Chapter Text
Sky wasn't going to say he was having a bad day, because really, he had had much worse days. Terrible days, even. In comparison, this was nothing. One time he'd fallen from his Loftwing and broken both his arms for seven weeks! Groose had poked fun of him every chance he got, and Zelda had nearly exploded from nervous anxiety over his injury (after slapping him on the head). That had been awful! Another time he'd been impaled by a moblin’s spear and had bled out in the rain, face down in the mud. So, this wasn't that bad. He really should try to stay positive. Positivity was great! Joyous. He was so joyous. All the freaking time. He could fake a smile.
That's what he told himself as he tried to navigate the Castle he'd found himself dropped off into without much of a warning besides Wind's shocked shouting from behind him as they walked. Because, as usual, they had been thrown into a portal and separated. The thought of it made Sky want to sigh.
Sky roamed the halls, attempting not to run into any guards, servants, or anyone who might shout at him and arrest him. Now that he knew what guards were for, and that laws were pretty strict in the other's Hyrules, Sky was much more wary of making sure he didn't break any of them. Back on Skyloft he could have just wandered into anyone's house and they wouldn't have really cared as long as he didn't, like, say, destroy their chandelier. Or pots. He'd learnt the hard way random citizens in the other member of the Chain's Hyrules weren't so forgiving as Skyloftians. (Read: he might have casually stepped into someone's house to ask them for a matchbox, and they threw a pan at his head).
Anyways, so that's why he was trying not to be spotted. It could have been worse, the place he was dropped in. At least it wasn't a moblin's den, or a Lynel's territory. Though, he had a feeling he could still die doing this.
Where was everyone else, anyways? Why had he been the only one dropped into this Castle? He didn't recognize it as any of the Chain's castles, but to be fair, they'd only been to Time's, Warriors, and Four's Castletowns so far into their quest. The other four weren't familiar. Well, the others could still be in this Castle. Sky just hadn’t found them yet.
The place was kind of dreary and somber, in all regards. The colours were dark, and the floors were covered in golden and red carpets. The walls were stony, but more of a dark brown than grey. Perhaps it was because Sky was in a less used part of the castle, but the torches were far and few between. Well, the place certainly matched Twilight's exterior aesthetic, but something told Sky that had nothing to do with what his Castle would look like.
Sky heard the first shuffle of footsteps just down the corridor- and he snapped himself out of his pondering. Now fully alert, he turned to look around him. Was there anything he could hide behind? That was what he should do, hide. If anyone saw him, well, that wouldn’t be great.
No. There wasn't anywhere to hide. Okay, that was fine. If need be, he could easily fight his way out of this situation. Too bad there weren't any doors he could jump through, or tapestries to hide behind. Wouldn't that have been plot convenient?
There wasn't a need for cynicism, though. Sky had grown out of that a little while after his journey. Now was the time for positivity! He didn't look too out of place for a person that would be seen in a castle. Right? Sky looked down at his outfit and then came to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, this outfit wasn't the best for... ah, subtly. Or looking normal. Well, he could deal with it when the time came.
Quickly fixing his tense posture, Sky began walking down the halls towards the sound of footsteps. Act natural! he told himself, as he lifted his chin up a little bit, not wanting to look like he wasn't supposed to be there. (Because he most defiantly wasn't supposed to be there).
The person rounded the corner, and Sky felt his bravado slip slightly. Of course the person looked extremely important! Not just a servant or a guard, or anyone Sky could simply ignore.
The person in question was short-ish, not as short as Wind, but shorter than Hyrule was (if one was to compare the heights). They wore a short ermine cloak over a crimson red tunic, and on the long tunic was golden embroidery, including many familiar symbols- the triforce included. Each part of their outfit, from the green undertunic and the polished, black boots was immaculate. Their hair was half up- part short ponytail part bangs and sideburns, yellow with a faint tinge of pink. On their head was a crown. A crown. Crowns meant one thing in the futures of Hyrule- and that was power. A lot of it.
Well, Sky hated to swear, but shit. Just his luck to run past someone apart of the royal family! And he didn't even know if he was supposed to address them as a prince or princess, or maybe the king or queen. How was he supposed to tell? That was something all the staff in the palace would know, naturally, so he couldn’t pass for a servant or a guard.
Plan A, which was to avoid everyone, had failed. Now, Plan B, act natural, was about to fail as well. Too bad he wasn't like the Captain and in fact, was incapable of planning past B. (Wars often had plans up to A(iii)).
So, Sky walked past the person without saying a word and tearing his gaze off them as quickly as possible.
For a moment, he thought it had worked, too. Internally, he had just began to celebrate the small victory before he heard the shing of a blade and felt the press of steel at the back of his neck.
How had he missed the sword on the belt of the royal? Observation had been something drilled into his mind over and over again at the Academy for Knights back home. He'd have gotten a D- if this was drill. But it wasn't a drill, and that's what made Sky nervous. Sure, he could pull Fi off his back right then and there and beat this Royal up to escape... though something about that felt wrong. This wasn't his Castle, and it would be rude to hurt someone of the Blood of Hylia. His blood, if what the others were saying were true about him being the first King of Hyrule. Man was that weird to think about.
"Who the hell are you?" The Royal demanded from behind Sky, their blade pressed closely to his skin. Too close. Their voice left nothing for discussion or resistance. It was a command. "Tell me before I cut your throat out," the person spit, "You're no man of the court, or the staff of this Palace. There's no trickery you can spin that I'll fall for. Zelda may not like blood on her floors, but I know how to get stains out if necessary."
Laying it on thick with the threats here! Sky would like to say he didn't think a descendent of his could be so violent-minded, but then he remembered who he was, and what Sun was like. Then the thought of it checked out.
"No- uh no need for bloodshed," Sky said, managing to keep all the wobble out of his voice. He wasn't scared- just a bit nervous. he had to tread lightly. "My name is Link Hyrule," he said carefully. "And I have no idea how I ended up in this castle."
The stranger let out a scoff- "There's only one Link Hyrule in this Kingdom, and it's not you. Who are you really? Or should I kill you now and ask questions later if you're not going to answer them?"
"I swear, I swear on Hylia and my sword I'm telling the truth-" Sky said, noting the fact that there was another 'Link Hyrule' in this era. Which most likely meant that that guy was the hero, whoever this Link was. And that also meant this was none of the other's era. A new one, then. Great.
The royal paused for a moment, not saying anything. Then they put down their own blade.
Sky turned around to face the person quickly, unsure what was happening.
The person looked a little annoyed, but not at all shocked by anything, or surprised. They scanned Sky's face and the Master Sword for a moment before sheathing their blade.
"How in the Five Kingdoms did you get your hands on the Master Sword without being smited by a bolt of lightning or burnt to death?" The royal asked, obviously recognizing the blade.
"Like I said... my name is Link." Sky said, hoping he could explain. If this royal calmed down enough, maybe he could talk some sense into them, and they could have a real conversation. The other Zeldas- well this person wasn't a Zelda- had all been reasonable about the whole-time travelling quest thing (though they did have a Link to vouch for them in each of the three Castle's they'd been to). "Uh, you might have heard of me before, I'm called the Hero of The Skies, Chosen Hero?" he asked, hands in the air as though he were surrendering. Which he sort of was. If he did end up getting thrown into prison for attempting breaking and entering, then, well. Wild had bombs. Everyone had bombs. Sky had bombs!
The person paled slightly, and then looked over Sky once again, their violet eyes darting from the sword on his back to his face. They coughed, bringing their hand to their mouth and then fixed the expression on their face. "Well. I've heard of the Chosen Hero. Though, we call him the first King of Hyrule. Which I'm sure you should know, if you truly were him.” The royal said, their tone cautious, still scrutinizing Sky.
Sky felt sweat form on his forehead. How was he supposed to explain that he hadn't exactly gotten to the point of time in his life where he could be considered a king? Well, he could just say it. "You'll never believe this, but I'm not technically King yet. Four told me it would happen eventually, but uh, not yet. Currently. So. Just Link, right now. Haha.” Honestly, Sky needed to work on improvising in life threatening situations where all he had to do to survive was tell the truth.
"Four?" The royal muttered, "Who the fuck names their child Four?" Weird point to focus on, but Sky was just glad he wasn’t dead yet.
"No one. It's uh, a nickname. Cause we're both named Link. Well, we're all named Link, so. It was only natural to come up with nicknames. They call me Sky." Sky explained a little terribly. Ugh, he really wished he could get out of this situation already. Where were the others when he needed them?
"There are more of you?!" The person exclaimed, their eyebrows rising. "Even if you are who you say you are, you can't just break into my Castle with all your friends!"
"I didn't mean to! Hylia sends us where She wants to! I can't tell Her what to do." Sky tried to defend himself. "Time travel is weird!"
“Time travel certainly is weird. Weird that that’s how you’re trying to explain your presence here.”
“I said I swear I’m telling the truth!” Sky said, sort of pleading. “Just here me out!”
The person scoffed. "Alright. Fine. Time travel? Plausible. I'm assuming your group is composed of Heroes, then? If you’re all named Link... What are you doing here?" The royal asked, crossing their arms. They muttered something about similar things happening or whatever, so that made Sky feel a little less terrible about using time travel to explain his presence here. Cause it was true, just a terrible thing to try to make people believe.
Sky nodded, "Yup, uh lots of heroes. Eight total. I currently don’t know why we’re here, but I’m assuming it’s to find a new member to add to our party.” Sky mused on his words for a moment, then added- “I would let you hold the Master Sword as proof of my identity, but I wouldn't want her to burn you." As far as Sky knew, only heroes could hold Fi. Groose had tried to take the sword off his back once, and well. the guy had needed medical care for a while. Sky was glad, the guy deserved it.
The person sighed, "It wouldn't burn me. Hylia is my ancestor, literally. The Sword will be fine with me holding it." They gave Sky a look that said arguing would be stupid.
"Still. It's better to be safe than sorry." Sky repeated his warning, ignoring the look.
"How else am I supposed to believe you? I could have you locked in the dungeons right now. And then throw away the key." The royal said, leveling Sky with a glare, their hand resting on the hilt of their gilded blade, ringed fingers drumming the metal menacingly.
It seemed Sky would have to oblige the royal. As much as he didn’t want to, perhaps it was his fault for bringing it up in the first place. "Alright, fine, but please be gentle with her," he said as he took the sword off his back, moving slowly as not to scare the person into attacking. With a deft hand, he brought the hilt to the royal's hand and let them take the blade.
As promised, the royal took Fi in their hand with careful fingers, grasping her before taking her away from Sky. The Chosen wanted to grab Fi out of the royal's hands, imagining the screams that were sure to sound and minute from this person. Guy? Sky wasn't sure quite yet, but from the person's voice he was going to be presumptuous and assume this was a prince. Nice to meet someone who wasn't a Princess in the Royal family. How come there were so many Princesses, anyway?
When the Prince took the handle and didn't burn after a couple of moments, Sky let out a sigh of relief. No deaths of terrible inconvenience today. Thankfully.
The Prince twirled the blade in his hand and held it upright, inspecting it with a heavy gaze, mouth drawn into a thin line. Then, just when Sky was sure he wouldn't say anything, or would decide to stab Sky right then and there, he let out a small chuckle. "Well, it seems you weren't lying.” He admitted. “Fi isn't too pleased with you though, being so quick to hand her to me. At least you're not dead."
Fi had just spoken to the Prince? Well, Fi had been created by the Goddess. It made logical sense. Though, it was weird Sky hadn't heard anything when Fi did so. The Prince handed the blade back to Sky, and he took it maybe a little too quickly and sheathed her again.
"It seems I'll have to handle this," the Prince muttered, sighing. Then he looked up at Sky. "You said there were how many of you here?" he asked.
"Eight including myself. I can only imagine what the others have gotten up to though," Sky rubbed the back of his neck, "Sorry. They'll probably destroy things. A lot."
The Prince pinched the bridge of his nose, "Heroes.."
"Do you have experience with Heroes here in your time?" Sky asked. He really wanted to know if there was a Link here. Information gathering was important!
The Prince nodded, "Unfortunately Hyrule has needed a Hero a lot over the past decade. This is nothing, really, compared to some of the shit that went down."
The past decade? That sounded awful. Sky was glad there was only one major crisis in his world. Even some of the others, like Wind, the one who'd been on the most adventures despite his young age, had to deal with more crap than Sky did. This Hyrule sounded chaotic. He betted Wild would like it if that was the case.
The Prince turned around and threaded his arm through Sky's, walking them forward the way Sky was originally heading, "We'll go to my study, there we can discuss your friends. I don't want them to be executed if guards find them running around." The Prince said.
Sky nodded, "Thank you. I'm sure this is rather shocking," he said. "Meeting a band of time travelers."
The Prince looked up at him and smirked as they walked, his violet eyes twinkling. "Who's to say I haven't met time travelers before?"
Sky laughed, "I won't doubt you Prince- uh, what was your name again?" He asked, flushing.
Hesitating for a moment, the Prince responded, "Raven Hyrule." He said decisively, as though he'd just come up with the name on the spot.
Well, it was a better name than "Sky".
---
Four didn't want to hate cats, but they were working hard to increase his hatred of them. Overtime working, really. As in, they were currently screaming and yowling and chasing him down the hallways of this random castle they'd been teleported and dropped unceremoniously into by Hylia. Sometimes Four understood the vehement dislike Time showed on his face at the mention of the Goddess, because being disoriented, abandoned, and then chased by huge cats was not something Four enjoyed in the slightest.
His shorter legs could only carry him so fast down the hall. Good thing he'd put on his Pegasus boots earlier that day, or he would have been shred to pieces by these STUPID unnaturally large cats. Who kept huge cats in a castle?! Especially ones that tried to rip open guests?! (Okay, Four wasn't exactly a guest, but his point stands. Someone help him).
Despite the fact he was being trailed by screeching beasts, Four decidedly did not want to turn around and cut them to pieces. His racing heart and the pounding in his ears made it difficult to focus on anything but running, but even in his adrenaline-fueled state the logical part of his brain knew that chopping up the castle's cats would get him arrested, no matter which era this was. So, Four ran.
And ran some more. Running was so great, he thought to himself sarcastically, wondering why he was bothering with sarcasm when he was literally going to be torn to shreds in this too red, too damp castle.
He rounded a corner, his feet stumbling for only a moment before he righted himself and pushed some magic into his boots to give himself an extra boost.
The skidding of claws was all too loud behind him and Four wanted to scream back at the chanting cats. He hated cats! Hated them! Screw Twilight for chasing after that one kitten and leaving him behind! Where was a man-sized wolf when you needed one?! Four was going to burn Twilight's tunic for this, and then all his supplies, friendly fire being banned by Time was not going to stop him.
Just as Four was turning yet another corner, he slammed right into a solid person with all the force of an octorock’s bullets.
"Shit!" Four yelled as he stumbled back and fell on his bottom, throwing his hands backwards to try and catch himself. Instead, he simply ended up making palms burn against the stones.
The person he had run into hadn't fallen, but they were drawing a sword. That was objectively worse. Oh, joyous of joys, Four was going to die now. He'd made it far, so he wasn't too upset at this point. Shadow was going to laugh at him and mock him forever for dying at the ripe young age of eighteen, though.
Instead of skewering him, like Four thought the person would, they stepped in front of him., wielding the blade in their hand against the cats who had just tumbled over into the hallway.
Without saying a word, the person managed to get the cats to stop, swishing their tails as they leered at Four. Their paws didn’t move from their spots, and their beady eyes shifted to the sword the person held.
Four resisted the urge to shiver at the sight of the way the cats grinned toothily. Who knew cats could grin? Certainly not Four. Whoever had decided to create cats was going to get their ear talked off by Four in the afterlife. Instead of acting scared, Four simply stuck his tongue out at the cats. Heh, who was laughing now?!?!
"Shoo, now, get out of here" The person- the guy, who now that Four looked over was most likely a noble- said to the cats, a little harshly. For whatever reason, the cats simply looked a little put off, but they turned tail and ran away. Talking to animals certainly wasn't the oddest thing Four had seen, but it was a little unnerving.
With a huff, Four stood up and shook the dust off his tunic, suddenly feeling a flush creep up on his face. It must have looked pathetic to be running from those cats- even though they were like, two and a half feet tall on their four paws.
"Uh, thanks. Sorry for running into you." He said quickly, turning to the person who was most defiantly a noble. They were literally wearing a crown. Oh! GREAT. Four was so screwed! Sorry for his bitterness, but Four just can't handle this shit anymore. He's felt terrible ever since he was dropped out of the portal. For whatever reason, it had decided to make him, and only him, feel like throwing up and dying every time he stepped through it. Not like he was spiritually shattered or anything. That defiantly didn't have anything to do with it! NOTHING AT ALL.
Anyways.
Screwed. That's what he was.
"It's whatever- I've been run into by much larger things. And taller ones." The noble said. As though he was only two inches taller than Four! "Thank heavens I've finally found one of you though, your friend wasn't kidding when he said you guys would most likely be causing trouble." the noble said, obviously a little irritated.
Okay maybe he wasn't super screwed. "Looking for me?" Four said, and immediately mentally slapped his forehead as violently as he could muster. What a dumb thing to ask! The guy literally just said it.
"Yup. I found one of the guys in your group walking around the halls, and now I've tasked myself with finding all of you idiot heroes." The noble said. “Like anyone else could do it though. My servants are not emotionally equipped for this,” Four would argue that no one was, but ah, well.
Four bit his lip. It was good to hear that he wasn't going to die. Immediately, anyway. But also concerning that whoever had disclosed who they were was now in the custody of this random noble. Well, maybe custody was the wrong word for what this was. This whole thing was a more like a search and rescue- in a CASTLE of all places.
The noble pulled a piece of paper out of his red tunic- cool feature, pockets- and unfurled it, taking a pencil from out behind of his ear. Then he looked up at Four, scanning him with his eyes. Four felt rather naked as he was stared at that way, like the person could see all his secrets just by looking at him for a few moments. Ugh.
After a moment, the noble jotted something down and then checked a box on the paper. "You're Four, right?" He asked, eyebrow raised. Judging the name, then.
Four nodded, "To be fair, that's not my real name."
"Oh, I know. It is unfortunate, though, that you've been stuck with that nickname for a couple months."
"It's not as bad as being called "time" or "warriors". At least my name's not a plural noun." Four spat back, crossing his arms.
The noble snorted, "I have been laughing at these names for at least half an hour name, if I'm honest. The worst one is objectively “hyrule”, though, in my utmost humble opinion.”
“You’d be correct on that front.” Four sighed.
Understandable, really, bullying the nicknames. They always got weird looks when they went to inns. So, they started just writing or saying "Link" eight times. For some reason, that weirded people out more. "Well, I bet your name isn’t half as stupid. Or perhaps it is." Four said, not really realizing the words that fell out his mouth before they had already done so. Execution time, yay. Hoorayyyy.
Instead of immediately stabbing him, the noble simply smiled, "Raven’s my name, and I dare say it’s not half as stupid. Now, let's get you to my study. Sky, as I think you're calling him, is waiting."
Oh, so Four was going to have to burn down Sky's supplies too. For giving out information so freely, obviously. Four defiantly didn't just want to fuel his need for arson. Nooo, not at all.
Though, all Four could imagine as he walked beside Raven was the terrible things Wild, Wind and Hyrule were up to.
The thought of it alone made him want to jump into a hole and die.