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Four couldn’t recall how long he had been fighting. All he knew was that one minute he had paired up with Wind for a portal and the next they were here, trying to fight off a camp of Lizalfos and Moblins from Wild’s era. Which was kind of strange now that Four thought about it because they had just come from Wild's era.
A loud clang shook Four out of his one clear thought and back into the chaos that was trying to fight as one while the four pieces of himself were each subconsciously trying to split apart. “Block!” “No Parry!” “Dodge!” “Get back to back with someone else!”
Four stumbled trying to pick an action out of the four his mind provided for him while a moblin silver in color and way too clever looking for Four’s taste started to swing a very large spiked club at him.
At the last second Four managed to commit to dodging, rolling just left of the path of the club. He used his momentum to allow himself to unroll, land on his feet and take a stab at the stomach of the Moblin, Finally with a cut off bellow the Moblin froze and collapsed, dead.
“Yess!” “Finally” “That was way too close” “BLOCK RIGHT” Four reacted instantly, he sheathed his sword, turned to the right and threw up his shield with both hands, CLANG! A Lizalfos tail struck his shield with enough force to break bones. Four shifted his shield and grabbed his sword. He tried to remember the pattern Wild had taught them for fighting his very temperamental lizard monsters.
Was it tongue, tongue, tail, blade? Four watched the monster carefully knowing he was likely to get skewered if he struck at the wrong time.
Suddenly something just behind the lizard monster caught Four’s eye, A certain red tunic wearing magic wielding hero, Legend.
Legend signaled Four, wait for me. Four nodded looking back at the lizard, thankfully it had not caught onto his few seconds of distraction and was stomping its feet in anger, clang! The tongue had struck his Shield, it was getting ready to attack again but Legend had had enough.
With a quick but strong slash he had cut the back of the monster from behind its head to just before the tail, before the monster could even scream Four had also struck, “SLASH”. Four had cut almost a perfect match to Legends wound but on the front of the monster, with a shriek the lizard collapsed.
Suddenly Four felt like doing the same, his inner turmoil had ceased when the cursed Lizalfos had died. Leaving him feeling drained and empty. It was always strange right after a merge, while he was split (Or in the process of splitting) he had four voices in his head, it was still him, still Link, just different pieces. Pieces that had become more distinct since his sword had separated him.
However when he was properly merged he was one. One voice, one set of thoughts and feelings. He didn’t lose any of himself, he could always pick out thoughts or feelings that felt more influenced by maybe one part of himself than the rest but nothing was lost.
It occurred to Four the same moment it hit Legend that Four was about to collapse. “Shit Smithy!” Legend grabbed him under his shoulders holding him up, Four tilted his head back to Legend, aware he was missing probably important questions from his friend but Four was too occupied by the spinning of his head to listen, Suddenly Four was laying down on something soft and the spinning was fading to black, he felt calloused and scarred hands on him and he let go with a sigh.
……………….
Legend hated when the Goddess decided they needed to be dropped into a monster camp rather than next to it where they could scout and plan. It felt like an insult or a sick joke that it happened enough they had tried to make plans for it. (none of them worked however due to never knowing what they would deal with.)
He wondered sometimes when this happened if the Goddess was trying to get rid of them rather than use them to fix anything.
To add insult to injury, era shifting was hard on everyone no matter whether they were prepared or not. He considered himself lucky as he was typically let off easier than some of the others, he was usually swept up in feelings he would rather put aside than deal with at the moment or sometimes the sudden changes in magic input would make him nauseous or achy.
Thankfully this meant that other than some mood swings (Yes he was aware he had mood swings shut up Wars) due to how he felt due to the switch he was fine to take watch or in worse cases fight.
Others weren’t so lucky, Wild had a tendency to get spacy and clumsy no matter how prepared he was for the jump, Hyrule’s magic would flare and depending on how intense the jump was would try to either block or pull in any magic in the vicinity. This left the traveler feeling sick and exhausted no matter what. The one who was always the worst one off was always Four. Poor, clever, strong, annoying Four.
After a pretty chaotic switch early on in their journey that had landed them in a gigantic monster camp that had left no one untouched from the battle, Four had to split to avoid getting killed by the group of monsters that had focused on him.
After the battle he merged again and promptly passed out for almost 18 hours. (Legend would have been impressed if he hadn't been unsure of whether or not the Smithy was dying) after Four had woken up and been tended too he had explained why he could split and the how era shifting made him feel like he was merged wrong.
Since then there had been a few times that the colors had needed to spend some time split and Four would usually sleep for at least 12 hours straight afterwards but since the first time he had not passed out. Until now.
Legend looked over to where Four had been laid out on his bedroll. Legend had noticed as soon as he had locked eyes on the Smithy during the fight that something was wrong. What he had not expected was that as soon as the monsters were all dead that the hero would swoon and need to be caught in Legend’s arms like a damsel in distress (Yes if Four was okay Legend was totally using the swoon against him.
(The little rat had way too much blackmail on everyone. It was honestly scary.) However, after passing out as soon as he was laid down, Smith had slept, and slept, and slept.
The battle had ended early morning, it was now nearing the end of last watch and he still had not even moved.
Legend was sitting on an old fallen tree they had built the fire pit next too. Warriors was sleeping right next to Four, his arm resting across his collarbone reassuring the Captain of his condition even in his sleep. If Legend hadn’t been studying the two he would have missed it. The slight stir, and a sigh. He moved quietly over the pair kneeling just above Four’s head just in time to catch his eyes opening, they both froze staring at one another.
“Smithy?” Legend paused. “Are you still in there or did this jump fry your brain?” Four suddenly snorted “good morning to you too Legend.” Four said his voice sounded quiet and raw. “It is morning right?” “Yes, now stop talking, it sounds like you gargled poison.” Legend scolded grabbing the waterskin they had left for the hero once he woke up.
“Here drink.” He helped Four sit up and take some sips of the water, while watching him Legend couldn’t help but smirk. The usually well put together hero was quite a mess. His hair was sticking up everywhere, he had lost his headband, and his tunic was hopelessly rumpled.
“What?” Four grumbled seemingly grumpy now that he had finally started to wake up. “Nothing, it is just refreshing to see Mr. perfect hero looking so rumpled after swooning like a helpless damsel.” Legend said his voice becoming more amused as he spoke. Four froze looking up at Legend and then slowly reaching for his hair.
“I didn’t.” He said. “Oh yes you did!” Warriors twitched in his sleep making them both freeze. Legend looked back at four, his face was slightly pink either from embarrassment or sleep. Legend wasn’t sure. However he didn’t look entirely there yet. Legend thought with a pang of guilt.
“How about you drink some more water and go back to sleep and I will promise that your swooning will be logged as blackmail for later?” Legend smirked as he spoke. Four shot him a deadpan look.
“I don’t really have another choice do I?” he asked. “Nope.” Four sighed looking amused. “Deal” With that he took a few quick sips and practically flung himself back down onto his bedroll.
Legend held back a laugh and walked back to his tree bench, as he got settled again he heard “Thanks Vet.” He turned to lock eyes with the other hero. “Thanks for the help.” Four said again and closed his eyes.
“Anytime Smithy.” Legend whispered, turning back to the fire wondering how long he had to wait for Wild to get up and cook breakfast.