Memories lost; experience gained

Milk and Swords

Four POV

At dinner, Warriors begged Time for a glass of milk to diminish the burning in his tongue.

"Time, please!" he begged, his voice thick from the heat of the spice. Time turned to Twilight.

"Twi?"

"Yeah, Time?"

"You hear anything."

"No. You?"

"Nope. Must be a gnat in my ear." Time said, popping the 'p' while looking at Wars, his working eye pinned to the soldier. After this conversation, both predecessor and successor returned to their meals.

Legend smirked.

Warriors groaned, dramatically lying on the floor, scarf in disarray.

The door creaked open.

"Hey, Wars," A voice began. Turning around, I was surprised to see Wild standing over Warriors.

"Have you learned your lesson?" she asked, kneeling beside him.

He nodded vigorously while trying not to hit his head on the floor, having lost his voice to the spice.

"Are you sure?" she asked, materializing a bottle of milk from the pad on her hip, dangling it over the soldier. Her ponytail had fallen over her shoulder.

He nodded, hitting his head on the floor. He winced, holding his head, but held out his hand to take the proffered milk.

Wild smirked.

"Then have some." She handed the bottle to him, and walked over to me, taking off her cloak to set it on her chair, which was between me and Hyrule.

Nearby, Warriors had uncorked the bottle, tipped it back and was gulping the cold substance down, careless of the tears that had run down his face. He sighed in relief, wiped them away, and made his way back to his chair, embarrassment coloring his cheeks.

"Hey, Four? Can you teach me how to make a stronger weapon? I know you said you'd do it, but I'd like to bring something back to my Hyrule, and blacksmithing techniques seem like a good idea, considering we've lost so many techniques."

I thought back to last week when she'd broken a claymore trying to lift a rock.

"Yeah, sure. I'll show you in the morning, Wild." I told her, laughing slightly. She nodded her thanks and sat back down. Hyrule tensed for a moment, then relaxed, resuming lounging in his chair, while turning a rock over in his hands, obviously comfortable next to his fellow wanderer, though at one point, Legend brought out cards and showed Hyrule how to play Rummy, on his team like he always was for these kinds of games. Both were on cushions that had been taken from the couch that was pushed up against the wall. After cards, Wind brought out his hip flask and started drinking, though when Time came around, he gave Time the finger. Wind ran out of alcohol after about two minutes, though, and started hounding Legend, who promptly gave the pirate some vodka, which finally made Wind tipsy enough to slide into his bedroll, Hyrule situated between him and Legend. At half past eleven, the rest of the Chain decided to go to bed and rest, though according to Legend, Wind would have a nasty headache when he woke up.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Legend was right. Wind woke up and was complaining about his headache, which Hyrule would not heal, and the sailor was grumbling about it to his eggs, which he was also scarfing down. Sky was having a cup of coffee, which he had discovered about a week ago, Time was keeping his eye on Warriors, Wild was cleaning the pot, Twilight was humming into his food, and I was cleaning my plate.

After breakfast, I found Warriors and Wild talking about something, and Wars was looking at his feet, so we all assumed he was apologizing about being a misogynistic idiot.

Later that morning, I found myself heating up the forge with an overexcited Wild bouncing on her toes next to me, her hair in a bun. Getting out a block of steel, I began explaining the finer points of forge safety to her, handing her a pair of earmuffs. Showing her the process, I set the metal block in the forge before showing her when it was ready to start being worked, helping her get the right amount of force behind her hammer strikes, and other things vital to blacksmithing.

After a few hours of this, we had a perfectly balanced sword that hopefully Wild would have a tough time breaking. It was made of strong steel, had a black leather grip, and had the symbols of all the Divine Beasts etched on the hilt, two on each side. It had no imperfections, as I'd ensured during the smithing process, and Wild seemed happy with it and proud of herself, thanking me all the while.

"Again, thank you, Four." She said.

"And again, not a problem. I had to make sure that you wouldn't break another weapon and get shards of metal lodged in your arm." I told her, nodding to her left forearm, the scars on which were covered by the Champions Leathers.

She smiled, returning to her sword forms. After a few moments, she stopped, looking at the sword approvingly, before looking at me. I wordlessly handed her a bottle of sword polish, a rag, a whetstone, and a few other things necessary for weapon care, showing her how to polish, oil, and wipe a blade. I didn't need to show her how to sharpen it, because she had figured that out on her own during her first journey. I also handed her a basic black leather scabbard and showed her how to care for that too. By the time we were heading back inside, it was almost dark.

(A/N): I know nothing about blade care or metalworking, if anyone would like to enlighten me, please do so. Seriously, I could use the help for later chapters. Guys, feel free to comment and please tell me if the gap between 'Ravio' and 'Misogyny' made any sense. Please feel free to put ideas in the comments or PM me with them and thank ya'll for 112 readers! Wasn't expecting so much support, but thanks!