Chapter Text
Ishara did not like to make generalizations based on single experiences, but she felt confident in her assessment that she did not like forests. The moisture in the air was making her clothes stick to her skin uncomfortably, she was tripping over raised tree roots every three steps, and she felt like she was constantly swatting away tiny insects from her face.
There were more unexplained noises around the small group, as well. The ears of the two hylians were constantly twitching, though neither of them reacted outwardly to any of the sounds that Ishara worried about. Rustling undergrowth was the result of small game, not monsters; the wind sending a branch crashing down was not magical in origin; the bird calls were all distant local creatures and not the heralding of a great beast.
Sheik intermittently made a bird call of their own, though Ishara had no hope of identifying it. Link had quirked an eyebrow the first time, but if he had any questions, he didn’t broach them. Other than Sheik’s calls, the three of them traveled in comfortable silence.
She couldn’t see the sun well enough to track the time. After what felt like an hour, though, Sheik froze in place so abruptly that Ishara nearly tripped over them.
”Is something wrong?”
Link turned around just as Sheik let out their bird call again.
”What bird is that?” he signed. There was the barest hint of suspicion on his brow.
Ishara could see Sheik’s grin in the crinkle of their eyes. “Blue breasted swallow. Nearly extinct where I’m from.”
Link waved a hand for them to elaborate.
”That’s how we signal each other.”
Ishara took the bait. ”Who?”
”My other half.”
Now that she knew to listen, she heard an echo of Sheik’s bird call through the trees. Sheik took off like a shot down the game path they were on, and Link immediately ran after them. Ishara sighed, hiked her skirt up a bit higher, and did her best to follow.
Thankfully, they didn’t get very far. Ishara half stumbled into a small clearing to the sight of what she could only identify as a second Sheik emerging from across the way. Sheik - her Sheik - ran to them, and they embraced like they hadn’t seen each other in years. When they clasped their left hands together and pressed them to each other’s foreheads, it was the first time Ishara noticed the bandages wrapped around Sheik’s hand. They matched their mirror.
She managed to catch up to Link and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from getting closer. She wasn’t entirely sure what kind of reunion it was, but it was clearly an important one, and she didn’t want to break it up just yet.
The children were eventually broken up by another Hylian staggering into the clearing, followed by a small wooden doll-like creature she belatedly identified as a deku scrub.
“That’s—not what I expected,” the hylian said. His pack made a heavy thump when he dropped it.
”Sheik propogated!” the scrub declared.
”I…don’t think that’s the case, but it would not be the weirdest thing I’ve seen.”
“I assume you are friends, not foes?” Ishara said. Everyone, including the Sheiks, turned their attention to her. She straightened her back and smoothed out a fold in her skirt. “We are friends of Sheik, who is clearly friends with…Sheik. If you are friends of theirs, then perhaps you will be friends of ours?”
The hylians looked at her in confusion (and she could not read the scrub’s expression) as she waited for the appropriate response. Had this been a group of gerudo, they would have reciprocated her bid for connection by now, else drawn weapons. Her fingers twitched towards the hilts of her swords, but she stopped herself. She had met hylians before; they did not usually mean to be rude.
The Sheiks whispered to each other briefly. “Any friend of Shol is a friend of mine,” the other Sheik said.
”Shol?” Link signed, making his best guess at the spelling.
The other Sheik nodded. “That’s his real name. Sheik is our cover.”
”My sister is Zeik,” Shol added. He had pulled her just a bit closer when she said his name.
”It is good to meet you properly, Shol,” Ishara said, trying to sound warm; she didn’t want to scare these clearly nervous children. “And you as well, Zeik. We meet in good health. My name is Ishara. I am glad your brother was able to find you.”
”We were trying to find where the shooting star landed,” Shol said. “I thought if you had come here too, you would have done the same.”
”I did find it!” Zeik said. She looked pointedly over her shoulder at the hylian man.
“You are the falling star?” Ishara asked him.
The man tried to bite back laughter at a joke only he seemed to get. “Yes. It seems a few people mistook my probe for a meteorite. Not my best work, if I’m honest.”
”’Probe’?”
The deck scrub popped out from behind his legs. “His egg!”
”It’s not an egg,” he sighed.
”I am confused.”
”He came out of a big metal egg like some kind of weird bird.”
”It’s not an egg, it’s a ship.”
”You are a sailor,” Ishara said.
”Not exactly.”
”In the sky?”
”Im a way, actually.”
”And you fell here.”
”Yes.”
”Where are you from? Are you trying to return home?”
”I don’t think it will be that easy.”
”Because of the portal?”
Ishara and the sailor both jumped at Shol’s sudden appearance beside them. Ishara guessed it was Shol. If the two of them traded places, she likely wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.
The man ran a hand through his hair. “How did you know about that?”
”We all went through one.”
Link raised his hand awkwardly.
”Except him. He lives here.”
”This is your time,” the man confirmed.
”Time?” Zeik asked. Ishara thought it was Zeik, at least.
The man nodded. “I’m from your future,” he said as if it made any sense. “Your distant future. If you were all brought here by portals like I was, then it would make sense that you’re from different times, too.”
A different time. She did not know much about Hyrulean culture, so she had no way to tell based on her companions how far forward or back she was from her own history, if she really had stepped across time.
”What is your name, falling star?” she asked.
”Link.”
Her Link groaned, one of the only vocal sounds she had heard him make.
“What’s wrong with the name Link?”
”My name is Link,” he signed.
”Stars and dust,” Link said with a tone that made the words seem like curses.
”NIcknames?” Zeik offered.
”Code names,” Shol added.
”Kamo!” the scrub declared, the word more whistle than consonant.
”Absolutely not,” Link said.
The kids broke out into laughter, even the younger Link. Ishara curled her lips in to hold back her own giggles. She wasn’t sure what the name meant, but she guessed it was something silly.
“We believed you were a falling star,” she mused. “Would ‘Star’ satisfy?”
The twins and the scrub “ooh”ed. The deku scrub shivered and rustled, and its eyes glowed brighter for a moment.
It was the older Link’s turn to laugh. “Sure. Why not?”
“What about you?” Zeik said to the scrub. No, if they were asking the scrub, it was probably Shol.
The scrub let out a series of whistles and thumps, then waited for a response. When all it got was blank stares, it added, “You can call me Kili.”
”Wait a second,” the newly dubbed Star said. "Doesn't the other Link get a nickname, too?”
Link shrugged. “Why would I?” he signed.
”To avoid confusion?”
”But you have a nickname now.”
Star sucked in a sharp breath through his nose. He let it out slowly. “Fine. Whatever.”
“If everything in this matter is settled,” Ishara said, “I would like to request a guide out of this forest. If I am displaced from my time as you say, I would like to go to gerudo lands and seek help from my people.”
”Would they know how to get us all home?” Zeik asked.
”I do not know,” she admitted. “But it can only help to ask.” She swatted at a buzzing insect near her ear. “And I would certainly like to be out of this forest.”
”My village,” Link signed. “And maybe Zelda.”
The twins looked at each other nervously. “Zelda?” Shol asked.
”My friend. The princess. She might be able to help.”
”I guess we really are in a different time,” Zeik said. She took Shol’s hand again.
”How do you know?” Kili asked.
”There was a Zelda in our time,” Shol said.
”She died,” Zeik said. She stared at the ground.
”She was killed, protecting the Triforce.”
Ishara felt her heart twist. She knew too well what some people would do for the Triforce. What people have already done.
Link and Kili didn’t seem as shaken. Star looked contemplative.
“I am sorry,” she said after a few moments of silence.
”Let’s get out of here,” Link signed. He wrapped an arm around each of the kids and started dragging them forward. They both screeched and ducked away, setting him laughing again as he chased them around the clearing. Kili quickly joined in, though it was unclear if it was chasing or being chased,
Ishara and Star stayed back. Star was lost in thought, looking at the game but not watching.
Ishara tapped him on the arm with the back of her hand. “What is on your mind?” she asked.
”Time travel,” he said. “The Triforce is a legend in my time. Was it really something to kill over?”
”Yes.” She answered without hesitation. “For those who do not care about the cost of miracles. Even a single piece contains immeasurable power.” She looked out on the kids running around the clearing, all thoughts of death already gone from their minds. She had lost track of which twin was which again. “They say the princess Zelda is the bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom. The hero, when one appears, carries Courage. I would believe that the man who carries Power would kill for the missing pieces.”
Star chewed on his lip.
”It is an old story, even for us,” she continued. “Less a myth, though. It is very real, and very powerful.”
”Powerful enough to bring people through time?”
Ishara thought about the stories she had been told as a child. “I don’t know.”
At that moment, the twins beelined towards them. They split and dove around to hide behind her and Star as Kili jumped up into Star’s arms and Link skidded to a stop in front of them.
”Are we ready to go, then?” she asked mildly.
Link spent a few seconds catching his breath, glaring at the twins as they poked their heads out from their hiding places. Eventually, he rolled his eyes and waved for the group to follow.