Babble - Beyond Dimensions

Chapter 24: The one where they visit a wasteland

Switching between times always was bad. Suddenly randomly switching times was always worse than doing so through a portal. It was always a nasty, headache inducing experience which Hyrule could honestly leave out. But alas, he was not as lucky, and neither were the others.

At least they had somewhat of a premature alarm system. Hyrule did not know how the Hero of Time could tell when they were about to jump worlds, but it was at least nice to have somewhat of a warning so they could at least grab their bags and not leave their equipment and weapons behind.

Next to him Twilight was also groaning in pain, as were some of the others. Four laid passend out face down in the tall gras, never being one to take the sudden jumps well, and Babble was leaned over, emptying their stomach once again, Sky hovering over them, his posture tense with pain as he mumbled soft words of support while rubbing the person’s back.

Time was the first to get back to his feet, face scrunched up as if someone had just finished pulling out his teeth one by one while taking great pleasure in breaking his bones. “Is everyone accounted for?” he asked. Numerous groans came as reply and one “Four’s out cold” from Wind.

The little sailor was dramatically stretched out on the ground, before rolling over and getting back to his feet, his young age probably one of the main factors for the lessened suffering. Warriors followed short, the captain always seemed pretty immune or used to the time-switching. Hyrule wondered why but figured if it was important, Warriors would tell them.

Speaking of, the captain looked around, cautious, before voicing: “Whose Hyrule is that? It’s not mine.”

Hyrule took that as a cue to become aware of his surroundings and not just his friends. Truly, they seemed to have landed somewhere vast and green with tall grass for as wide as their eyes could look. It reminded Hyrule to Wild’s, but the scarred hero, his face also scrunched up as he sat up, shook his head and showed his Sheikah Slate: “Not mine either.”

Various negative replies followed, leaving in the end only Hyrule, Four and of course Babble. Hyrule looked around and had to admit: “It looks a little like mine, but it seems a lot less poisoned and it doesn’t seem like here are monsters. It’s probably not mine.”

The others winced in sympathy to his neutral statement. Hyrule knew his Hyrule was run-down, but he also knew that while he and his Zeldas tried their best to rebuild, that there was still a high risk for failure and total collapse. Without much thought his eyes wandered to Babble, who was right now gulping down water as if there was no tomorrow. Poor them, their stomach really seemed to hate travelling through time.

But then, as he watched the young person handing back Sky his flask with a thankful expression on their face, a thought came to him. Dread pooled within him and he took another good look around and got the undeniable feeling of Deja Vue.

Because this lush with plant-life space reminded him strongly of one of the places where he had often travelled through. In his time there was no gras, only monsters and dead and dry earth.

Hadn’t the postman said that Babble came from a time after him? A time when there were so few Hylians left that those still there decided to leave all together hoping to survive in a better land, a better dimension under better conditions?

Hyrule spoke before he could stop himself: “What if this is Babble’s Hyrule?” Seven faces turned to look at him in surprise. He saw their faces first color in confusion and then bit by bit starting to get painted in the painful color of understanding. They all seemed to recall to vividly the words the postman had said over their newest companion. And slowly one by one they turned to Babble, who had finally found their footing again and looked surprised when everyone looked at them.