Chapter Text
Gentle fingers ran through your hair. The sun kissed warmth to your face as your closed eyes looked up to it. Your hand fell behind you in gentle rhythm, the purple flower being taken from your fingers before you reached down for another one. The wind blew slightly, causing the completed braid to brush against the side of your face, the braided lilac intertwined into it.
“This one is done as well, flower.” Wild says from behind you, allowing the braid he was working on to fall from his hands.
“Thank you.” You whisper, opening your eyes to the afternoon sun. The islands that were floating high above you a looming vision of doom for the man behind you. “I’ll do yours now if you’d like.” You turned back, looking into his eyes. He was trying hard to hide his fear behind them.
“I’d like that.” He got out as you ran a gentle hand over his cheek. He leaned into your hand, closing his eyes and letting out a deep breath.
The two of you switched places. He sat crossed legged in front of you now, you on your knees behind him. Your hands ran through his long, tangled hair in an attempted to brush it out. “We should have brought a brush with us.” You laughed lightly.
“We can go grab one.”
“No, I’d rather not.” You continued your attempts at breaking up tangles as he hummed in response. He soon began handing you the same purple flowers. The lilac being braided into the blonde hair with an ease that came with doing the motion for years. The sun’s descent began, the shadows of the islands falling across the two of you.
“Hey, Y/N?” Wild’s voice was soft as he handed you one of the last flowers. You hummed, waiting for him to continue, closing the large braid on his back. “Why are you avoiding Time?”
You froze, his hair slipping from your shaky fingers. “What makes you say I am?” Damn him for being so observant.
“Ever since we came through the portal you haven’t spoke to him. Which has been three days now. You usually set up your bedroll next to his but it’s been next to either mine or Rulie’s. It’s not my business if something happened. I just want to make sure you’re okay.” He paused, looking down at his hands in his lap. “A lot happened this week.”
You took a deep breath, willing your hands to continue the braid. “I’m okay, Wild, really. It was just a hard-,” You rolled your words over in your mouth for a moment, “-situation back in my village.”
“But what does that have to do with Time?” He looked over his shoulder at you.
You pushed his shoulder lightly in an effort to get him to turn back, though he didn’t budge, looking your face over.
“Wild, I just need to speak with Time about it. That’s all.”
He didn’t seem satisfied with your answer in the least bit. But it got him to face forward, allowing you to tie off his hair, laying it over his shoulder. He took it in his hands, rolling it over.
“It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
You put your hands on his shoulders, leaning down to his face. “Don’t thank me.” You placed a hard kiss on his cheek, getting a smile out of him.
“I think I can thank whoever I want to thank.” He wrapped his arms around your head, keeping you in place, not letting you pull away from his cheek.
You giggled against it, “Then you better thank The Golden Three.” You mumbled against his skin. Your hands left his shoulders, going down to his sides and digging into them, getting a squeal out of him. He let you go quickly to push your hands off. You quickly took to your feet.
“I think you are going to need to thank them if I don’t catch you.” He said as he started to stand to go after you.
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The camp was dim against the tree line as Wild cooked dinner. The sun was on one edge of the horizon while the moon kissed the other. You sat on the ground, leaning against a tree. Jayco’s bow lay in your lap, your fingers aimlessly tracing over his name as you stared into the fire. The chain was sitting closer to the fire, talking about the sky islands. Sky was suggesting Skyloft, Twilight the City in The Sky. You were only half listening, your mind far off.
“A bonding spell. I attached one to you so that when we got too far from one another you would be pulled towards me. I didn’t know if it would work through the portal, but it did.”
You recoiled at the memory of his words, your hand clenching down on the bow. While you were glad for your time with the chain, grateful even, he had lied to you for over a year. He had allowed you to believe you were part of a goddess appointed mission. Though it was all his own selfish doing.
Your eyes flickered up at the sound of arguing, something about them needing to find a way onto the large island in the distance. Once your eyes fell over Time, his arms crossed as he listened to Legend speak, your chest tightened.
Would they even notice?
You stood slowly, pulling your bow up with you. You retrieved your quiver from the ground, letting it hang from your hand. You stood still for a moment, watching the men argue around the cook.
You took a few steps back into the trees. They didn’t notice your exit attempt. A few more, nothing. If anything, the arguing got louder. No one looked your way as you turned and walked hastily into the dim forest.
Your thoughts turned into mumbles as you grew further away from camp. You had long since attached your quiver to your hip and assured Four’s knife was on the other. Mumbles turned to curses as you pulled your bow tight, letting an arrow fly at a tree.
“Of course, I fucking miss!” Your hands tighten on the bow as you pull it tighter, aiming at the same tree. This time the arrow hit, though didn’t pierce the bark. You groaned, pulling another arrow. You took a deep breath, trying to calm yourself as you pulled the string.
A twig snapped behind you.
You turned violently; bow raised in the direction of the noise. The dim forest did little for your vision. Your breathing hitched as your eyes fell on the cause of the sound. “Don’t come any closer.”
Sharp canines hit the light, blonde hair barely visible.
Your bow lowered only a hair, trying to understand what you were seeing. What is wrong with Wild?
His arm held a deep hue to it, rings on every finger. Not to mention his claw-like nails. The blonde hair was shorter, not tied into the purple-laced braid you had worked on earlier.
He took a step towards you, causing you to raise your bow back up. “I said not to come any closer.” When he chuckled, it was a deep sound from within his chest. Could this be the shadow? Playing tricks on me?
He continued forward, and you swallowed hard. “I won’t tell you again!”
You fired the arrow, letting it shoot through the air. His hand raised up, catching it next to his face. He smiled wider as he snaped it with that terrible arm and threw it to the ground.
“Any further off and you might as well have just thrown it at me.” His voice held a bit of humor as he took the last few steps toward you.
Your hands fumbled for another arrow. Eyes were widening and breathing growing faster the closer he got. He grabbed the bow from your hands, tossing it to the forest floor. He was close enough to you now that you had to bend back to look up at his face, his breath fanning across your face. His fangs seemed to glimmer in the low light, inviting the impending doom into your heart. Your head raced with silent prayers. Your hands seemed to move without being told to, reaching for your knife and attempting to pull it.
He swiftly grabbed it from you, grabbing your opposite arm and spinning you around with it, leaving that armed pinned between you two. The knife fell to your throat, his other hand over your mouth.
“Now, you sure are a pretty thing up close. I think I understand why they keep you around now.” His voice was hot against your ear as he spoke. Your vision blurred as you looked forward into the forest, watching the trees turn into blobs of black and dark green. A purple flower fell from your hair to the leaves beneath your feet. “There’s no need to cry, sunflower. You’ll get to see them again if you listen to me.”
A pressure pricked at the back of the man’s neck. “Let them go.” Sky’s harsh voice filled your ears.
The man chuckled, “I guess the rescue party has arrived.” He turned slowly, pulling you with him. You then found yourself face to face with Sky’s sword. Tears fell down your cheeks and onto the stranger’s arms.
“I said to let them go.” Sky’s eyes were dark.
The arms around you slowly released, allowing Sky to grab your arm and pull you behind him. The stranger stood in front of you both now, his arms raised, your knife still in his hand.
“State your business.” Sky says.
“Me? I do believe y’all are the ones no one recognizes.”
“I do believe you just had my fiancé at knife point.” Sky pushed the sword closer to his neck. His grip was growing painful though he chose to ignore the burn.
The man snarled at the blade. “I don’t know how you got that goddess-forsaken sword, but you can fuckin’ keep it.”
Sky’s eyes narrowed on him. “What are you on about?”
The stranger’s arms fell, “That’s enough talking.” The knife hit the sword, causing Sky to clench his teeth at the pain in his hand before lunging forward. The man avoided it, leaning to his right before reaching out with his clawed hand toward Sky’s face. The sword fell in the way of the arm, slicing outwards towards the man’s torso. He stumbled back, narrowly avoiding the slice.
The man looked at you, still hiding behind Sky. “Looks like we’ll have to resume this another day, sunflower.” He winked at you before turning towards the dark woods and running.
Sky’s red hand was skyward, sword glowing a bright blue. “We aren’t done here!” He shouted as he threw his arm down. A long blade of blue light shot toward the man. He turned just in time for the light’s reflection to catch his eyes as it hit him. He flew into a tree with a loud oomph.
Sky dropped the master sword, looking down at his burnt hand and wincing. You slowly stepped out from around him, looking at the man in the distance before looking to his hand.
“Doesn’t this only happen when-“
He cut you off, “Who knows? Maybe since it’s the shadow Fi was trying to tell me to get the others help.” He looked up to you, taking your cheek in his good hand, looking over your face. “Did he do anything to you? Are you alright?”
Tears fell faster as you looked into his eyes. You shook your head, “No, he had just grabbed me when you got here.”
He nodded, wiping your tears away. “Okay. I’m going to get him and carry him back. I need you to stay with me. Okay?” You nodded again, grabbing onto his sail cloth as he picked up the sword and sheathed it. He walked towards the man, you trailing behind him. The man was knocked unconscious, slouched over against a large tree. Sky pulled his belt loose before using it to tie the man’s hands together. He looked over the clawed hand for a moment as he did so. He threw him over his shoulder before looking to you. “Go get your bow and knife. You don’t want to leave them, do you?” You nodded, looking back the way you came for a moment for both before practically running back. You put your arm into his free elbow as you walked back to camp.
Sky dropped the man in the middle of the camp with a thud, the stranger beginning to stir awake as he did so. The chain jumped up from their seats, bowls falling to the ground. Four made his way in front of you.
“Who the fuck is this?” Legend exclaimed.
“This is company.”