#and i’m about to make it everybody’s problem

[catreginae]

Thou Shalt Not Fall: Recovery

Warriors was safe but far from okay, but Hyrule is determined to do everything he can to help. I am hoping this chapter is actually okay. I think I read it too much so I genuinely can't tell if there are problems or if it's only boring to me because I had to read it so much.

When Hyrule woke up, it was dark out and somebody was shaking him. His hand felt for his sword but then he felt that now familiar magic from the first vampire, so he relaxed a little. Their presence still made him jumpy but he knew it wouldn’t be long before he could put his guard down, at least while he was in this estate. The vampire was holding a lantern so he could see of her face, along with the fact that she had dark hair and rounded ears. It struck him that she looked especially young, probably around Wind’s age or a little younger.

“Elena is ready for you guys downstairs.”

Ah, a downstairs. That made sense now. The vampires didn’t live with the giant windows, they were underground where the sun would never reach them.

He got ready quickly and followed her down. He was the last one of the group so he awkwardly just sat down between Legend and Time, who were sitting at the very edge of the rectangular setup of fancy couches. The vampire who led him down quickly left the room, leaving what he guessed was two other vampires sitting on a couch on the other side of the room from them. One was a tall guy with red hair and rounded ears and the other was a Hylian was long, wavy blonde hair. The man was sitting up straight with a wide eyes while the woman was scanning all of them from her relatively laid back position. In particular, she seemed to be very interested in Wind but Hyrule wasn’t sure if Wind noticed.

“This is all of us... except for Warriors, of course. Er, Link,” Sky added quickly.

“I’m Elena and this is Walter.”

“We’re all Link. Different heroes from different points in history,” Time said. “You all have nicknames based on our titles, so the Link you’re familiar with is called Warriors. We can introduce our nicknames later.”

“I’ll keep calling him Link, if you don’t mind,” she mumbled before she straightened herself. “Link will be fine. We just don’t know how long it will take for him to be fine. We’re going in blind here since no vampire would have survived... what was it you said, Walter? A pool of light magic?”

“It was a spring where a light spirit resides so the spring also has properties of light magic,” Twilight chimed in. “I’ve used water from those springs to heal wounds but it did the opposite to him.”

“That would be a quick death to a regular vampire. There wouldn’t even be a body left to find,” Walter mumbled, shaking his head. “The fact that Link is here and already had a little bit of blood is kind of... miraculous, actually.”

Wind frowned. “Can we visit him?”

Elena nodded. “You can visit anytime you want but I have one rule – none of you are to feed him, even if it’s from a bottle. Please just leave that up to us. We can look into blood letting if any of you are truly interested in providing blood but we will be the ones to make him drink, got it?”

“We won’t feed him,” Time agreed with a nod. He didn’t look happy about it though and quite frankly, none of them did. However, Hyrule was inclined to trust the vampires to take care of Warriors. Warriors’ injuries were the most extreme they’ve ever been since they first got together and the vampires were more familiar with regeneration than any of them were. Hyrule wasn’t even sure if his magic was even doing anything. What else was any of them supposed to do?

Suddenly, she stood up and motioned for them to follow her. “I’ll show you where his room is so you can drop by whenever you want, even if we aren’t around,” she started as she walked to one of the hallways. Everybody hopped to their feet and followed her down a long, dark hallway until she came to a door that had a sign hanging from a nail on it. Hyrule couldn’t read Warriors’ script but he could recognize their shared name in it. He saw Warriors write his name down enough times to know it was their name on that door. It didn’t look like Warriors’ writing though and somebody even drew some stars and hearts around it.

Elena opened the door and walked inside. They followed her, slowly filling up the modest sized room. Warriors was on the bed, completely wrapped up like a gibdo. The only exceptions were his head, where he only had bandages around his eyes, and his feet which only seemed mildly burnt. The parts of his face that Hyrule could see were charred and Hyrule could see his fangs through the holes in his cheeks.

“We had to redo the bandages since they soaked up more water but you guys did a good job helping him out,” Walter said from just outside the door. Twilight and Time turned their heads to look at him, clearly alarmed. “I’m just a little burnt, not nearly as bad as Link! I just need another day, I’m fine.”

Twilight and Time looked at each other and then turned his attention back to Warriors.

Wind’s lip quivered. “He looks really bad.”

“He’s still here though,” Elena said quickly. “Vampires don’t die slowly. It might take a while but he’ll bounce back. At this point, the only way he could die is if he starved to death and with all of us around, that won’t happen. I’m not going to let the only other Hylian vampire die. You have my word that he’ll recover.”

“Okay,” Wind said quiet with a nod. He still looked upset but he also looked very determined at the same time. “If there’s anything we can do to help...”

“We’ll let you know, of course. For now, all of you are extra eyes. If you notice anything weird with him, let anyone here know, vampire or Hylian.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Legend mumbled.

It sounded easy but Hyrule had his doubts.

The next day, Hyrule was feeling pretty good. He had a lot of rest and a lot of food, so he had a lot of energy to dedicate to Warriors. He couldn’t see his magic doing anything when he last tried but he hoped that since his feet weren’t completely wrapped, then he could try healing the minor burns and see if his magic was actually doing anything after all. He knew his magic helped minor burns because he healed Warriors’ sunburns all the time, even if Warriors whined about him ‘wasting his magic’ later.

He didn’t really see the others upstairs where the most of the Hylians stayed but he found some of them downstairs by the fireplace. Wild, Time, and Wind were all engrossed in some sort of conversation with Twilight lounging on one of the couches, his eyelids drooping as he stared at the ceiling. Hyrule gave them a quick wave and moved to Warriors’ room. He was surprisingly alone but maybe that was for the best.

Warriors barely moved since the last time Hyrule saw him but he didn’t expect anything different. He wouldn’t want to move if he was in Warriors’ position.

Hyrule took a deep breath and moved to the end of the bed where he could see his feet, the least burnt part of him. Maybe his boots had something to do with that. Regardless of how his feet managed to be relatively unscathed, Hyrule got to work and focused his magic. In the first positive sign he saw since he woke up that initial night, the red burns began to disappear. His magic was doing something then!

With his feet looking better, Hyrule decided to move to the other side of the bed. Warriors’ face was far too burnt for the life spell to really help and his ears fared no better – he was missing the tips and what was left was mostly red and black. It was a miracle he still had his earrings in and there was enough of his ears left to keep them from falling out.

But it wasn’t the part of his ears that Hyrule could see that he wanted to heal. He wanted to make sure Warriors could hear them, that he had some sort of link to the rest of them. Hyrule focused again, channelling the rest of his magic into his ears.

“What are you doing?”

Hyrule didn’t stop the spell but he did turn around to find one of the vampires watching him. She looked like an older version of the young looking vampire who brought him downstairs, though she seemed much more serious than that other vampire did. In her hand was small vial of blood. It looked to be about third of what Warriors would get if he drank from the one of the bottles Wild gave him. He reminded himself that he had to trust the vampires.

“I’m trying to heal his ears,” he answered. “I have healing magic. It helped with some of his minor burns before so I’m hoping if I can heal his ears enough, he can hear us.”

The woman looked bored when she came in but her expression lightened up when he spoke about magic. She walked inside the room, tilting her head slightly. “You can heal others with magic? I thought magic was more reserved for the royal family in Hylians.”

“People outside of the royal family have the capacity of magic and some of us are pretty good with it! There is just magic that only certain people in the royal family can do,” he answered as he pulled his hands away from Warriors. He would use a little more magic but he wasn’t going to interfere with Warriors getting the other thing he really needed to heal. If it seemed like a small amount, he still needed it.

“Can you go pinch his toes? That’s the best way to wake him up.”

Hyrule simply nodded. Apparently, Warriors didn’t like it when somebody touched his feet because it only took about five seconds of touching for him to start trying to pull his feet away with a rumble from his chest. That was all the woman needed to lift his head slightly and pour the blood into his mouth.

“That’s it, huh?”

“Yup, little vials of blood several times a day since we don’t know what shape his stomach is in. I hate babysitting, especially because he needs a lot of it, but Elena’s attached to him so we’re all pitching in. Except for Marcus, he’s not back yet.”

He could understand the reason why Elena was so cautious about feeding him them now. They must have him one some sort of schedule, drinking little vials of blood until they more comfortable.

“My name is Audrey, by the way. I think you’ve met my little sister too? Her name is Beth. I imagine you’ll be here for a while, otherwise I wouldn’t bother with introductions.”

“My nickname is Hyrule. We’re all Link so...”

“What a strange nickname. It makes no difference for me though. I’ll see you around,” Audrey muttered as she capped the vial again and promptly left the room. Hyrule spared Warriors one more glance as he settled back to sleep and left his room too.

They ate dinner together upstairs and together went downstairs to go visit Warriors again. However, when they got there, Hyrule noticed that there was a vampire he couldn’t recall seeing before. He looked young too, probably around Four’s age but he was definitely taller than him. His hair was light blonde to the point of it being nearly white and it was long enough to just touch his shoulders. His eyes were a light blue that seemed to shift to a light purple depending on the light. Was he the Marcus that Audrey mentioned?

He was talking to Elena and Walter around that fireplace and didn’t seem to care that people could herar them. Audrey and her little sister were nowhere to be seen.

“I also have a hitchhiker,” the small vampire muttered as he opened his jacket to reveal a little blue fairy sitting in one of the inner pockets.

Walter’s eyes went wide. “A fairy! I’ve never seen one in person before! You’re prettier than the books said you would be.”

The fairy flew out of his pocket and immediately flew over to Time to settle on his head. It took a second for Hyrule to recall but it was Proxi, the fairy at the castle that was friends with Warriors. Of course she would come for him if word about his injuries got back to the castle. He wasn’t sure if Warriors could hear yet but he had no doubt that Warriors would appreciate her presence once he became aware of it.

“Well, thank you! You guys are okay but I like my vampire the best,” she chirped happily. “Where is he, anyway?”

“I’ll show you,” Time said as he promptly walked towards Warriors’ room with Proxi still sitting on his head.

“Marcus, has Zelda sent a message or just the fairy?” Elena asked as she watched them walk away.

“Mostly just the fairy,” Marcus answered. “They all insisted that the fairy come with. Zelda just wants us to let her know when he’s feeling better though.”

“I see. Thanks for making the trip, Marcus.”

Marcus simply nodded, then walked away. That meant that Elena and Walter were turning his attention to him now.

“Your nickname is Hyrule, yes?” Elena asked. “Do you know the fairy? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fairy willingly come hang out with vampires before.”

“That’s Proxi. I don’t know their exactly relationship but she’s pretty close to Warriors. I think they’ve been together before he was cursed. It’s a good idea to have her around.”

“Of course, the only time a fairy wants to be around a vampire is because they’re already friends,” Walter said with a frown that honestly made Hyrule feel kind of bad for him. He knew why fairies avoided vampires – their magic took some getting used to – but they weren’t bad people or anything. A fairy who actually who stuck around even with the weird way to their magic felt would figure that out.

“Well, if you want to see to hang out with more fairies, talk to Warriors when he’s feeling better. He’s got some sort of snack that they like,” Hyrule said. He wasn’t truly a fairy himself, he was just somebody who take the shape of one, but even he thought that those snacks smelled pretty good. He was sure a fairy would stick around long enough to actually listen to a vampire if Warriors was around with his bag of fairy snacks. “Vampire magic is intense to be around but food always helps smooth things over.”

“They really do like those snacks,” Time mumbled as he walked backed into their common room. “Proxi will likely stay with Warriors until he’s back on his feet. If something is wrong, she knows to find one of you. I’m sure she’ll talk to you if you visit her in his room.”

Walter looked between the two of them and suddenly dashed towards Warriors’ room. Elena smiled and shook her head as she watched him leave.

“This is probably the most exciting decade he’s had since we moved here.”

“Why did you move to Hyrule?” Time asked. “You have to hide who you are. Wouldn’t it be more comfortable to stay abroad?”

“I missed home. That’s all. The Hyrule I came back to isn’t the one I left but it feels more like home than Labrynna ever did. At least in Hyrule, I don’t stick out as much, even though I’m a vampire.”

“I get feeling like you’re the odd one out,” Time mumbled.

Hyrule could too. Even in a group of heroes, he wasn’t exactly like the others, both in background and ability. He could use a lot more magic and spells that the others couldn’t and his era was also very different. No one ever made him feel bad about the stark differences. In fact, they did the opposite. However, sometimes Hyrule had a time not focusing on those differences.

He couldn’t blame Elena for wanting to go home.

Hyrule made a point to come down as early as he could and heal Warriors as much as he could before he made himself dizzy. He can handle being exhausted so long as they didn’t have to travel or leave the estate. All he needed was to able to make it to one of the couches and nap it off until lunch. He also made sure that he brought some sugar water for Proxi, knowing that Time often got her more to eat later on in the day.

According to Proxi, who had yet to leave the room since she arrived, he was slowly improving. Slowly. Hyrule didn’t see much of a difference, other than some of the very minor burns fading away but since she was with him so often, he didn’t doubt her words.

On the fourth day, Hyrule ventured down to his room and did what he what he always did – brought Proxi her sugary drink, then focused his magic around his ears. Between watching for any changes and focusing his magic, he didn’t notice Warriors waking up. He only heard Proxi fluttering by his face, mumbling comforting words. He broke his concentration for a moment and found Warriors holding up one of his hands.

“Warriors, relax. You’re seriously injured. Don’t move too much.”

And he actually listened, slowly lowering his hand. Then his lips moved, trying to mumble something but no words came out his mouth. He seemed to realize and stopped.

“Link.. you can hear us, right?” Proxi asked. “Wiggle your toes if you can.”

Hyrule turned his head quickly to watch his toes. Warriors didn’t really wiggle them but he did move them. He could hear them.

Proxi continued, “you’re safe, Link. You’re in your room at the vampire estate. We’re all going to make sure you get better but you have to relax and get as much rest as you can, alright?”

Link tried to mumble something again.

“I’m not surprised that everything hurts. You have third degree burns everywhere except for your feet! I don’t think third degree burns even describe all the burns you have! They’re worse than that! That’s why the only thing you have to worry about is resting, okay? Even trying to talk is going to hurt, so stop doing that for a bit.”

“You can hear him?” Hyrule asked, raising an eyebrow. Warriors shifted again but this time, it looked like he was just trying to get more comfortable. Either he exhausted himself or he decided to follow their advice and go back to sleep.

“There’s more to it but one of the ways I translated for him when he lacked the confidence to speak for himself is through his lips. I know the gist of what he says, even if he can’t move his lips much,” she answered with a tone indicating that she wasn’t going to say anything more on the matter. “Maybe you should go to sleep too. You’ve been exhausting yourself trying to heal him. Now that he can hear again, you should take a little break! You did really well!”

“I guess I should.” He did finish what he set out to do – he helped Warriors hear again. “I’ll head out while I have the energy to get back to bed. You share the good news, okay?”

“You got it!”

Hyrule kept his promise and didn’t use any of his magic on Warriors the next couple of days. In fact, he didn’t go into Warriors’ room at all, knowing that it would be hard to resist healing him if Hyrule was in the same room. However, he didn’t really know what to do with himself.

Part of the problem was that he just wasn’t comfortable in the estate, even though Elena and the Hylians who worked in the estate tried their best to be welcoming. Hyrule was used to smaller and simpler places. His favourite cave was basically his home, even though he could stay with the Zeldas if he really wanted to but like this estate, he was never truly comfortable at their castle.

The other part was just that it was never quite easy to relax when one of them was injured, in pain, or ill and there wasn’t a lot he could do about it. He wanted to help so he felt like he should be doing something but at the end of the day, all Warriors needed to regenerate was just blood and sleep. The vampires had the blood part covered just fine and Warriors couldn’t really do anything but sleep. While the magic helped, Warriors didn’t actually need it and the others would get mad if they thought he was using too much of it.

Hyrule was brought out of his thoughts when he spotted Four, Wild, and Legend at the giant window. Sky sitting on the other bed, trying to keep his eyes open as the rain beat against the windows rhythmically. Wild didn’t sleep in this room, so Hyrule wasn’t sure why he was there, or even when he got there but with the way he was watching the rain, he didn’t think he was leaving any time soon.

“Do you think the full vampires could go out in weather like this?” Four asked out loud. “Technically, there isn’t any sunlight.”

“I wouldn’t risk it if I was one. Weather can change suddenly. I think they would be fine in this weather though.”

“We would be but you’re right, most would not risk it. My apologies for barging in.”

Sky nearly fell out of the bed getting up so fast. “Elena, Beth, nice to see you two,” he said quickly as he recovered.

“You’re either here for good news or bad news,” Legend mumbled. Beth walked into the room first, though she stayed close to the bed post with the curtains.

“I wouldn’t call it good news or bad news. Just news,” Elena said as she closed the door behind her. “I’ve spoken to the others downstairs already so I’m glad the rest of you are here. In short, Link is regenerating more than we thought. We figured this out when he threw up what we think is the damaged lining of his throat and stomach. He has more of appetite now so getting rid of that must have helped.”

Wild nodded along. “That’s kind of gross but it doesn’t sound bad,” he mumbled, before he suddenly winced. “Oh... the rest of his burns might be similar.”

“Yes, we think those burns need to be debrided now. We left his burns alone because we didn’t know how his body was going to regenerate but it’s clear to us now that his body is not going to use or repair the burnt flesh. If we help him get rid of it, he may regenerate faster.”

Hyrule could see the logic but he also didn’t enjoy the idea of taking bits of Warriors off, even if it helped him. It shouldn’t hurt him as much as getting staked did but the thought of it still made him shiver.

“He shouldn’t feel much of it, right?” Four asked slowly. “Like, if his skin is black, it’s dead, isn’t it?”

“It shouldn’t hurt too much if we take it off but even if it did hurt, I believe it’s still necessary to do. Unless any of you want to help, there is a Hylian doctor in the estate who is aware of the situation and has the expertise to help him. I just wanted to make sure you were aware.”

Hyrule swallowed hard but didn’t say anything. “When are you planning on doing this?”

“Soon. We might as well get it out of the way. If there are no concerns, I will go get that doctor.”

They all mumbled no, so Elena left with a promise of letting them know how Warriors fared. When the door closed, Wild let out a deep breath.

“I wish I went on that walk with him or told him to stay. He always wanders off for a bit and comes back so I wasn’t worried when he left,” Wild said with a sigh. “How was I supposed to know it would be different?”

“You didn’t. It’s easy to feel bad and hard to accept that you can’t change it,” Beth mumbled from behind the bed post. Hyrule looked to the window but it was still raining. “I see the older vampires in Holodrum beat themselves up all the time. They look at vampires like Audrey and I and they feel intense guilt about the fact that they didn’t stop the vampire who turned us against our will. They always question what they could have done differently because they feel responsible... but we don’t blame them at all. They can think about what they could have done all they want but it’s now that matters.”

For a moment, nobody spoke. Hyrule had a feeling that her words sunk deeper to the others than it did for him. He didn’t have a lot of regrets that he brought from his home – his era was a work in progress and he was kind of proud of the progress it was making. It was slow but it was continuous. He supposed most his regret came from what he could or couldn’t do for the group but even that seemed to come and go.

“About being turned against their will... why is that significant?” Hyrule asked when nobody else seemed willing to break their awkward silence.

“No matter which country we’re in, vampires take consent very seriously. We don’t drink from people unless we get their permission to do so. We don’t turn people unless they ask for it. It’s part of the peace agreement we have with non-vampires... You guys don’t know a lot about vampire culture,” she mumbled, like she was just realizing that she was talking to Hylians.

“We don’t have vampires where or when we come from. At least not any that we’re aware of,” Wild muttered, putting a hand on his chin. He seemed a bit better but Hyrule decided he was going to watch him.

“Except for Legend, who saw vampires and didn’t know it,” Sky said with a smirk.

“Hey! None of you were supposed to know about that! Ravio’s getting a talk the next time we see him.”

Beth laughed. “Well, I should get going since I don’t want to be around when the weather decides to change. You guys are free to ask us questions though! Well, Marcus is a little grumpy so maybe it’s best to avoid him but ask the rest of us! We’re happy to talk!”

She didn’t wait for them answer and dashed out. Hyrule looked out to the window again. The rain stopped, though it was still cloudy. Huh, maybe they just had a sense for that sort of thing.

[ghosthoard]

PART 7

parts 01 02 03 04 05 06

After everybody but Time and Twilight had washed, the gruel was steaming and ready. 

All Legend can attest to was that it was warm. Watery, bland, and barely really food, but warm. 

“Come eat,” he said to the camp at large, tapping the ladle against the side of the pot because he guessed that’s just what people did. Wild would do it.

The youngest first, Time had insisted when they first became a group, not yet family. Wind had had a tantrum at that. Like being called young was a grave insult (Legend still remembered when he was that age, he probably wouldn’t take being treated like a kid well either). But once he ate a spoonful of Wild’s cooking, Wind hoarded that youngest privilege and bragged about it to everyone’s face like the brat he was. Since he was the first to get his food, he was also usually the first to get seconds which he could never finish and usually passed off to one of the others.

The kid came up to Legend, silent and gloomy and not as annoying as he should be. His eyes were still red.

He filled Wind’s bowl up to the brim. Youngest first. Then as he was passing it back and before he could say anything in an embarrassing attempt to comfort him, the sailor looked down at his food and said, 

“Ew.”

A laugh almost startled out of Legend, that one word settling his worries more than anything else could’ve. He smirked, genuinely delighted. “Alright, you cheeky little snot. No seconds for you.”

Wind left with his tongue sticking out. 

Four was next. The other night when he left the camp for privacy after tasting his pilaf, Legend wondered why he wouldn’t just split. He knew the four of them probably needed some time apart, it would personally drive him nuts trying to grieve while stuck with three other people.

Legend still remembers when he first met the colors. Seeing confirmation for the first time that the earliest of his nightmares was the young man he had unwillingly grown to care for like a brother had him falling into bad habits. He lashed out and threw insults and sulked and avoided Four as much as possible. It came to the point that Time told him to get it together. 

Four had found him trying to “get it together” on the roof of their inn that night. The fresh air and being away from the others for a bit was what had drawn him to the place, but of course his brothers couldn’t leave well enough alone. He heard Four carefully walk over to him and settle next to him. 

The quiet was a deceptive peace. And sure enough the little asshole broke it by saying, “You’re really easy to read, you know.”

Legend groaned, rubbing at his face and curling up. Maybe if he ran now he could escape this talk forever, live without his brothers reading him for filth for the rest of his short, miserable life. 

He could hear the grin in Four’s voice as he continued, “But maybe it’s just because I know Blue too well. You two are alike. Too cool to care, right? ‘Nobody will see how scared I am if they’re too busy being angry at me’, is the go-to strategy right?”

“Which one of you is talking right now?” Legend said from his huddle, “I’ll make sure to remember for the next time you split.”

Four laughed, bright and in the way Legend knew the smith’s nose was crinkling. “I’m just me right now. I only ever really hear the colors separately when they disagree on something or I’m emotionally compromised.”

“So that just means I can hit you now and be done with it.” 

“I’d like to see you try,” Four challenged.

Legend chuckled, untensing, letting the quiet settle more comfortably around them.

Eventually, Four spoke up again, carefully neutral, “If it makes you uncomfortable, I won’t split around you, I know it’s strange.”

Legend straightened quickly, snapping around to look at the smith, “No! No, that’s— that’s not the problem. It’s a cool bit of magic.”

Now face to face with his brother, Legend managed to catch the sad heaviness of Four’s face before he hid it with a cocky, self-satisfied tilt of his head. “Told you the Four Sword is impressive.” 

But Legend wasn’t having it, “Four, I mean it, don’t keep yourself from splitting because you think I’m uncomfortable. I’d like to know the colors better.”

For a moment, the two just looked at each other on that rooftop during a warm, summer night. Four seemed to be searching for something in Legend with that discerning gaze that made everyone rely on the small hero in one way or another, and Legend hoped he was making it easy for him to find it without having to come out and tell Four the truth of exactly why he was so bothered by finding out about the Four Swords magic. 

In the end, Four smiled wide, proving once again that having the hero’s spirit meant you were a menace when he said, “Aw, Hyrule’s right, you are a sap.”

And for that Legend had to jump him. Four kept laughing even when they both fell off the roof and into the hay down below.

To this day, Legend wondered if Four didn’t take him for his word, because the smith didn’t split even once since that first reveal, and god would he hate being the one keeping them all from spending time with their brothers.

“You sure you don’t want to split?” Legend said as he passed Four his food.

Four huffed and lifted an eyebrow. “So I have to experience your cooking four times? No thanks.”

Seems like his brothers wanted to fight today, huh? 

Legend pointed the ladle at him threateningly. “Watch it, or I’ll spit in your food enough for all four of you.”

“Can’t ruin something that’s already ruined,” Four said before hurrying out of spit range with his food.

Legend huffed, turning to the next person in line. 

It was Hyrule, still refusing to look at or acknowledge him.

The magical exhaustion seemed to be mostly gone now, Legend noted in his cursory appraisal. 

While he had been fighting with the porridge, Sky had forced Hyrule to take a green potion, and to Legend’s absolute shock, had even gotten the stubborn traveler to take two extra green potions to keep in his bag. He honestly hadn’t believed his eyes and almost let the porridge burn. What sort of magic had Sky used to convince Hyrule to accept two extra green potions after already taking one?! Din, if he only had Twilight’s dog ears he could’ve heard what they were saying, but now he’d have to try to get it out of Sky and the fluffy bastard would probably smile and play dumb.

Nobody could tell Sky no, while Legend seemed to only manage to make them more guarded. 

When handed his portion, Hyrule still managed a grouchy, “Thanks,” before running away, because Twilight had taught them all manners. 

“Thanks for cooking, vet,” Sky said when he came up with his bowl. 

Legend scanned him from the top of his head where his hair looked duller, his face gaunt, to his boots. More than exhaustion dragged at his brother’s body, he seemed on edge and ready to collapse. Looks like the wash didn’t really help with anything to Legend’s distaste.

Sky had been cursed with the possession of Wild’s cloak just as Legend had been with the slate. He recalled how while the group were arguing about whether or not they should be spending time fighting to open the portal or if they should go on foot to the Yiga’s main base, Sky said nothing. He did nothing but clutch Wild’s cloak in his hands, staring at the hatefully small portal. 

Cleaning up Wild with Warriors was something Legend had needed to do. To care for the dead just as he did when they lived. To make sure Wild was as comfortable as he could be. He couldn’t do anything about the sickly splotches of too big bruises and the frailness of starvation, but he could wipe the blood away, dress him in comfortable, warm clothes as Warriors worked on the mats and tangles in Wild’s hair just as carefully as he would’ve if he were still alive. 

If Legend had any say, Wild would be buried with all kinds of food with the best quality clothes and armor they could dress him in. But who’s to say what they do for their dead in Wild’s era. 

After they had stepped away from Wild, Sky had laid a kiss on Wild’s forehead then covered him with that same cloak. Laid him to rest. 

Sky’s been worse since he’s done that, but it’s not like cleaning Wild up had made Legend better either.

“Yea, yea,” he muttered as he poured Sky’s share and handed it over, “you won’t be thanking me when you taste it.”

Sky just smiled at him and left to go sit. 

Time at the very least was moving again. 

Taking his armor off always made him smaller, but he still managed to seem so big anyway in other ways, sturdy, larger than life.

When he first met Time, a small, young, basically buried part of Legend had peeked its head out at the nostalgic feeling of an older, father figure, and before he could do anything about it, that small part of him was warily but hopefully calling for "uncle."

But right now, Time wasn’t larger than life. He looked older than he ever did, the lines on his face deeper and heavier.

Adults weren't supposed to look that fragile. His adult only ever looked that fragile once.

Legend would never admit it, but seeing how defeated the old man looked while he sat vigil next to Wild had terrified him. Just as the wolf that refused to move from Wild’s side was still terrifying. 

He didn’t know what they would do if they lost Time and Twilight too. What did he need to do to help them? What was he supposed to say? He didn't know, and it was driving him crazy.

A warm, large hand reached out to squeeze his shoulder, solid and comforting and there. 

“Thank you, Legend,” Time said, actually looking at him, actually seeing him. 

Emotion swelled up, catching Legend off guard, and he quickly ducked his head to hide behind his bangs, wiping his eyes and composing himself.

Time gave him one last squeeze —it felt like a promise, a promise to be present, to be constant, to do his best— before leaving with his food. 

Warriors came up last, thinking he had subtly let everyone else get their share first.

“You didn’t burn it?” Warriors said with a stupidly fake shocked expression, a stupid hand over his stupid chest. “A blessing from the goddesses themselves?”

“I hope it’s stone cold just for you,” Legend scowled, being careful not to spill this idiot’s share.

Neither of them mentioned Legend’s red eyes or watery voice. Neither of them mentioned the bags under Warriors's eyes and the paleness to his skin.

Twilight doesn’t come up for his share. 

Legend inspected the remaining gruel. There wasn’t enough for seconds, but there was just enough for three more bowls. Enough for all nine of them. 

Legend served himself, leaving two servings, then settled himself beside Hyrule. 

There was silence while they ate.

First | Previous | Next

what should i name this fic? I've titled it dead wild in my google doc but i feel like that's a bit too spot on. Let me know if you guys have any ideas!

(dare I ask? would anybody like another part?)

CW: main character death, aftermath of torture, vivid descriptions of injury

They had been too late.

And isn’t that a hero’s worst failing, almost there, almost in time, almost saving the day. What was the use if after the victory, there was nothing left to salvage?

If only they had been quicker and smarter, they would have saved the day just like they were supposed to. 

But mercilessly, they had no do-over, and they had to face what lay before them in their failure.

Their brother hung from chains that pulled his arms harshly up to the ceiling, his toes just barely skimming the floor. Blood dripped, dripped, dripped—! Time ripped himself out of the spiral, closing his eye to it.  

Wild had been taken from them. The yiga had grabbed him and dragged him into a portal. By Hyrule and Legend’s quick thinking and skillful spell casting, they had stopped the portal from closing just barely until it stayed frozen as the size of a disc, enough for maybe Wind to stick his head in. 

It took them an hour, 33 minutes, and 42 seconds to figure out how to widen the portal enough for them all to squeeze through and land in the middle of a mass of shocked yiga. Another two hours, 16 minutes and 2 seconds for them to throw themselves into maiming, incapacitating, and killing whoever tried to stop them from finding Wild. 18 minutes for Time and Warriors to find Wild too late. 

The approaching sound of footsteps as the rest of his boys arrived turned him around just in time to see Twilight enter the dungeon with Wind and Hyrule. The man’s eyes searched feverishly around the room, first looking at Time, Warriors who stood further in, and then finally they landed on the hanging body and he froze. 

Nobody moved, nobody made a sound. It was a brutal precipice they waited on. Sky, Legend, and Four arrived before anything happened, for of course all of them had to be present to witness the fall.

“Get him down…” Twilight’s voice cracked the delicate silence. Echoing around the dungeon. He stormed toward Wild. “Get him down from there! Here, help me.”

“Twilight…” Warriors said, careful with his brother’s heart, “he’s—”

“His shoulders oughta be real sore, and we hafta to stop the bleedin’. Hyrule, you need to get ready to heal ‘im.” 

Hyrule twitched to life at the mention of his name, tears already flowing down his cheeks. “R-Right.”

“I got you, cub, I got you.” Twilight had cradled an arm under Wild’s knees, his other arm hovering, preparing to catch him. “Sky, cut the chains.” 

Time heard Sky take in a breath before stepping forward to do as he was told, his face stony. The hum of the Master Sword was hatefully calming and beautiful as he unsheathed it. The chains snapped with just one perfectly executed swing and Wild dropped into Twilight’s waiting hold. A whimper escaped someone’s mouth from the way Wild’s head fell bonelessly back, from how his arm fell limply at his side. 

Twilight hastily moved his arm from around Wild’s shoulders to support his head as he lowered him to the ground. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, must’ve hurt your neck” he muttered. 

Now laying on the ground, everybody got a good look at Wild’s face which had been hidden behind his hair. His nose had gushed blood, and it looked broken. Bruises colored him a deep purple, stark against his pale skin. One of his ears had been cut off, the other burned. His eyes… blank and unseeing and stained red from the blood that had leaked down from his head.

“Okay, Hyrule, come on.” Twilight was avoiding Wild’s face. 

Hyrule numbly knelt on Wild’s other side, staring with wide, pained eyes on all the damage, the blood loss, the sunken chest that told of shattered ribs and internal bleeding, the missing fingers, the exposed bones. He reached out. His shaking hands started to glow. He placed them ever so gently over his brother’s chest, feeling it crackle under his touch. They all watched as the healing light shone for a few— hopeful despite everything —seconds only for a sob to wrack Hyrule’s body and the light flickered before going out entirely. Hyrule collapsed on top of Wild’s chest, clutching at the blood soaked tunic, letting out heart-wrenching wails. 

“What… what’s wrong?” Twilight said, his voice rising, his breaths shorter, “Why did you stop? Why isn’t he healed?”

“It’s not going to do anything, Rancher,” Legend’s caustic (devastated) tone lashed out. “Hyrule can’t bring back the dead.”

Twilight flinched. “Th-Then, a-a potion. Or a fairy…!”

Seeing Twilight’s face twist that way as he tried to hold back tears, Time automatically went to him. Twilight’s eyes snapped on to him as he approached and never left his face as he lowered himself to his knees next to him.

“Time… Time, we have to save Wild. We have to do something.”

Time wrapped his arms around his pup and pulled him close. 

“Time, please.” Twilight shuddered in his arms as he begged. “He can’t be dead. He can’t be gone. He would’ve been alone and scared when he died. We weren’t there. We were supposed to save ‘im. He would’ve been waiting for us.”

“I’m so sorry, pup.”

Around them, the others were getting closer. Legend started rubbing circles into Hyrule’s back, his face crumpled in soul deep sadness. 

Sky had lifted Wild’s head up onto his lap, gently closing the boy’s eyes before starting to card through the tangled mess of hair and dried blood. 

Warriors had an arm around Wind’s shoulders, looking smaller and exhausted and ten years older as he took in Wild’s body like it was a punishment he was dealt. 

Wind was searching around the empty cavern with tear-streaked cheeks, hiccuping. 

“He’s skin and bones. How could they have done this much in so little time?” Four muttered in a numb grief. “It couldn’t have been more than a few hours between when he was taken and when we got here.”

“A lot can be done in an hour,” Time said. A person can be alive and then gone within a second.

“We should get out of here.” Legend said from where he had managed to bring Hyrule into a hug. “He doesn’t deserve to be here any longer.”

“No, he doesn’t.” Sky shifted, he lowered Wild’s head back down delicately as if he could still feel pain. Legend guided Hyrule onto his feet and out of Sky’s way. Sky got as far as leaning forward to lift Wild up when Twilight pulled away from Time’s embrace.

“Let me. Please.”

Sky nodded and stepped back. 

Twilight gathered Wild in his arms as he’s done millions of times before. He rested Wild’s heavy head on his shoulder then placed a kiss on his forehead. “Come on, cub, let’s get out of here.”

The shackles that were still around Wild’s wrists clattered as Twilight rose to his feet. 

“We’re getting those off,” he snarled.

Let me know if you want the next part~

[quite-right-too]

The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler’s complex and compelling relationship gets me through my fucking DAYS BRO. The fact that, canonically, Rose Tyler’s influence was so great that she LITERALLY haunts the narrative, even nearly 25 years later. She dispersed herself through time and space — splitting beings into atoms as a literally goddess — to be with her soul mate forever.

And can we just talk about how the Doctor’s love for Rose was SO powerful that he literally regenerated into the perfect partner for her? Like legitimately MADE FOR HER. His hands fit in her perfectly and she’s the keeper of his hearts. He loses Rose? His entire UNIVERSE crumbles. The second time? He literally goes insane and changes a fixed point in time based on the delusion that the laws of time are his and he can control anything he wants, regardless of how they branch into timelines.

My brain rot goes deep, bro. I could go on for HOURS.

[milfhawks]

i’m ovulating

[allpromarlo]

power scalers in jjk are the same type of insane unhinged weird as the shippers bc like. why are you comparing hakari to sukuna. that man can’t even get past the nonbinary maid

[cosmic-hoboandthehighlander]

I didn’t create tedmort.

I want to make that 100000% clear. I didn’t come up with it, I didn’t write the first fic or draw the first art. I didn’t even come up with the damn ship name! I need all of you to understand something because even if you think it’s not important for me to be clear about this, it really is to me, in my opinion.

I don’t credit tedmort as my ship. It doesn’t belong solely to me: y’all can write it, draw it, headcanon it — it’s not mine and never was! I don’t own it and won’t ever claim that I do. I will never ever gatekeep tedmort because they’re so precious to me and I want all of you to love them and cherish them as much as I do.

Warning: Long post ahead but it’s my feelings and I really hope you all take the time out to read this.

When I called myself the tedmort ship captain, it wasn’t because I was claiming the ship as MY rarepair. It’s me saying listen, I wrote a lot of tedmort and the tags here on tumblr and on ao3 are filled with me screaming into the void about this ship. I am the person standing on the deck of the ship that is the USS Tedmort, if you will, and hyping it up! Calling all of you from the shore to come on, hop aboard, and sail with me, not for me.

I do want to be the captain of the ship, but not in an “I own this!” sort of way, but in a “come, join me!” way. I want to set up the refershment table of headcanons and tell everyone joining up on our ship to “take a headcanon and leave one of your own!” and to joke and laugh over the angst we’ve collectively put our poor middle aged men through. This is a collective and I am not in charge and don’t want to be.

At the end of the day, I do want to be known as the tedmort person. But I really want to be known as more of a guide. A person that anyone in fandom, new or old, feels comfortable with approaching because I want to share tedmort with every single one of you. I write this ship because I love it. I feel the passion that I haven’t in fandom for a long time for these two and I feel free to share it without judgement!

I just love Teddy and Mort, plain and simple. I’m gonna write whether anybody is reading it or not because I’m having fun. But I want you as a fandom to have fun too.

I don’t want anybody to ever feel like they can’t write a ship because it “belongs” to someone else. Because someone has claimed the ship as “theirs.” I know there will always be people like that, in every fandom and every corner of the internet and in every part of the real world - someone who stakes claim because they love something so much, alienating others even when they don’t do mean to. I love being known for tedmort, but other people deserve a chance in the spotlight for their tedmort fics as well.

So maybe this is me saying, I’ll be your guide to tedmort, if you’ll have me, but I will never make this ship out to be mine and mine alone. Tedmort is ours.

[theanonymousninja247]

Informal

When your English professor gives you permission to be “informal” in your paper, and you’re a salty writer with a personality because he called you “trouble” for having a mind and using it.

[acourtofquestions]

Chapter 55 of Tower of Dawn😭

[londyboobs]

i need it to be thursday like. right. now.

[hecckyeah]

hot take: enver gjokaj could play john nolan, but nathan fillion could never play daniel sousa

[battleaxe-proficiency]

mean babygirl/sad little meow meow ship supremacy

[vanscene]

okay i know it won’t happen but if they somehow actually did kill off will i think i’d loose my mind for real. like i simply would not be able to handle that i’d short circuit.

[twothirdsgenius]

every workplace has the bitch that no one likes but do you have any idea how much of a colossal bitch you have to be to turn a very chill hippie vibe job into a 15 against 1 situation

[the-painted-siren]

My goal as a fic author is to make as many people as possible scream “WHAT THE FUCK, HAILS?!” at any given interval

[urgentkettle]

Anybody have a screen shot of that post about a techbro trying to replace AA with an app after never talking to an alcoholic ever? That’s what all this feels like to me. On top of! Already running out of data to train on! So they are already talking about creating artificial data to feed back into the computer centipede. What a shit show

(full article here)