Linked universe & Guide!Reader: The first evening
The Links meet, and discover some... common friends between them all
Characters (who speak): Wild, Twilight, Warriors, Time, Four
AU: Linked Universe + Guide!reader insert (although reader isn't here, is talked about)
Tags: humor
Words: 1,217
Masterpost!
The clearing quietens, as the eight of them turn to see the cause of the noise - and meet the blue gaze of yet another strange man, who looks back at them all with bewilderment. He had dark brown hair, messy but curling slightly against the roundness of his face, and dark markings curling around his eyes that sharpened his features.
He was the second one of them to have odd facial markings, next to the man with the patterns that, at first glance, had appeared to be wounds, on a cheek, and a pointed shape furrowing his brow bone. Perhaps they know each other?
Link resists the urge to sigh. Of course there’s someone else.
Here’s hoping it’s someone who knows what’s going on.
The new man shrinks back at their united attention, stammering for a long second. “Wh - Who are you all?” He pushed a gloved hand through his fringe, exposing the darker roots. “Are y’all lost?”
He assesses them all with his gaze, and Link resists the urge to straighten up underneath it. He meets the face of the long-haired man with the heavy scarring, the one with the strange rectangular thing at his hip, and blinks.
They squint at each other. “Do I know you?” They both ask in unison, and both of their eyes widen in surprise.
He resists the urge to snicker.
Fi sings a happy, wondering note at his back, and then they all turn to face him.
___________________
“It is strange, that we all have been on journeys where we set out to defeat a great evil.” Link points out, mouth half-full with cooked meat, though he guesses he would be going by as the Cook for the foreseeable future. And he has to admit that it is strange, after a few hours of sitting by each other in the evening and trading stories and munching on food he had stored in his Purah Pad, for the lack of anything better to do.
No one had any idea of where they currently were, and his slate was refusing to show him his map, so that was a bust. No-one else was up to doing anything either, so he plopped himself down right there on the grass and got a cooking pot set up.
They’ve already concluded that they may all be from Hyrule, but at different points of time, seeing as the Kid says that his whole kingdom was flooded and nowadays a great ocean - and that Sky had no idea what a kingdom or even Hyrule apparently was.
Maybe Sky was from a different place entirely, then. Maybe from those other kingdoms that the Pink-haired one suggested they could be from, Holodumb or Labeema or something. But how would he have the Master Sword then?
The soldier agrees. “Even stranger that we all share the same name, and happened to meet too.”
He would be less shocked if they were younger children. After defeating the Calamity, several tens of children had been named Link in his honour, and he had met all of them. All of them. Several tens more were named after him when he defeated Ganon again.
Babies were very cute and warm and he kind of wanted to hold one now.
But, he supposes there should at least be one guy named Link every century or so. It didn’t seem so crazy that it existed, but more so that they all happened to meet at once.
“Might have been on purpose then.” The smithy suggests, spoon halfway to his mouth. “Anyone know someone who might’ve done this?”
There are several head shakes, although the soldier pipes up. “I do know a sorceress who has duress over time, although she is a force of good. I don’t think she would do this, unless there is a great evil that needs all of us to defeat it.” He seemed to reconsider. “And even when she did, they were brought to us, not taking me to some foreign era as well.”
“We can table that, then.” The tattooed, brown-haired man mutters. He needs to come up with something better. “Until we could ask ‘er personally.”
…Wait.
“On my journey…” He starts, and he is kind of unsure what he had planned on saying. “I had a companion who would often talk about previous heroes they had known.”
He thinks of a little ball of light, who, for the longest time, he had thought was just a fairy. The little thing that liked to curl up in the hidden nook between his shoulder and ear that was half-hidden by his hair. The person who shouted encouraging words at his back and pointed their toes at every weak spot they needed to hit. The guide who would shout such hilarious words at every serious moment that he often struggled to keep his calm in the face of it, whereas anyone else would hear nothing.
They had the little humanoid silhouette, the wings and the glow that he had expected of fairies too.
But he could understand them. But it would always know how to fight the monsters and enemies he encountered. But it had never seemed truly surprised at anything. But it had known previous heroes, personally.
Perhaps they were a particularly old and experienced fairy. But did they know these heroes?
They recall how the guide had sobbed their little chest out when they found out that the Light Dragon had been Zelda all along. For all those years.
They had hugged his neck, dragonfly wings pattering against his hair, trying to offer as much comfort as they could, tight enough that maybe he could pretend the choked feeling in his chest was from them.
“Do you… remember me?” Zelda says, face dirtied and golden hair fluttering in the breeze that may have been natural to feel near the castle, once upon a time. Her eyes shine green, like the lands in her name, and the backs of her ankles are caked in mud. A cricket chirrups at their feet. “Girl… I don’t even know where I am right now.” The person says, idly kicking their legs against Link’s collarbone. Just a minute ago they were whooping and hollering as Zelda’s golden light sealed the beast away in a miraculous sight. “Amnesia moment.” Link’s eye twitches. They were literally right at the castle. Were they stupid?
“They always mentioned something about how they missed a - an Epona? I don’t know who that is, but do you guys maybe know them?”
All of them have sat up now, straightened up as Link had been reminiscing on the time they had spent with each other, before they had to leave. The Rancher gapes at him. “Epona? That’s my horse!”
Link stares at him. “Your horse?”
“Epona’s my horse?” The old man says as well, furrowing his brow.
The soldier raises a hand. “Mine too.”
Link, not for the first time, and perhaps maybe forever, is at a loss for words. “Do you all have a horse named Epona?” Of course. Of course the Epona the guide always mentioned was a horse. Of course this was another thing they would all have in common.
The smithy had a confused look on his face. “I know an Epona too. Although, she’s not my horse.”
“That’s… really weird.”
PART 2!!