#skywhump

[violet27writes]

Echoes of Silence

Chapter One: The Smell of Ozone

Sky-Centric. (Part 1 of ?). Ao3 link.

Summary: After Sky gets injured in a battle that leaves him unable to hear, he has to learn to live in his new, silent world. It’s a good thing he’s got some brothers who are more than willing to help.

Part 2!

———

As the oh-too familiar smell of ozone caught Sky’s attention, his step faltered, nearly letting the Gibdo creature grab him. He righted himself, then jab at the hand reaching for him. The monster shrieked as it recoiled back into two other Gibdos and nearly lost its own footing.

Sky shook his head, imploring himself to stay focused on the fight- His enemy was long dead and gone, he couldn’t let himself falter again. There were a dozen Gibdos all around him, a handful of Wild’s bokoblins (they were kinda cute?) and seven of his own hovered behind Time’s horrifying monsters, as if seeking protection. Sky had already slain most of the bokoblins, as well as a few lizalfos and a like-like. There were still just so many, even after he had seemingly cut down their numbers, and he could tell he was starting to slow.

The others were somewhere on the crest of the hill he’d been knocked down earlier in the battle. He sure hoped they weren’t struggling up there, although he could still hear their distant shouts and the cacophony of battle.

A flying rock hit his elbow, once again pulling him back out of his thoughts. The culprit, a bokoblin, danced back and forth mockingly with squeals of delight.

Both Sky and the Bokoblin froze as the scent of ozone sharped and a tingle ran straight through his spine. No. No. He looked up at his namesake to see only a handful of clouds, nowhere near anything that could be considered a storm. Where would the electricity be coming from?

Logic told him that it was just Wild’s world, strange and unpredictable, which should be nothing to worry about. It also told him that maybe it was Hyrule readying that spell of his. However, it never took this long to cast it, nor would he be feeling it as strongly as he was from the distance of the caster. It told him that whatever this was, it couldn’t be the Demon King.

His breath caught as static electricity crackled through the air.

Sky nearly had the sense to drop the Master Sword, just to not attract the lightning that was surely coming. That sense was changed as a lizalfos dropped its camouflage and lunged for him. Instinct rejoiced as he swiftly cut it down. Logic would later tell him that he should’ve let go.

A burning light stole his vision, and his body lit up as fire filled his veins. For a split second, everything hurt. His head was bound to burst. His heart skipped a beat. His body was… on the ground?

He forced his eyes back open, meeting blackened grass and violet plumes of smoke all around him. Glancing down at his body confirmed that he had definitely not been spared the attack. His body was shaking with lightning, convulsing as the extra energy his body had been hit with tried to run back out somehow. Angry red lines covered his skin. Nothing new there. His breathing was coming in quick, shaky gasps, however, his lungs weren’t rattling like they usually did. The clothes he could see were half burnt, smoking from the heat, and damaged beyond likely repair. Luckily(?), he couldn’t really feel the pain anymore.

After a few minutes, his convulsions slowed down, and then stopped, leaving his body to twitch instead. His breath had also slowed down, but not by much- As to be expected. Giving his body a few more moments to recover, Sky tried to lift his head off the ground. It was shaky at first, getting easier each time he lifted his head again. All the monsters were gone, leaving only blackened weapons behind. Fi lay a foot and a half from his head, a layer of dark dust on her usual shiny surface. He tried to reach for her, but his arm started to seize right after it left the ground. He cried out in pain. Or, at least, he thought he did.

He tried to make a noise, a moan even, but heard nothing. Had his voice been damaged by the lightning? He tried again to no avail. With another silent gasp, he slammed a fist into the ground with his non-dominant arm, even with a sharp stab of pain from his nerves, and paused. He hit the ground again. No sound. It was his ears. They’d likely been shot from the blast.

Sky knew he would be fine. He just had to wait for Hyrule and the others, right? He turned his head to look up at the crest of the hill and also realized that the battle had gone quiet. If there was even still a battle now, that is.

…Maybe he would just wait here for a little bit longer. He lay his head back down on the grass. He’d wait for the others… Resting his eyes couldn’t hurt… Right?

⋟❋⋞

Sky bolted awake as hands grabbed at his half-burnt skin. It was possible that he cried out, since the hands lessened for a moment, but they returned to grab him as they turned him onto his back. Everything ached again. All of his skin burned, especially where he had been touched, as if he was trying to traverse an active volcano without any protection. His very bones were weary, his head was full of cotton, and he still couldn’t hear anything.

The hands came back on him a moment later, lighter than before. He felt them undoing the belt around his torso that held his kikoi in place. Another landed on the leather strap of his scabbard, and a third pair of hands started untying his bracers. It was then that he forced himself to open his oh-so-heavy eyelids.

It took a moment for his vision to clear after he did, and he wasn’t surprised to see four of his teammates fusing over him. The forth was Hyrule, sitting next to his head, looking like he was trying to assess the situation. When they met each other’s gaze, Hyrule leaned forwards, his mouth moving once again with silent words. His face scrunched up when Sky didn’t react. So Hyrule switched tactics. Instead, he lifted a finger and moved his mouth again, slowly sliding it back and then forth a few inches from his eyes. Sky followed his finger to the Traveler’s seemingly minute relief.

The hands on him finally ceased, having unfastened and removed his outer garments and accessories. A turquoise-y light started to flood his vision, and with it, the fire on his skin began to lessen to a prickly feeling, more uncomfortable than painful. Any of his reserved energy dwindled as the light faded and Sky breathed a silent sigh of relief. Hyrule leaned over and was trying to talk to him again. Sky let his eyes slide close- only to open them back when hands grabbed both sides of his head.

The soft light came again, once again draining whatever energy he had left until he couldn’t make his eyes open again.

[violet27writes]

Echoes of Silence

Chapter 2: Still Golden Skies

Sky-Centric. (Part 2 of ?) Ao3 link.

Part 1

———

The sun was soft against Sky’s eyelids the next morning. He opened them to find the golden light streaming through the trees, casting a gentle glow on him. A quick glance down at himself revealed his limbs wrapped with white bandages, making his joints feel stiff from the sheer amount of cloth. What little skin that had been left uncovered was a less angry red than it had been before, but still left that prickly feeling across his flesh.

Sky was relatively unconcerned, seeing that he was at camp, half-surrounded by sleeping heroes, while the other half sat around the fire on the other side of the camp, conversing quietly.

Quietly.

It took a moment for his mind to fully remember yesterday -or whatever day it had been- and another moment to let the realization start to sink in.

The forest was silent, no little birds calling and greeting him like they usually did in the mornings. The fire wasn’t crackling as it burnt up the wood, although the flames danced with vigor under the cooking pot. The voices of his friends were silent, although Wind was awake and waving his arms as he prodded Warriors. Although Warriors waved the Sailor off with a brotherly glare and a routine word of chastisement. Although Wild started banging his ladle on the cooking pot to wake the remaining sleepers for breakfast.

He still couldn’t hear. He couldn’t hear.

But hadn’t Hyrule healed him? He had, if his skin had calmed so much after the burning. And he had even put his hands over his ears, right? To fix them?

Sky sat up slowly.

Then, he tried to lift his left, mummified arm to his head, and paused when his fingers didn’t want to cooperate. Too many bandages on that hand. So he brought up his other hand, less bandaged but just as stiff, and tried again.He snapped his fingers once, twice, three times for good measure. Both hands started to pat his ears. What good were they now? Nothing audible reached his ears. Why?

Hyrule was suddenly right in front of him, grabbing his arms with a furrowed, concerned brow. Yelling at him?

“Why can’t I hear?!” Sky asked, probably. Hopefully. He couldn’t even hear his own voice in his head.

He wouldn’t be able to hear his beautiful Sun again. Her sweet whispers when he was overwhelmed. Or his loftwing when his beloved bird called. How would he know when danger was approaching? Why did this happen to him? He had given so much for them, for Zelda, for his friends, for the goddess herself! Why?

Why?

⋟❋⋞

Four woke to the deep clanging of Wild beating the cooking pot. He pulled his cloak tighter over himself before sighing as Wind’s chatter washed over the camp. A nip of the morning breeze glided over his feet, promising a nice rest of the day. With another sigh, he got to his feet, slipping on his boots to keep them from the cold.

By the fire, Warriors picked Wind off the ground and held him under his arm as the Sailor shouted curses and struggled to free himself. Four smiled at their antics, mirroring Wild’s as he offered the Smithy a bowl of oatmeal and berries.

Twilight joined soon after, followed by Time, who hadn’t been sleeping, but hadn’t yet joined the fire. Time accepted the bowl from Wild, immediately drizzling honey on top and a dash of his milk from his reserves.

Four picked out one of the berries called a ‘wildberry’ out of his bowl, a weird red one from Wild’s time, and dropped it into Twilight’s bowl, earning him a pleased, fanged smile from the Rancher. He turned to see if Hyrule or Legend were waking up yet.

Legend was wrapped tightly in his blanket that covered, curled up on his bedroll, and probably not going to join either a meal or a conversation anytime soon. The bedroll next to the Veteran’s was empty, blanket folded haphazardly on top. Where’d Hyrule go-?

“Stop-” “Why can’t I hear?!”

The camp went silent at Sky’s mournful shriek.

“Please, you’ll hurt yourself!”

Hyrule was sitting in front of the Skyloftian, holding his arms as Sky struggled in his grip. Tears streamed down Sky’s face as Hyrule tried in vain to calm him.

Sky couldn’t… hear? Four set his bowl of breakfast down, rushing over to the pair, followed by Wind.

The Skyloftian was still swathed in bandages, skin lightly red underneath, although the lichtenberg marks had mostly faded overnight.

Before Four could react to anything, Sky cried out as eyes slipped closed once more and he all but collapsed ungracefully into Hyrule. All the Traveler could do in response was send a wide-eyed glance at the Smithy.