clearly not very good at it.

He quietly barks at me, and I'm sure he would be pouting if he was a Hylian. I only ruffles his fur though, making sure to scratch behind his ear as I know dogs like that.

His tail begins wagging, but before he gets too distracted by me petting him, he stands up yet again and goes behind me--

"Do not touch my back.", I say, and he immideatly stops in his tracks, looking at me worried as I begin explaining.

"My back hurts a lot. No, no magic can heal it, and yes, I always try to mange it well. But it's been worse here than in normal Hyrule for whatever reason.", I explain, and he nods, laying his head on my lap yet again as he allows me to pet him, distracting me until the others wake up.

"Are you sure you're reppeling the magic properly?", Legend asks, and I look at him confused as I wake up...before noticing my hair. I really should've just stayed in my cat form!

"Fuck!", I swear out, seeing my hair was clearly black, though thankfully it kept the hair the same length and style. Is it a style when I only keep it down?.

I manage to turn it back to normal, letting out a sigh of relief even as Legend looks at me half suprised, half suspicious. Even though he knows I use dark magic, seeing this would still be weird

"What happened to your hair over there?", he asks, clearly more on guard than earlier, but I don't blame him. I would likely have the same reaction if it happened to someone else I knew.

"...Blonde isn't my natural hair colour. I use a spell to keep it coloured and tidy since hair dye is rare and expensive.", I say, a slight blush appearing on my face. At least it happened in front of Legend and not Warriors.

"Is that colour looked down upon in your era?", he asks, shuffling closer.

"It's usually associated with evil, so you could say that.", I chuckle, going over to wake some of the Links up, being careful not to accidently get biten since they sometimes do that if I'm too agressive.

I manage to wake everyone up with no new injuries, although they don't seems very happy, especially when looking around and seeing that we're still in the dark world.

I open Wild's slate which I've been taking care of since he couldn't carry it himself. I look through the food and ingriedents, finding that there's not much left of both.

I'm unsure on just how long we've been in here. Normally, I would ask Time, but I can't communicate with him at the moment. But even so, I think we've been here for around 2 weeks.

Yeah, but stocked up on potions and some ingredients, but not anything that could last that long!

"We could potentially continue down here for a few more days, but then we'd have to hunt again. But an annoying amount of enemies down here have black blood, and I don't know what would happen if we eat that. And we really need to be careful about our magic reserve. I say. I know if a way to quickly get magic, but I would rather avoid it.

"You think the magic here is messing the portal up? I can understand why we were sent down here, but I believe that hunting down all the black blooded monsters is impossible down here.", Legend asks, and I nod. Either Hylia truly believes we can fix something here...or she simply can't reach us—the portal did feel off, after all. Either way, it's already been 2 weeks and we want out.

"...I have an idea how to get out, but I need you guys to promise me to not ask any questions.", I say, and the rest of the chain looks suprised, but listen intensly.

"I know how to make portals, and I think I may be able to make one to get us out of here.", I say, not being able to look at any of them as I reveal it. Here goes my plans of trying to keep it a secret...

"How?! If you could make them, why didn't you do it to get us out of bad situation?!", Legend yells, but I only glare at the bunny boy, and he visibly flinches.

"No. Questions. I'll let us rot here forever if anyone starts asking questions.", I say, and Legend promptly shuts up.

I take a deep breath. Now is really not the time to get angry. Making portals takes a lot of magic. And truthfully, I don't have enough. But...

"Trust me, okay?", I say, and they nod. I let out my magical aura, not bothering with hiding it anymore. It isn't long before I run up to some poor enemies, and easily kill them. Finally, some real blood!

I let my fangs out, and bite. The blood tastes just as bad as I remember, and it makes me kind of neasous, but I have to ignore it. Instead, I have to focus on the fact that is replenishes my magic like how a potion would.

I don't know how, but monster blood tastes a lot worse than a potion.

I take a deep breath, releasing my aura as I don't have much reason to hide it anymore. I can vaguely notice the others shock. I haven't used any obvious dark magic around them—outside of the intimidating tactic I did 2 weeks ago, and when I rescued Legend—so not weird that they're suprised.

I focus on my magic for now, knowing it could all go wrong if I get distracted, or at least transport us somewhere unsafe.

The portal eventually appears infront if me, and they all go in groups like usual, although Legend staying last instead of Time.

"...Thank you.", the hero says, walking through the portal and leaving me alone, letting me take a deep breathe before I join them too, leaving this forsaken world—hopefully—forever.

We've been in Time's house for a few days now—thank Hylia for me being able to make a portal directly there—and we're mostly back to normal.

My hair is still blond, everyone is hylian—although Legend got a free trip to the stylist it seems, as his hair was just as pink as his bunny form—and no one is hurt outside of Warriors' self esteem.

"Aww, the little doggo can bite?", Legend teases, and I sit by Wind as prime entertainment is showcased right in front of us!

"I'd bite your head off, bunny boy.", they continue to bicker, and even Time is too tired to stop them as he only continues making—more like watching—dinner with his wife.

Since it's early in the morning, Wind falls asleep even as the two infront of us continue bickering. I won't try to wake him, though. The little sailor likely needs his sleep, as I know he snuck out tonight for some reason.

He eventually awakens by the smell of food, almost falling off the chair and practically drooling as he gets handed dinner. Sadly, the two heroes have stopped arguing as well, so I only sit between Wind and Time and slowly eat the food.

Wolfie—should I be calling him Twilight since he's revealed that they're the same?—lay by our feet, seemingly tired enough to not ask for food yet, although I bet he'll manage to convince Wild to give him some later whilst still in his wolf form.

I give Wolfie the bits of food I had left as I just simply wasn't in the mood for eating, but still sitting in between the the two heroes.

I know I don't need sleep, but...I can rest my eyes, right? No harm, no foul...

Will totally not fall asleep...

Another week, another portal. This time, we return to Warriors' Hyrule, for some strange reason. Wait, why were we only in Time's era for a week again? Is it because I made the portal? I don't understand why we haven't been to Legend's, Hyrule's, Twilight's and my era, but we can't really do anything about it anyways. Either way, we thankfully we arrive right by the castle, so we get our own fancy rooms.

But though the room is very pretty and the bed is godly, there is something I hate and want removed immideatly.

The mirror.

I stare at it, the mirror ignoring my spell and showing my hair as black and in a completely different style, my fangs showing up as well.

I remember all the stories the townspeople have spread around. How if you even think about having a mirror, you're an awful person and wish for demons to invade the town with you as their leader. I think I know where the stories came from, but even I—who clearly despise mirrors—think it's a bit overkill.

"Wars, can I destroy the mirror in my room?", I ask as everyone was eating by the absurdly long dinner table, but the Captain only looks at me confused.

"No! If you did that, you would definitely get arrested until we managed to get you out.", he says, but I only sigh. I continue to eat the food which isn't as delicious as Wild's, sadly.

"What do you have against mirrors?", Hyrule asks. Now that I think about it, we haven't been in his era yet either, huh...

"I think the townspeople have affected me too much...although, I've never liked mirrors either way."

"Why would the town have anything against mirrors?", I chuckle slightly, but let out a sigh as I think of everything Link told me about our little Hyrule Town.

"Mostly from stories from before I was born, it seems. They tell of the time there was a big mirror in the middle of town, but one day, monsters suddenly came out of it and almost destroyed the place! They only managed to stop them by destroying the mirror, and since then, it's been illegal to have any mirrors in the town."

"I can see why they don't like mirrors, but making it illegal? How do they even know what they look like?

"We use glass. The clothing store has a room that full of glass to look at your reflection, and quite a few houses has a room for that as well...But it's mostly the rich who have that."

Strangely enough, I notice Twilight only plays with his food as we talk about mirrors. Does he not like them as well? Well, he does have some kind of dark magic, so it wouldn't be too strange.

"Your town is weird...", Wind mumbles, but I only chuckle as dinner continues on normally.

We walk through a portal for what—the 30th time? I've probably been in less, but I stopped counting after 3. But what I encountered after walking through the portal is different.

The fae magic in the air, the distant smell of baked goods and iron, and the feeling of fullness as I breathe.

I'm...I'm home!