Linked AU One-Shots

44. Silent Fears Part 4

Sky had spent his entire childhood hearing the legend of the Goddess' Chosen Hero. One time, long ago in the past, the Goddess came down as a mortal. In this mortal form, she found her Hero and gave him a sailcloth. Together, they fought the darkness side by side. He had spent so many nights studying the story from start to finish. He'd examine the story, debate the passages and meditate on the very words passed on through the many generations that had passed. 

There, however, was one rather major detail that the story had left out: this Hero had gone through time. The stories were not of the past, but of the future. And more shocking than that, some how, through some miracle, it was he that was this fabled Hero that he had spent his entire life admiring. When Sky had started his Journey, he hadn't quite realized it at first. The echoes of the passages whispered in his ears, but he had used them to fuel his strength, his courage and his wisdom. 

He wasn't quite sure when it had clicked for him. It was a gradual realization. When the truth had become undeniable, suddenly Sky had found that he was left in his own shadow. The diligent, strong, powerful, courageous, handsome, witty, smart, brave, cool, faithful, loving, perfect Hero was him. 

But Sky was hardly any of those things. He was a lazy bedhead that slept through long lectures and just barely managed to not fail his classes. He was probably the weakest of all the knights, considering that his legs didn't quite work the way they were supposed to. He was plagued by nightmares of some monster eating his beloved Zelda in one bite, and when he woke from such nightmares, he could hardly stop himself from crying. And dare he say, as much as he would like to think of himself as devout, sometimes it felt closer to performance. 

Sky got stronger. He learned so many things. He did what he set out to do... sort of. He failed, really, if eight of his reincarnations all had to repeat what should have ended with him. 

Even now, a few years later, he spent nearly every night wondering: why him? Why not Groose or any of the other knights? Surely, the Goddess was not quite as wise as he once believed... but then he stopped himself, because surely that was blasphemy if he ever let such feelings come to light. Even as thoughts alone, maybe they were sins. 

Him and the Hero of Legend never could quite see eye-to-eye. Sky tried to ignore the obvious truth of it. Legend hated the Goddesses with a burning passion. He spat when their names were said. He left when Sky prayed. When he was in a bad mood, Legend could spiral into doing nothing but insulting all four of them for the rest of the night. None of the other Heroes, save maybe Hyrule, who didn't even have the same faith, were as devout as Sky. They hadn't dedicated their whole everything to the Goddesses. Each of them, aside for Wild (and Hyrule) who had no faith of any kind, had joined Legend time from time to complain about what the Goddesses allegedly did to them. 

But Sky was devout. He had to be devout. He loved the Goddesses. The Chosen Hero loved the Goddesses more than anything. That was what the texts had said, right? And the texts couldn't possibly be wrong because they came from the Goddesses. The logical conclusion there would be that something therefore must be wrong with Sky himself and he had to fix it, without saying anything before anyone would notice. 

Legend wouldn't understand, nor would anyone. But then why would he sound almost as though he knew...? 

Sky swallowed and pulled one of his hands away from Four to wipe at his eyes. He could deal with that later. What was important right now was they find Wind. 

"The... the Silent Realm is dangerous." He began, his entire body shivering at the blasphemy that left his mouth. It tasted like the fire in the heart of Eldin Volcano. "I-- it's a trial from the Goddesses... holy... wonderful..." A shaky gasp left him, and then his vision blurred. Four took his free hand again, going back to rubbing circles in them. Someone else with large hands, Sky didn't have the mind to begin to guess who, rubbed his shoulders.