Alone We Fight

Chapter 4: Fireside Memories

A/N: What's this?! Another update?! Why, yes it is! :D I haven't the faintest idea why I've been able to write not one but THREE new chapters for this story (keep an eye out!) in just a few days, but I'm not questioning it! Today, we've got a chapter in Legend's point of view! He's hard to write, for some reason. I think it's because I've never played any of his games.

Also, I'm playing Ocarina of Time for the first time, and I'm so stuck. How do I get past the guards to get to Zelda?! *cries in frustration*

Awesome shoutout to my LU Discord server peeps! Y'all rock!

~~~

Legend huffed as they settled down in the freshly made camp. He wasn't sure what to make of their silent companion, Wild. It'd been two weeks already, and not only had the guy remained frustratingly mute, but there were these odd times he'd just zone out.

Now, normally these things wouldn't bother him. Sky certainly had his head in the clouds often enough, but Wild wasn't Sky. Wild was always on high alert, and picked up signs of danger faster than the rest of them usually did. Seriously, the guy's hearing was unreal.

And seeing someone who was so aware just check out was mildly terrifying to the veteran. He needed to understand why. Was he sick? Was it a spell or a curse? What if it happened in the middle of a battle? It made him into a liability, though he'd never say it aloud. Legend knew better than to offend the person in charge of the food, after all.

Nor would he ever dream of kicking out the only person who could make edible meals. And the guy seemed genuinely okay aside from this—albeit a bit of a loose canon at times, but Wild wasn't a bad person. Legend was sure of that much.

But this... thing of his had to stop. He eyed the cook who was cutting up some carrots for their stew. Warriors was talking to Hyrule about something as he sharpened his sword, and Hyrule was tending to an injury Wind got in a fight earlier that day.

Warriors let loose a booming laugh, startling Wild, who looked up. Then all his movements stilled, and his eyes became frighteningly vacant. Legend wasn't the only one to notice as a quiet hush fell over the camp, every eye turned towards their now frozen cook. This was the third time they'd seen it.

The first time, they hadn't been sure. It'd been early in the morning and Wild had been startled out of a nightmare. Checking out for a few moments wasn't unheard in that kind of situation. It had unnerved them a bit, but even Legend himself had fought off flashbacks and whatnot after being shaken from his nightmares so suddenly.

The second time had occurred when they were trying to show him how to actually fish. Apparently Wild had never seen a fishing rod before, which was mildly concerning. But when Twilight had been showing him how to cast a line, the scarred hero just froze and wouldn't react to anyone for several minutes.

It scared quite a few of them, but Wild just brushed it off and pretended that nothing happened. In all honesty, if they hadn't been ambushed shortly thereafter, they probably would've pushed him for answers. As it was, Sky got hurt rather nicely, which distracted them for the rest of the night. And that following day there was just no opportunity to bring it up. That'd been just a handful of days ago.

But this time, they were all close enough to see that undeniable vacancy in his glazed over eyes. The fact that he honestly was not there. More than a few apprehensive looks passed amongst them.

"Wild?" Twilight reached out a hand and touched his shoulder, but he didn't so much as twitch. And Wild always flinched at physical contact. Hyrule came over and coaxed the knife out of his hand so he wouldn't hurt himself when he came to.