Set in my 'the future us written; the ink is dry' au, where an older version of Wild travels with the LU Chain, starting at the beginning of their adventure. All of my Linktober prompts will be set in this vers, but not necessarily in order.
Day 1: Knight
“A royal knight?” Warriors sounds surprised, and impressed.
“Yeah!” Indie gestures with the ladle, “Or, I was. I was fired.”
“Fired?!” Now Warriors sounds worried, and a little angry. “What did you do?”
Indie stirs the stew, unconcerned by the outburst. “Nothing, don't get your chainmail in a knot. Zelda called it an 'Honorable Discharge'.”
That took all of the wind out of Warriors sails. “Ah,” He coughed into a fist. “I see.”
Hmm, now that Indie thinks about it, he might still have the letter she'd given him in his bag. He should get around to reading that soon.
Well, the soup would keep for a bit. No time like the present.
After making sure the soup would actually keep, he wonders over to his bag and does a little digging. “Ah, here it is!”
He holds the letter up, getting the nosy attention of everyone present.
“What's that?” The royal seal was clear on the front.
Indie smiles at Warriors and brandishes it at him. “Zelda gave this to me.” He flips the letter around so that he could scrutinize the seal himself. “Haven't read it yet.”
Warriors was scandalized. “What? Why?”
“Well,” Indie taps the corner of the letter to his chin. “At first I was a little angry, and then there was this weird portal, and then this group of even weirder men—”
“Oh, give me that!” Warriors snatches it. “An official letter from the royal family and you haven't even opened it!”
He gently breaks the seal. Wind and Legend shamelessly crowd in on either side of him, trying to get a peak. The rest looked like they were either trying to pretend that they weren’t watching – Time, Twilight – or were still too hesitant to come so close – Hyrule, Sky and Four.
Indie’s pretty sure there are laws against opening other peoples’ mail, but maybe they don't apply when you're in a completely different era of time? Something to ask Zelda when he next saw her.
Warriors starts to read the letter, mumbling along at first with the words, elbowing his nosy hanger-ons when they got in the way. And then he chokes. He rereads the line again, and his jaw drops.
“What?” Indie hopes Zelda hadn’t written anything embarrassing, thinking that Indie would be the only one to read it.
Warriors lets out a concerning wheeze, before handing the letter to him and pointing out a line about three-fourths of the way down. The two older heroes daftly keep it out of a reaching Wind’s grasp.
Indie reads the line. Slaps Wind’s hand away. And then he reads it again.
“...oh wow,” ‘….you and onto your heirs, for as long as you both may live, a yearly sum of --’ “That’s a lot of money.”
Set in my ’the future us written; the ink is dry’ au, where an older version of Wild travels with the LU Chain, starting at the beginning of their adventure. All of my Linktober prompts will be set in this vers, but not necessarily in order.
Day 2: Magic/Sorcery
Link knew, between on step and the next that something had changed. He felt the displacement of the air behind him and the ripple of the divine vibrating in his bones. Combined, he knew what that meant, even if it was impossible. Almost twenty years, and he’d never forgotten the feeling, however impossible.
He turned around, and sure enough, a golden portal; split the seams of reality just as surely as it had the last time he’d seen one. When he’d last stepped through such a portal with tears in his eyes and goodbyes growing heavy in his ears.
“Out of everyone,” Twilight had said, during those last moments. “You’re the one I worry the most and least for. Don’t cry Cub, you’ll see us again.”
There was no tug. No divine message asking him to step forward and take up arms once more. Just a portal and the implications it brought with it.
Link stepped forward and let the golden light take him away.
Set in my ’the future us written; the ink is dry’ au, where an older version of Wild travels with the LU Chain, starting at the beginning of their adventure. All of my Linktober prompts will be set in this vers, but not necessarily in order.
Day 4: Nostalgia
Link watched the stew cook over the fire. He could see the others shifting in his periphery. They were familiar and yet distant shapes, the whole situation almost dream-like in it’s oddity. His countless questions remained bundled up in his chest, just as confused, tight and light and his heart.
His brothers were here, unchanged as in his memories, and yet so strange he could hardly comprehend it. Like a photo he’d taken a life time ago that someone cut up and put back together wrong.
Time, with both eyes and missing most of his tattoos. Four, decked out in a blue tunic and sulking at the edge of camp. Sky and his insistence that they call him ‘Chosen’. And so much more.
‘I know you, knew some version of you,’ He wants to say. ‘But you don’t know me.’
It was more then a little disconcerting to be on this side of that particular equation.
He tasted the stew before deeming it finished. Tapping the ladle against the side of the pot, he looked up and announced, “Dinner’s ready!”
No one moved. Or, well, Wind did, but then he noticed that no one else had and hastily sat back down.
Link waited. Idly stirring the soup, he turned to Legend, deeming him the most likely to not give him a bullshit answer. “Not a fan of potato stew?”
Legend snorted. “Not a fan of eating food from a stranger I just met.”
Oh wow, okay, that hurt.
Link stopped stirring, and just said, “I see.”
Several of the younger boys flinched. Wind broke out into a sweat, and then jumped to his feet to fetch a bowl from his bag. He knew what it meant when his grandma used that tone of voice!
Set in my ’the future us written; the ink is dry’ au, where an older version of Wild travels with the LU Chain, starting at the beginning of their adventure. All of my Linktober prompts will be set in this vers, but not necessarily in order.
Day 3: Flames
“You’ve got a lot of scars,” Hyrule pointed out. Or, perhaps it would be better to refer to him as Link, since they’ve yet to find a way to differentiate themselves. Link - himself that is, Hero of the Wild, Link, (and this is why they desperately need to get on that) - would suggest they do something about it soon.
“I do,” Link paused, having realized he’d used the same tone of voice he’d use when his nieces had said the same thing. They all inevitably do - kids are curious and honest, and Link has long since gotten used to having to explain the history painted on his skin in a child-friendly manner. But Hyrule - Link, hero of his people and just as much a warrior as any of them - didn’t need that gentle handling. He didn’t need it, but perhaps Link could give it to him anyway. “Mostly burns. They’re old and don’t hurt anymore.”
Hyrule’s face twisted. With a jolt, that one movement unlocked a memory inside of Link. He knew that that expression meant that Hyrule didn’t believe him. It was like someone had reached into his past and woken the knowledge from a long sleep.
Link laughed. “Okay, you caught me, they do ache sometimes.” He rubbed at his right shoulder. “Especially in this area, but the oldest burn marks were healed using magic,” Sheikah technology, actually, but he didn’t feel he need to get into the details or explain the difference. “And they don’t bother me much these days, beyond stiffening up when it rains.”
Hyrule’s eyes skimmed over him, like he could see under Link’s skin to study how deeply those scars really go. For a moment, Link wondered if he was going to continue to dig deeper for answers.
Instead, he said, “Okay.” And then turned around and walked away. That legendary curiosity stymied by caution and uncertainty.
Link watched him go, and wondered if Hyrule had always been this quiet.
Set in my ’the future us written; the ink is dry’ au, where an older version of Wild travels with the LU Chain, starting at the beginning of their adventure. All of my Linktober prompts will be set in this vers, but not necessarily in order.
Day 5: Love/Friendship
“Chosen?” Link asked.
“Yes,” Sky - Chosen? - confirmed. “‘The Chosen Hero’, that is the title given to me.” He did an admirable job of hiding any mixed feelings about that, but the stiffness of his own expression gave him away. Still, he held the Sword the Seals the Darkness out to Link without another word.
Deciding that that was a conversation for another time, he reached forward and took the sword. He handled her with less care than Sky - Chosen - had, but no less admiration. And unlike the others, he didn’t hesitate to grasp her by the hilt and pull her free from her sheath.
It was fascinating to watch her change form in his hands. He held the blade vertical, so that he could watch the marks left by her injury suffered during his third adventure grow. Going from the newly minted sword blessed by the goddesses, to the scarred, glowing, aged weapon of his own time. They’d healed, and thanks to Zelda, were just as strong as the rest of the blade, but they were still a stark contrast to what once was.
They say that the sword matches her hero, after all.
The others watched on, just as fascinated by the drastic transformation. She’d changed upon all of them touching her hilt or pulling her free, but none this grandly, none this permanently.
Legend’s eyes danced over the scars left on the metal and flickered over the ones visibly on Link’s face. He nodded, like it all made sense to him, and Link supposed it did. Out of everyone here, Legend had fought alongside this sword the most, and understood the way the connection between blade and hero really worked. And, as often is the case, mixed feelings over that wavered under that scowl of his. Respect, anger, the need to fight battles long over.
Time, Link noticed, waited for the transformation to finish, for the glow to start to subside, with the eyes of a watchful hawk. Waiting for something to happen, something known only to him. Once the sword settled into the shape most familiar to Link, and still nothing happened, Time turned away. Link wasn’t surprised. He’d watched them all just as closely when they’d made contact with the sword.
But none watched more raptly than Sky. Standing closest to Link and the sword, her glow had casted shadows onto his face, but did nothing to hide the dip in his brow as her battle wounds made themselves known. Link could practically feel him how himself have from reaching for her, but the both of them know that she wouldn’t take kindly to being interupted.
“Hello, Old Friend,” He said into the blade. She chimed at him in greeting. “Do you know why I’m here? Is this a mistake?”
“You are exactly where you need to be,” Was her faint reassurance. “Have heart Hero of the Wilds, for all of your sakes.” Her light dimmed, and she drifted away, once more asleep.
“So?” Sky - Chosen - asked. He’d stepped back, like he’d realized they’d been talking and wanted to give them privacy, even if he wouldn’t be able to hear them if he tried. He was also looking at Link with a new found respect, like any kind words spoken to his friend were more than enough to put Link into his good gracious. Or maybe it was simply understanding, found in someone who saw her as a partner on the field of battle, and not just a weapon that had found a worthy hero to fight all her battles.
‘Have heart-‘
‘Courage needs not be remembered, because it is never forgotten.’
“Indomitus,” He gently resheethed the sword and handed it back. “Call me Indomitus.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” The ‘newly’ dubbed Legend asked.
Link - Indomitus - laughed. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
Set in my ’the future us written; the ink is dry’ au, where an older version of Wild travels with the LU Chain, starting at the beginning of their adventure. All of my Linktober prompts will be set in this vers, but not necessarily in order.
Day 6: Traveling/Transport
Link - Indomitus, now - studies the portal. It looked exactly like the one he’d walked through only the other day, and the ones he’d walked through countless times decades ago. It tugged at his gut the same way he once remembered it doing, the same way it very much hadn’t this most recent time. He glanced over the group gathered behind him, all of them eyeing the portal with a lot more suspicion.
He raised an eyebrow at them, amused, “Didn’t you all willingly step through one these already?”
Wind weighed a pebble in his hand, like he was thinking about tossing it through first, just to see what would happen. Twilight was ‘soothing’ Epona, who was peacefully nibbling away at some grass, and not looking at the swirling gateway into the unknown behind him.
“Yeah,” Four - who was really Blue, but he didn’t know that Indie knew that - said, taking a step back. “And look where that lead us.”
Several of the other heroes also inched away. Indomitus gapped at them.
“Heroes of Courage, everyone,” He mumbled, and then, before they could take offense, “Come on, it’s not like we can put this off forever. Besides,” He turned back to the portal. “What the worst that could happen?”
And then he stepped forward, into the next step in their journey.
