Mini story -- Time tries to get the rest of the Chain up and ready to travel for the day but the rest of the Chain says no.
Time strode in to the stable of sleeping heroes, surprised to see that none of them were up despite the fact that the sun was already starting to rise.
"Time to get up," He announced. "We got a long day of travel ahead of us." Several heroes groaned and rolled over in response. Time made his bed, collected his bathing items and went down to the lakeside to wash up.
The plan was to start heading toward Death Mountain to deal with some of the monster camps springing up in the Gorons' mines. They hoped to make it to Foothill stable at least but ideally as far up towards Goron city as daylight would allow.
Time washed up, changed clothes, he even bothered to shave that morning. He could normally go week between shaving his face, but the stubble was starting to itch and irritate him. Once he was done, he neatly folded his nightclothes and returned to the stable.
Wild sat by the bright young fire that another traveler had lit. He was fully dressed, but still wrapped in a stable blanket and he stared blankly into the flames.
"Wild, what do you have planned for breakfast?" Time asked.
Wild looked up, startled out of whatever thoughts he'd been lost in. He then narrowed his eyes and hissed at Time, then took out his slate and teleported away right in front of him.
"Ah, hehe. Always startles me when he does that," the other traveler tending to the fire laughed. Time wasn't sure what to make of it. Where had he gone?
Warriors exited the stable, dressed, but lacking armor.
"Is everyone up?" Time asked.
"It's... a slow morning." Warriors answered. "Expect to leave a little later today."
"Not too late, I hope," Time answered frowning. "We have a lot of ground to cover." He entered the stable to find most of the Links still varying states of waking up.
Sky was sitting up with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, but his eyes were closed and he looked to be asleep. Legend was sitting on the floor next to the bed. Wind was an unmoved mound of blankets. Hyrule lay awake and blinking dreamily up into the rafters. Twilight sat cross-legged on his bed rummaging through his bag while Four was curled up next to him in a tight little ball.
"What's going on? Why aren't you up yet?" Time asked. "We need to get going." He moved to Wind's bedside and shook what was probably Wind's shoulder.
"Come on, time to wake up," he said. Wind rolled to look at him with rosy cheeks and tired red eyes.
"No. Shut up. Fuck you," he growled and retreated under the covers completely. Time was taken aback.
There was a thump and Time looked up to see Sky still wrapped in his blanket but laying on the floor and inchworming toward his pile of stuff. Legend was up on his feet but he limped every single step he took and his face pinched in pain. Hyrule stretched and yawned loudly but made no move to get up. Unexpectedly, Wild strode back into the stable, grabbed Hyrule's bare foot.
"You're coming with me!" He said and teleported them both away, Hyrule squawking in surprise and dressed in nothing more than his pajamas.
Time sighed and Warriors pulled him back toward the fire outside. "The night stablemaster said that Wind was up in the night with nightmares," Warriors said. "Made him some hot chocolate and stayed up with him for a while. He'll likely need another hour or two of sleep at least."
"I see," Time said and sighed again. "Wind's behavior I can understand, but we took yesterday as a rest day for a reason--with the expectation that today everyone would be up and ready to go as soon as light allowed."
"Time. These boys may be heroes, but they're also boys. They need more than one day of rest once in a blue moon. They aren't perfect little soldiers with infinite energy and morale. You can only push them so far before they will push back."
"I know that, but we have a job to do. The Gorons--"
"Can wait," Warriors interrupted. "They aren't, dying, the city isn't under attack, the just can't dig rocks in their usual spots. It's not that urgent."
Time sighed yet another time. So much for their grand travel plans.
"Besides, I can tell that you need a break too," Warriors said with a sly grin. "You've been impatient recently, taking everything too seriously, skipping meals, nagging, sighing at every little thing that doesn't go according to plan... you need a break just as much as the rest of us."
Time refrained from sighing but he sure felt like it. He hadn't noticed he'd been doing those things more, but he certainly recognized the pattern. They were indeed some of his tells of being overworked.
"Is that why you aren't wearing your armor this morning?" Time deflected. "You already decided that today needs to be another rest day?"
"It's possible," Warriors shrugged.
Time was a proud man and he hated to admit it, but Warriors was right. They needed another rest day. If nothing else, they could do it for Wind's sake.
"So what do you say, Old Man?" Warriors prodded him.
"I think you and I are cooking breakfast this morning," Time answered. "For whenever these sleepyheads choose to get up."
"Eyyy that's was I was hoping to hear!" Warriors smiled. "I'll go tell the troops they can go back to bed. You break out the bacon and start mixing up some flapjack batter."
"Only if you tell the stablemaster we're camping out another day," Time answered.
