Linked universe || Oneshots

Smoke Signal || Finale

Chapter 5 || He's here.

~~~

A grey wolf blazed through the undergrowth, large paws tearing up branches and bushes as the creature made a beeline for the approaching clearing. A turbulent mixture of hope and anger fuelled his lightning speed; with each tree passed the prevailing emotion changed.

Pale sunlight pooled into a large puddle up ahead, the wolf's eyes contracted into thin slits and out from a curtain of shadow he emerged from a cluster of bushes. Four paws morphed into two legs and a pair of swinging arms that stalked through the campsite, noting the messy way everything had been cleared up, to be met with his teammates all together, packed and ready to go.

From the centre came the old man, who met him halfway and handed him his belongings. Twilight didn't take them, instead he hunched over his knees and through heavy pants exclaimed, "I know where he went."

Time's expression remained unbothered. "Good, we were counting on that. Now grab your stuff, Captain will fill you in." He addressed everyone else and began walking in the direction Twilight came from. "Let's move."

The others followed quickly after him, with Hyrule pausing to hand him a suspicious chunk of meat wrapped in leaves with mushrooms sticking out of it. Legend wasn't quite fast enough, despite sticking close to Sky the rancher caught him and spun him around with a light twist of the shoulder.

He stared down Twilight's glower. "Think about it, how else were gonna find you in such a short amount of time? The old man wants to find champion before the sun sets, we couldn't just wait around for you to show up."

To his surprise the rancher didn't vocalise a comeback or even a complaint. Which would have been fair since he might have over used the instrument, just a little. No, in fact he merely asked to see it and when Legend produced it from his pocket, curious as to why he was asked, the silver item was snatched from his hand and ground into dust under a heel on a nearby rock.

"What the hell?!" Legend exclaimed, gathering the up the dust into a small pouch, in hopes of some sort of later magical reconstruction. "Do you have any idea what I had to do to get that? How'd you like it if I destroy one of your items?"

Twilight brushed off the lingering sediment from his boot and reached for the shadow crystal dangling from his neck. "Go ahead."

Legend took one look at the cursed item before walking off to join the others, Warriors chuckle as he came over. "As funny as it was to witness. Was that really necessary?"

"I can still hear ringing." Each syllable was punctuated by a hefty tap to his left ear.

"Then take this as a lesson; maybe next time don't copy your wayward ward and run off again," Warriors scoffed, watching him secure his fur pellet and sword on his back. "You didn't even bring your weapons?! Amateur."

Twilight huffed, debating whether or not to clap back with the few mistakes he'd seen Warriors make during training and on the road. The Captain didn't give him a chance though, he slung an arm over his friends shoulder and began filling him in on what he missed. While Twilight hesitantly got started on 'breakfast'.

The food was just as terrible as it looked. Twilight had a hard time swallowing it even with the appreciation that Hyrule tried his best and given their lack of supplies, also didn't have much to work with. That being said, he'd rather inhale a dozen of those rather than believe what Warriors' retelling.

The notion that Wild willingly poisoned them was even more sickening than the potentially rancid meat. Knowing that Time allowed it to happen twisted that awful feeling from initial anger to a sharp guilt. Something was wrong. Something Time had acknowledged, but walked away from. For a man who's been looking back at past events for years, one would assume he'd be used to these mistakes, but he wasn't. Regret crept uninvited through his psyche. The same as when the Twilight Princess left without a spoken word.