Shadow of the Fallen Lands

~Sky~

I felt sorry for Four. He always has trouble with portals. Every time, without fail, he passed out and we were forced to carry him until he woke up. We rotated that duty between us. It was my turn, and although he weighed literally nothing, it didn't help that he'd accidentally Wolfied me. I felt my side, which was dotted with tiny puncture wounds from where Four and Hyrule ran me over on Wolfie. I never thought I would be run over by a wolf, especially not when travelling with a bunch of heroes who were all technically me. So much had happened in the past three months, I just couldn't think about it all.

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A quiet cough came from Four, who was slumped on my back, and he opened his eyes. "Feeling better?" I asked, and he nodded shakily. "Portals suck!" The others noticed Four's awakening and most of them rushed over. Among the few who didn't were Wars and Legend. Wars was crouched in a bush, and I'd hate to imagine what he was feeling like. Those portals always took most of our captain's vigour. I dropped Four, and he landed neatly on his feet, eyes flashing red. Time and Twi strode over to us, and Hyrule was occupied trying to force feed Legend a red potion. Warriors came to join us, and I grasped his shoulder. We were the only ones in this strange place, until a young blonde girl with pigtails and a blue dress came scampering over the hill and scared me. She smiled at us. "Heeeeeeey!" She said, in an accent I'd never heard before, probably from wherever we were now. "I'm Aryll!" Time and Twi exchanged a glance. Legend and Warriors were dragged over to see us, and we all stood together in front of Aryll. "You aren't from here, are you?" She questioned and waited for an answer of some kind. I nodded, since nobody else had decided it was worth it to answer her. I looked around quickly and saw Legend glaring at me. I forgot he was really overprotective of information. 

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Aryll looked out over the hill and turned to face us. "I'd better take you to my home, it's not far from here, trust me!" Then, she disappeared down a path through the trees. "Follow me!" I picked up Four, since he looked a little unsteady on his feet, Hyrule dashed around offering everyone various healing items, and Legend just scowled at him until our healer came to walk beside us. Twilight was supporting Warriors, who looked like he was going to throw up, and Time was leading our little group of heroes down the hill after Aryll. The path curved around the hillside, and when we left the trees... Wow. Just wow. And I thought the Lanayru Sand Sea was big! I thought Leg was going to pass out when he saw the ocean. His eyes were filled with an innate fear. I have never seen so much water in one place, but then again, my home was a lump of rock in the sky. Hyrule fell to his knees and whimpered. "So much water..." It was really daunting.

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Just then, Aryll ran back over to us, and looked questioningly at Hyrule and our Veteran, both of whom were looking at the sea with eyes filled with horror. "Come on, they're all waiting to meet you!" We ran after Aryll, and, after a traumatic experience crossing a shaky rope bridge, reached a quaint little settlement on the sand. There were two boats docked on a small wooden platform, one of them tiny and red, with a carving of a lion on the front, the other huge and very old looking. A group of sailors were sat on the sand, talking good naturedly. Aryll ran straight towards a house on the edge of the beach, and we had no choice but to follow her. I put Four down, and Warriors came over to me, a light of hope shining all over his face. "What's up with you, Vet? You seem really scared!" Wars laughed, then poked Legend in the centre of the chest. "You aren't afraid, are you?" Everyone held their breath; we all knew what happened when you baited Legend. 

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Legend stood up slowly, and faced Warriors with pure, unrestrained anger pulsing around him like a force field. "You dare? You dare? You don't know, so why do you push me? You don't know what happened to me last time I set eyes on the sea! I have every reason to be afraid, and you have no right to tease me for it! I will see to it myself that your Zelda hears about how unknightly her Royal Captain is being, besides, I can do awful things to you, and you won't even be able to resist. So don't prod me or I will break all your fingers in the most painful way I know." Once he had finished ranting, Leg looked out over the vast expanse of blue. He murmured something that I'm very sure nobody was supposed to hear. "Verily, it be the nature of dreams to end" Time moved forwards to put a soothing hand on Legend's shoulder but he was met with a scathing response. "Don't touch me, Old Man!"

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Aryll pushed the door of the house open and let us go inside. I guessed this was where she lived, judging from her confidence in letting us all in. I felt sorry for Time, who whacked his head on the doorframe. We were greeted by a wizened old woman. "Aryll!" She exclaimed in a kinder sounding voice than I expected. "I was worried! Try to warn me next time you go exploring, hmm?" Aryll looked sheepish and nodded. " "Sorry Grandma!" She apologised, before running back out the door. The old woman looked us over, then smiled. "Oh? And who do we have here? You can call me Grandma" Twi smiled back at her. "I'm Twilight, that's Hyrule, Warriors, Sky, Four, Time and Legend. We're Heroes of Courage, and we're looking for a boy named Link!" Grandma seemed to think for a second. "I think he's with the pirates, and if you're quick, you might just catch him before they leave again"

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Grandma's statement that we 'might just catch him' certainly made us move faster. We all ran out onto the beach, towards the group of sailors on the sand, who we now recognised as pirates. Among them was a young boy in blue, who was laughing at something a blonde girl had said to him. He seemed very surprised when a group of seven men and boys came over to him. "Uh, not to interrupt or anything, but are you Link?" I asked him, hoping that Time's assumption was right. "Yeah, why?" Then he noticed Warriors. "Sailor?" Wars said, unable to believe it, opening his arms, only for the boy to rush into them and grasp him tight. Time smiled. "Hello again, Sailor. Could you spare a hug for your other friend Masks?" Link drew himself out of Warriors' welcoming embrace. "Masks? Is that you?" He asked, eyes wide, before he launched himself at Time. "Oh, Masks! I never thought I'd see you again! Why are you so much older than me if when we met, you were nine and I was twelve?" Time gave him a sad smile. "I grew up way too fast" Meanwhile, me, the other Links and the pirates were watching all this unfold. "Did he just call Time 'Masks'?" Hyrule asked, looking confused. "I think they've met before, since when we encountered Wars, he seemed to know who Time was. Then, from the safety of Time's arms, Link spoke to us, with a cheeky grin plastered on his face. "Hey!" I stepped forwards and began to explain our quest to him, until he held up both hands. "Woah, whoa, whoa, hold up! What?!" Four answered Link's plea for an explanation, with red eyes flashing in earnest. "I know, it's very confusing, but once you get the hang of journeying with us, it's great, honest! 

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Hey everyone! How are y'all! I can promise you right now, hand on metallic gemstone that we will be meeting Wild in 3 chapters! Are you excited? (Obviously not, but I am, so yeah.) Tetra's pirates sure were confused, huh! Welp, thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter!

~G0ddessSw0rdF1