Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Luckily for Echo, it wasn’t hard to convince the others to wait outside while she talked to Lueburry (Lue for short). Really, there was no convincing needed at all. They themselves said they assumed an inventor who made a powerful sword to kill monsters probably had things lying around they didn’t want to accidentally bump into.

While the group waited a slight distance away, she steeled herself for some kind of explosion before knocking briefly on the door.

She heard a crash, luckily no explosion followed. What followed was a long string of curses coming from two different voices. Aimed at who knocked on the door. AKA her.

She could see the Links shudder and take a few more steps away. Legend and Wars hid behind a nearby tree.

She sighed before simply opening the door just enough to peek her head in. Dampé was sprawled on the floor, trying to get his leg out of some weird mechanism and she honestly doesn’t want to know what it does. Lue was off to the side searching through a box for something.

She took another breath before forcing her voice out.

“Zone?”

Zone is the word used in construction, testing, and general crazy people spaces to simply ask if it is safe to enter. The normal responses are:

Boring - Safe

Fun - Danger

Weird - Enter at your own risk

She got:

“Where the fuck is the key?!”

And:

“Why are there keese in here?”

She stepped away from the door for a moment and took in a deep breath. She let out the most long-suffering sigh she could muster before pushing the door open and entering, closing it behind her.

She skirted around the edge of the room to Lue and watched for a moment as he rummaged through one of the crates of supplies. She scanned the room briefly before spotting a small key sitting on the floor next to his desk.

She sighed again and walked over to grab it. Honestly, there is a reason these two are required to have supervision while working together. They were fine on their own but not together. She was so tattling to Moa. He’d have a field day laying it into the pair of airheads. Impa would join him.

When she looked back, he was already going through another box near her. She simply held the key out in front of his face and watched as he went cross-eyed to see it.

“Yes! That is it thank you-”

He stopped as he turned to see her. For a moment he looked like he’d panic at the green tunic. She knocked his glasses down from the top of his head. She didn’t glare or anything, she just looked at him, eyebrow raised, and he cowered a little. He still took the key.

“Zelda! It’s been a while. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

She gestured over to Dampé, and he took the hint and deflated. Shuffling over to unlock whatever the thing is and check on the other crazy inventor, who had what she assumed was a concussion.

She turned and rummaged in the bottom drawer of the desk to find a red potion. She noticed he was low and noted it mentally to let Impa lay into her brother about. Also noted that she needed to grab some herself from Suthorn village if she got the chance.

“Zone?”

“Oh yes yes- Bor-ring…”

She walked over and smacked him on the back of the head, a thing she’d picked up from Impa when one of her boys was misbehaving. He didn’t even flinch and simply took the potion from her and helped a cloudy-eyed Dampé drink it.

After a moment his eyes cleared, and he took notice of her almost instantly. Eyes wide looking around at the clearly nonexistent chaperone. He too then deflated and pouted.

“Zelda… We kinda got carried away?”

Lue spoke up before she could respond.

“Yeah, it was an accident! We were just making the blueprints and then-” She stared at him, “…we started a project without sending for a supervisor.”

She probably needs to stop sighing at this point.

“I’m not in charge of lecturing you but expect Moa or Impa sometime soon. Don’t think hiding will do you any good either.”

Dampé had that look in his eyes. Condé would smother them out of worry rather than hide them. Lue had a different look in his eyes. He turned to the calendar Moa had hung up on the wall for him a few months ago.

Impa kept it updated with important meetings and dates so he knew when he could drop in to try and convince Moa to help him test random things. (Or do projects unsupervised)

“Wait, why are you here? You and Link have a late-night meeting with Lord Douche.”

“Lord Denzell, not Douche as funny as that’d be,” She dropped down onto the floor to be level with them. No reason to stand, she’d done her part of intimidating them.

“New circumstances popped up, so me and Moa are currently switched. I’ll be going by Echo for the time being.”

Lue looked a little worried and Dampé looked curious. Dampé spoke up first.

“You switched? As in you finally switched positions or your identities again? I know your father talked about stepping down and letting you two decide who takes the throne first. But then- why the new name?”

She nodded as Dampé spoke.

“Dad isn’t stepping down till I’m at least twenty-one. He’s planning to wait till I’m twenty-five if he can help it. However, with his age and the pressure from the other kingdoms, he might not get that far. Me and Moa have switched identities for the time being.”

Lue turned his own raised eyebrow at her.

“And just why have you two done so this time? Some tea party coming up you want to avoid?”

She shook her head.

“No, the goddesses are calling for heroes to help them with something. A group of nine, ranging from teen to adult, showed up while Moa and I were having a picnic. Moa was wearing an old dress of mine to get out of the castle and I had on my red tunic, so they assumed I was him. Given the disaster I would be with politics, we agreed to continue letting them believe I’m Moa while he stays behind pretending to be me to the lords and ladies.”

“So, the people don’t accidentally give you away I guess?”

“Yup! And because this is looking to be leaving our time, the people wouldn’t let me just disappear to some strange new timeline.”

Dampé held up his hand and she gave him a ‘you don’t need to raise your hand’ look.

“What about the name?”

“Well, I’m pretending to be Moa. It just so happens he and the group all share a name. Link. So, they go by hero titles.”

“But you don’t have a hero title?” She looked to Lue, who was confused.

“No, but I do happen to have a title. Remember when Dad once jokingly called me ‘Princess of Echoes’?” Lue and Dampé nodded, “That’s a real title that I can use. I just don’t tell them I’m princess versus hero.”

A smile grew on Lue’s face.

“That’s our Zel- Echoes?”

“You can call me Lynel if it’s easier. I know you already do when talking to Moa.”

“Oh, shush you weren’t supposed to know that!”

She laughed as Dampé sat there confused about the name. While it was common knowledge that she called Link ‘Moa’, It wasn’t common knowledge that he called her ‘Lynel’.

Maybe she’d gossip with the two of them for a bit. The Links could wait.

Chapter Text

Echo eventually left Lue and Dampé to their devices and headed back out to the Links. Some of them had sat down around a small fire while the rest were still standing around ready to run if some strange experiment exploded.

She honestly couldn’t blame them.

She approached and noticed Wild was stirring something in a bowl while Twilight chopped something on a cutting board in his lap. It smelled nice, she’d have to ask for the recipe.

Time was the first to notice her approach. He was one of those sitting at the fire with Twilight and Four. Sky was napping using Four’s lap as a pillow.

“Everything good?”

She plopped down beside him and took the drink Four offered her, pumpkin juice yummy.

“Yup, but I’ll have to send a letter to Moa and Impa in the castle. They’re the ones in charge of lecturing our crazy inventors.”

Four had a strange look in his eyes

“Moa? Isn’t that a monster? I heard Legend mention it before.”

She nodded.

“It is but I use it as a nickname for my friend. You saw him with me earlier. He was the one I was having the picnic with; he needed to get out of the castle. It was kinda like revenge originally, cause he wouldn’t stop calling me Lynel to my face. Now we both like the names ‘cause they fit.”

Time raised an eyebrow. He doesn’t mention the different pronouns for Moa and she’s kinda glad they accept it so quickly. Wind pops into the conversation.

“Your friend calls you Lynel? How is that accurate?”

“You don’t want to know.”

Hyrule, Legend, and Wars made there way over. Wars had an eyebrow raised.

“Whatever it is we wont judge. At the same time if you don’t want to tell us that’s fine, Wind might bug you about it for a bit, but we can get him to drop it.” Wind pouted, “We have a phrase for things we don’t want to talk about, quest thing. As that’s when most things we don’t want to talk about happened, but you can use it for anything really.”

She thought about it, it was more embarrassing than bad. The guy deserved it.

“After my quest I was doing some stuff with my magic and for around five maybe six months it messed my emotions. Impa says I have the patience of a saint, but for that time period I did not. Moa was dealing with some bratty noblemen who kept trying to convince him to let them in my room and claiming he couldn’t stop them when they tried to find it themselves. I just happened to be turning the corner when I heard one of them call him a very horrible name and I kinda snapped. The guy is currently down a hand.”

Everyone stared at her. Should she not have told them? Impa had told her it was fine, and Moa had been proud.

Wind bounced over to her, she had to wonder how he had so much energy.

“You cut off a guy's hand!” He was smiling a lot, “That’s so cool!”

She saw Wars lean over to Time and whisper into his ear. She shuffled just lightly toward them.

“I have a bad feeling she’ll get along with Malon like a house on fire.”

Time sighed but was otherwise smiling himself.

“Except we’re the house and they’re the fire. Let’s do our best not to let it burn all of Hyrule.”

After she confirmed their lives wouldn’t end in a giant ball of fire, the rest of the night was spent with the other heroes telling her stories from their own adventures and giving her a basic idea of the timeline. She didn’t share anymore but they didn’t seem upset about it.

Wild and Twilight finished dinner, and they all decided to get rest after she confirmed that monsters wouldn’t be sneaking up on them without alerting an invention Lue had that she still didn’t understand but trusted not to explode on them.

They all set up their own areas and did their own nightly rituals. Twilight and Wild went off into the nearby area to ‘scout’ though she felt Twilight shift. Took all she had not to go try to find and pet him.

They eventually came back, and everyone settled down. They left the fire going because it was starting to get chilly. She had changed into her own green tunic which was warmer than Moa’s tunic and her silk pajama’s and used Moa’s old cloak as an extra blanket.

She laid there for a while, long enough that she guessed the others had fallen asleep, before getting up and heading further south to Suthorn Village. Luckily, the store was open late, and she was able to grab some red potion, plus some extra for Lue, and give the girl a letter to take to the castle.

She briefly explained to the girl working the store at the time that she would be gone for a while and requesting her to look after Link’s place in her absence. Something she usually did while traveling. She paid her some additional rupees for her trouble and headed back out toward Lue’s.

She managed to get back without much of a fuss but of course, she was dealing with Links. She noticed two empty bed rolls. Twilight’s, who just so happened to be sharing with Wild, and Fours. Three missing already, she was bound to have a headache in the morning.

She packed up the red potions into her bag and decided to wait to give Lue’s his in the morning. While they were quiet, she knew he and Dampé were up to something and didn’t feel like breaking her word to everyone that nothing would explode while they slept.

Once she had packed the potions away, she stopped and just stood in the center of the group, trying to determine where exactly the three dummies had gone. She started walking without a destination in mind, just letting her magic guide her. She was heading east.

It only took about five minutes for her to come across Four pacing around muttering to himself. She watched him for a minute trying to piece together what he was saying. He was saying words that didn’t fit into a sentence. Magically she could feel his soul arguing with itself somehow. She was going to try looking deeper at it when he finally noticed her.

It stunned her for a second how fast his magic and soul calmed down and retreated. She had to double check that all the pieces of him were still there.

“Need something?” She filed her questions away for later. If Four was the first one she found, then the other two would have disappeared first, right?

“Do you know where Wild and Twilight went?”

Four pointed further east.

“I heard Wild talking about looking at something she saw earlier; said it was some kind of bird he hadn’t seen before.”

She remembered the Guay she’d seen earlier. Wild had been staring at it hadn’t she?

She stared at Four for a moment. She had a gut feeling he’d wonder off if left alone, but she also wanted to track down the other two before they accidentally started a fight with a Guay.

Making up her mind, she walked over and took Four by the hand before heading east to find the other wayward heroes. He didn’t argue or try to pull away, and simply went with her.

She noticed that Four wasn’t wearing any of his ribbons. They were all hanging from his belt.

“What does none mean?”

He tilted his head and looked confused for a moment, before it seemed to dawn on him, and he looked at his belt. After a moment he used his free hand to grab the red ribbon and attempted to put it on one handed.

She stopped for a moment and took it from her and tied it in a little flower bow around her wrist. Taking her hand again, she resumed walking while she stared at the ribbon dumb founded. She turned towards her, and she noted her eyes were a pale blue.

“Can you show me how to make a bow like that?”

She nodded while stretching her magic out for find the other two. She noticed Fours’ eyes light up. She’d show her how to make a hundred different ribbons if she wanted. Perks of being a princess, she was taught all the fancy ribbon work.

She walked with Four for a while, almost another ten minutes, before she found Wild and Twilight.

The latter of which was standing half asleep against a tree while the former was hiding behind a bush staring out into a clearing, weird glowing thing in hand, with a couple different monsters. There were some zol, a couple ropes, two moblins, and the blue Guay she’d noticed earlier.

She walked up to Twilight and passed off a still starry-eyed Four to him before approaching Wild. Crouching down to hide behind the bush with her. She locked eyes with one of the moblins but he stayed put. If they didn’t start a fight, neither would the monsters.

She turned to Wild who was messing with something on the glowing thing. She kept her voice low, at a whisper.

“So, whatcha doing?”

Wild turned to her and stared for a moment. She saw her glance back at Twilight and Four. Four was now cuddled up to the sleepy Twilight, still admiring the bow on her wrist. Twilight, despite fighting to keep his eyes open, hadn’t taken his eyes off Wild.

She wondered who else had a designated babysitter.

Probably Hyrule and Wind.

Maybe Sky.

Sky seemed like the type she’d have to watch out for for some reason. Maybe it was the connection to a bird? She always had to keep an eye on things that could fly. They tended to drift off randomly.

Wild held up the rectangle and she focused back on it. She took a moment to admire some inventors work because it showed the clearing perfectly. It was like she’d made a painting two seconds ago.

Wild moved her finger over it and it showed more close ups of the monster before landing on one of the Guay. Wild pointed to it and tilted her head questioningly.

“That’s a Guay, they are mostly pink or purple. That one’s rare cause it blue, but it’s still a Guay.”

She could hear a muttered ‘told you so’ from behind her.

Wild simply nodded and went back to staring at it. She looked over at the moblins again and decided why not introduce everyone?

Chapter Text

Echo took a moment to orient herself and make sure she had what she needed.

Then, without warning she stood. Wild looked slightly alarmed as she was now in full view of the monsters in the clearing, but she smiled and waved him off. She could hear Four and Twilight rushing over.

She stepped out of the bush and quickly took off her belt, which had her sword and Tri Rod. She set it down gently next to the bush before approaching the first Moblin.

She nicknamed this one Ash because he had a bad habit of starting fires when he felt threatened. The other one is Mysty because she likes the early morning mist. Not the most creative, but she had to call them something.

She rummaged through her pockets and pulled out some meat wrapped in cloth, offering some to Ash. Mysty took no time to spot the snack and came wandering over. They always liked her snacks, it’s how she’d won their respect, and who wouldn’t like her food? She could cook better than any of the monsters or villagers could with only a fire and basic seasonings.

She should probably tell Wild that. Let her know she does have one capable hand to help her.

A couple of the ropes scooted over and brushed up against her legs. She grabbed another cloth out of her pocket and dropped some blueberries for them. They gobbled them up without hesitation and turned back up to her for more.

The Guay stayed in a tree but that was fine. Guays always took a bit more convincing to be her friend. It would come down when she brought out the roasted seeds, she knew that it knew she had them. Roasted seeds were always her winning hand.

She turned and could see the three heroes staring at her in shock. She waved them over and motioned to her belt, hoping they took the hint to drop all visible weapons. Hidden ones where fine, rods sometimes, she carried a knife in her boot and the monster knew that and didn’t care, they knew she needed to protect herself in a pinch, just like they had to.

Four was the first one to step out of the bush. Ash and Mysty locked onto her instantly, but she didn’t falter at their stares. She took of her sword and pouch but left an ice rod strapped to her side, looking to her to see if it was ok.

The rod wasn’t an obvious threat, so she gave Four a thumbs up and turned back to Mysty who had her hand out for some berries, she gladly obliged.

When Four reached her, she dropped some berries into her hand had motioned to the ropes and the zols who had approached at the sight of yummy berries. Four took the hint and bent down to give them her offering of peace.

She felt a brush against her arm and found Wild staring at the moblins curiously. Twilight was sitting back by their weapons.

She pulled out the roasted seeds and handed them too Wild. Once again, she kept her voice low but not a whisper this time.

“Those are a hit with the guays. Only thing I can get them to come down peacefully for.”

Wild nodded and poured some of the seeds out into her hand and wandered over to the Guay slowly. It stayed in the tree for while, even after Wild held her hands up to it.

She did not fret and when Wild turned her head to her for guidance she simply nodded and turned back to her own friends and giving them snacks.

She took a moment to go back to her belt and grabbed her pouch off it. She passed an apple smoothie to Twilight before heading back to give some to Ash and Mysty. She gave Four a thing of milk and a bowl for the ropes.

Eventually she sat down with everyone, minus Wild. Twilight had wandered up to them at some point and was leaning against her, dozing off while sipping on the remains of a milky sweet smoothie. Four was playing some unspoken game with Ash moving rocks around randomly. She had no idea who was winning, but she’d occasionally jump in and move a random rock.

One of the ropes had stolen Fours lap and she was petting it lightly while playing the strange game. Mysty would reach over and give it one of her berries.

Wild was still standing with her arms up offering seeds to the Guay. She seemed determined to befriend it. Four and Ash made some more moves with the rocks and she gave Mysty and a sleepy half-awake Twilight some more smoothie.

She heard a flutter and when she turned to look the Guay was sitting on Wilds head, eating the seeds out from her hands. She decided to leave them be and moved a rock in the ongoing game which had Four pouting and Ash smiling.

Slowly Wild wandered over with the Guay in tow and she patted the ground near her. Wild sat and the Guay jumped down to have some of the milk left in the bowl. She pat it on the head while it glared at her, but she knew her fingers were safe. She needed them to make more roasted seeds and the Guay knew that.

She noted that this particular Guay was a girl and filed that information away for later in case she wanted to come back and befriend it more.

Wild started budding into Four and Ash’s game to the point she was pretty sure she was just actively playing. Twilight was officially asleep on her shoulder now and she was starting to feel the excitement of the day wearing on her.

She yawned and decided a small nap wouldn’t hurt.

~A/N: Hi~

The nap hurt.

She should have known that with Twilight sleeping up against her, neither Four nor Wild would think to stop playing their game to head back to camp. They all had ended up falling asleep and apparently, they all slept rather well given none of them woke up till morning…

She had a feeling at least one of the boys back at camp should be awake and would have noticed their absence.

She waved to Ash and Mysty, who were half awake by a small fire they must have made up recently. She then proceeded to shake Twilight enough to get him moving and dragged Four up from her spot cuddling a rope.

Wild was snuggled up with the Guay whom she vaguely remembers her naming at some point. She decided to let Twilight get her up, she just had a feeling it was safer that way. She got Four over to their things and helped her strap on her sword. Repeating with Twilight when he wandered over with Wild.

She threw her own belt over her shoulder before grabbing Four’s hand and started leading the group back to the rest of the heroes. She really hoped they hadn’t wandered off at some point in the night, she didn’t want to have to track anyone else down right now.

Four pulled at the ribbon on her wrist and she slowed down to help her untie it. She moved to put the green one (Neutral) on and she helped tie it in a simple Dior bow. She thought it fit the green well.

They walked the rest of the way in silence.

When they got to the clearing, she noticed Sky was the only one awake. She was surprised, she had expected everyone to be up and looking for them.

Twilight poked her in the arm, and she turned to him.

“Sky is awake, but his brain isn’t. He didn’t notice we were gone. He’s a heavy sleeper and is hard to wake up but he’s always awake when the food is ready, which is usually right about now. He’ll go back to sleep in a few minutes unless food starts being made.”

Twilight then yawned and dropped down into his bed roll with Wild not far behind. She wanted to follow suit, but it was cold, and she didn’t want to lay in her bed roll because she knew it would also be cold.

Four solved her problem by taking her hand for once and bringing her to their bed roll. When they dragged her down into it, she was a little jealous. Despite being out and unoccupied all night their bed roll was really nice and warm. It was also really soft.

She cuddled up with Four and pretty soon she was drifting off to sleep again.

She decided that this time, a nap really wouldn’t hurt.