Gerudo Town - Iffondrel - The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter Text

The space was cramped.

There were a few more vases stored here, all with intricate gerudo designs painted onto them, and when Sky tried to sit up in the small area, his elbow knocked into one of them, causing it to crash against the floor. He muttered a curse under his breath and dragged a hand down his face.

Wind looked him up and down, pocketing the blue rupee that dropped from the pot and arching a brow. “I can smell the alcohol on you. How much did you drink?”

“Not as much as Time!” Sky huffed, his eartips turning pink.

Time traced his hands against the walls. “Focus, you two. When I saw into the cell, it went in quite a ways. If I had to guess, this room runs right beneath it.” He turned back to address the others. “This is much different than the prison the gerudo thieves held me in. I was able to hookshot out through an opening, but this place seems much more secure, being underground and all.”

Wind nodded. “When I was imprisoned, I was able to escape through the rat holes. I was kinda hoping that this crevice would go back a bit further.”

They both turned to Sky.

“Move aside,” Sky said, scooching past them. “I really don't like remembering that part of my adventure. It was… kind of embarrassing.”

“Because the monsters took all your gear, right?” Wind asked, remembering for him.

Sky rolled his eyes and took out his mogma mitts. “Uh-huh. Getting it all back without being spotted… it took a while, okay?”

Time chuckled at that. “If the gerudo had taken away my hookshot, I would've been in a bind. But they couldn't figure out how I kept escaping, and they refused to get close enough that they'd have to touch anything on my person.”

“So you had all your gear?” Sky gawked.

“Don't feel too bad, Sky. I had to break out without my gear, too,” Wind said, patting him reassuringly on the back. “But that's because all I had at the time was a sword, and I dropped it on the way in.”

Time snickered at that, and Sky pushed the young man aside with a pout. Another pot was smashed in the midst of their rough-housing, and this time Sky snatched up the resulting red rupee before Wind could grab it. He waved it victoriously in Wind's face, and the pirate made a grab for it, but once it was in Sky's wallet, there was no sense in fighting for it.

Sky went back to the task at hand, trailing a metal claw across the rough stone surface. He hovered over a particular section of the ceiling. When he tapped it, a bit of debris rained down.

“Right here. The dirt's much softer in this spot. I escaped my cell by digging out – I imagine the same can be done here.”

Time gave a nod. Twilight had mentioned doing something similar in the past, when he'd been chained in Hyrule Castle. He still bore that chain, years after the fact. “Then by all means, go ahead.”

Sky scraped away at the ceiling, slowly at first, careful not to let any larger rocks rain down, before picking up speed and digging easily into the soft soil.

Time and Wind leaned back as debris was scattered across their legs.

Wind looked up at him as Sky continued to dig. “So how're we supposed to keep this guy from winding up back in jail? He's not just gonna run from town once he's free, is he?”

Time held a hand to his chin, face creased in contemplation. “In truth, I haven't thought that far just yet. I'd hoped…” He faltered. “That things would just work out.”

Sky's legs dangled from the ceiling, and they were quickly losing sight of him.

Wind considered that. Time knew that his words were a bit too idealistic, but he wasn't sure what else to do. Thoughts of a true plan seemed to evade him, and that was almost as frustrating as the event itself.

“You'll talk to him, won't you?” Wind asked. “So that you know exactly what he plans to do with his freedom.”

The sound of digging stopped. In its absence came a yelp of surprise, followed by a frantic shush.

“Didn't mean to startle you – I think you're free now,” Sky whispered. “Just so long as nobody catches you.”

“But I can't just leave,” the man bemoaned.

Time crawled over to the hole in the ceiling and tugged on Sky's pants. “Can I take over from here, please?”

Sky clambered down in a spray of dirt, leaving behind a Sky-sized hole in the roof of the space.

Time exhaled a heavy breath. The solid rock lining the holes suggested that it couldn't be widened any further. It'd been a long time since he'd been able to squeeze through such narrow crevices.

He hauled himself up anyway, twisting his broad shoulders and grasping for the top of the hole.

“Do you need help?” Wind asked, his voice muffled beneath him.

“I think I—” Some more dirt shifted around him, and he squirmed through the next several inches until two sets of hands took hold of his boots and shoved him up the rest of the way. Time scrambled for purchase as he broke through the floor of the jail cell, the ground swaying beneath him. He felt his head begin to swim, and he could swear that one of his boots kicked someone in the chin. Then he was on solid ground again, freed from the narrow hole, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

The prisoner held a hand out to him, and he accepted it. “Hey, you're the man that was outside this cell. I figured you'd wind up here with me, but not like this.”

Time listened for outside disturbances. He could hear Four chatting with the guard. She sounded amused, if anything – it probably got quite boring down here. That could change soon if he wasn't careful.

He kept his voice low. “We're here to free you. You mentioned a family, and I wanted to reunite you with them. Do you trust me?”

“You're really here to help?” The hold on his hand tightened, and suddenly it was being gripped desperately with both the man's hands. “Please, I just… I only want to see my little girl growing up. Her mother, my wife Perda, helps run a clothing shop here in town. I've been worried sick since the town was rumored to be under siege, but I didn't know what was happening outside!” He let out a rattled breath and lowered himself to the sandy floor. Time bent down beside him, his eye flicking from the man to the door. “Aaqlet, my daughter, I've heard her voice a few times, so I know she must've been safe down here in the shelter, but it's been months since she and her mom departed from our home outside Hateno. I just… I missed them so much, I could hardly stand it. And when the Upheaval happened, I knew I had to find them again.”

“I'll do what I can,” Time solemnly swore. There was a weight in his heart he couldn't ignore. This man didn't deserve to be punished for his concerns. “We'll find your family, and you won't need to be apart from them anymore.”

Time peered down the hole beside him, to where the curious faces of his fellow heroes were waiting. “Did you two catch that? A little girl named Aaqlet, and Perda the shop-keeper. Can one of you find them?”

Wind's eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh! Aaqlet is Mattison's friend; I think I know where she might be!”

Relief bloomed in Time’s chest. Wind had always been good with children. His willingness to engage with the youth of each town was admirable and, admittedly, pretty useful. Children often knew so much more of what was happening around them than adults ever gave them credit for.

Wind promised to go find them before vanishing, and Time listened to his footsteps retreat before circling back around and running past the cell window.

“Wind? Where are you—?”

Wind cut Four off. “Don't worry, I'll be right back!”

Everyone seemed to pause while the young hero retreated with a fire lit beneath him. The guard chuckled, asking what that was about, and fell back into idle conversation with Four.

The prisoner sighed and leaned back on his hands. “That's one relief, I suppose,” he whispered. “Even if it's from behind bars, I can't wait to see them.” He eyed the hole in the floor longingly. “Thank you for going so far for me. But I don't think I can just flee Gerudo Town after this. I want to be free, but I can't just leave my family here. And this is their home, and I know how important it is for Aaqlet to have her upbringing here, so I couldn't fathom asking them to uproot that.”

“You will have both,” was Time's automatic response. He staggered to his feet, inhaling deeply through his nose and letting it out as a leveled breath.

Sky stuck his head out through the hole. “So… what's the plan, now? Did you just want to talk with him?” The knight watched Time approach the door with a creeping sensation of dread. “...Are you going to make a scene?” He sounded so tired.

Time knocked on the prison door. The voices on the other side fell silent.

Piercing golden eyes looked through the bars of the small door window, and Time's hand drifted instinctively to the parrying knife kept in his belt. He had to remind himself of who he was dealing with – the gerudo of Wild’s era had never attacked any of them unprovoked. And still he could never afford to let his guard down.

“Wha— what are you doing in there?!” the soldier hissed. She briskly unlocked the door and pulled it open, surveying the room with a tight expression. Sky ducked down into his hole, and the movement caused her eyes to land on the breach. “You broke into prison?! Get out!” She was, above all else, flustered by the turn of events, and panic briefly flashed across her face. “Listen, I'm not overly fond of having you all staying here – loosening our rules for Link made sense, but that's because his heart is not like other voe. You, however, are pushing it!”

On those words, the guard stepped behind Time and shoved him none-too-gently in the back with an open palm.

Time stood firm, his face twisting into a scowl. He did, however, comply enough to move outside the prison.

Four watched with wide, curious eyes, his thoughts churning as he wondered what would happen next. All the pleasantries he'd been swapping with the gerudo soldier before had been rudely replaced with a noticeable tension. He stepped back as Time exited the jail cell, followed closely by the guard.

She clicked her tongue in annoyance as she went to close the door behind her. “Since you are here with Chief Riju's blessing, I'd wind up in trouble if you made a home in our prisons,” she grumbled.

Time turned and swiftly jammed his boot in the door, preventing it from closing. The guard narrowed her eyes at the brazen action, and he spoke to her with words just as bold. “The man in there, too. He is no prisoner. He will come and go as he pleases, for the sake of seeing his loved ones.”

“You don't have the authority to declare that,” she scoffed. Did she take him for a fool? He already knew that.

Time pushed the door open a bit wider for the desperate father, his eye never leaving the guard. “Then I will gladly fight on his behalf.”

The scrabbling of dirt from inside the prison reached his ears as Sky began to move. Four meanwhile, squeezed himself between the large, imposing figures of Time and the gerudo, hands raised and placating. “Now, hang on, there's no need to fight,” he assured, glancing between the two.

He went unnoticed.

The woman laughed to herself, just a bit. “Oho? You hero types are truly as valiant as you claim to be, I see. To think you would put the word of one man against the beliefs of our entire system. How can you be sure that he's truly here to visit one of our sisters, whom he claims to adore? And not one of the lecherous bastards that stalk our borders.”

Time's gaze hardened, and he slowly balled his hands at his sides. “I believe that the love he has for his family is real. It's his word as one father to another.”

Sky ran up the hallway to interfere, sand in his hair and dirt smeared across his shirt. “Goddess above, I told you not to fight. We've done enough for one day, haven't we?”

Four stayed where he was, as if he alone could keep the two from going for each other's throats. But it would not be that kind of fight.

The gerudo warrior squared her shoulders and tilted her head up, looking down upon him. Granted, she was a good head taller than him, but Time could tell that she truly was looking down on him. Who was he, after all, to be so demanding towards the people providing a roof over the heads of him and his brothers? What business did this stranger have inserting his own sense of justice into the situation?

“I accept,” the gerudo decided with a thin smile. “We shall have a duel – a spar within the training arena. If you win, I will vouch for you and the prisoner. On my honor as a warrior, he may walk free.”

“He wishes to stay here,” Time insisted. “Can you promise that?”

Her smile remained unchanged. “I will see what I can do.” Time moved his foot from the doorway, allowing it to be shut back in place. It would have to do for now. After all, he'd fought quite a few of the gerudo thieves before he'd been able to earn their respect. “However, should I win, I want you to confess the falsity of your gerudo token. Tear it up, and never again set foot within our town.”

“Time, wait!” Sky warned.

Time hesitated for only a second. Admittedly, there wasn't much he could do with his old membership card. Even though it was very real, it had little worth in a timeline that differed so greatly from the one he'd gotten it from. It was one of the few things he'd taken back with him from that period in his life as an “adult.”

The first time he'd shown the certificate to a band of gerudo thieves in his own era, he'd been cornered in the midst of a skirmish. They'd mocked him, saying that their king would never permit someone like him to be an honorary member, and he'd narrowly escaped with his life.

Nabooru was gone in his era. He'd been worried that Ganondorf's surrogate mothers had brainwashed her again, but… she had vanished sometime during the start of the war that had broken out when the King of Thieves had been denied access to the Sacred Realm. All this because him and Zelda had exposed his wicked intentions and had him cast from Hyrule Castle. It'd prevented the worse case scenario, but it had hardly stopped the bloodshed.

Time knew now that Ganondorf's anger had far outlived him.

The gerudo card was a relic of the past. And yet it was one he'd held onto anyway, to remind him of the ties he'd once had. To have the reality of his experiences be openly mocked left a foul taste in his mouth, but it was one he swallowed nonetheless.

“Deal,” Time agreed. He fished inside his belt pouch, producing a folded slip of yellowed paper with the gerudo emblem emblazoned on it. “If you win, then I'll destroy this myself.”

The warrior nodded her head in approval before sharply looking down to Four.

“You.”

“Me?”

“I'm leaving my position for only a moment. If I find that the prisoner has been freed in my absence, the fault falls to you,” she decided.

“Wha—!” Four spluttered and tried to say otherwise, but his words couldn't reach someone who held her head so high.

“We'll fight aboveground, in the training hall. With practice weapons.” Her mouth twisted in contempt. “Point your greatsword at me again, and you will regret it.”

Time felt some of the tension leave his shoulders. Right. Training weapons. There was no reason to wound one another in a fight like this.

Time had learned from a young age how to swing a sword – messily, at first, but progressively better as his experience grew. He had sliced through deku babas and stalchildren and redeads. They were monsters that needed to be felled, and that was what he'd done.

The first time he'd watched the Master Sword slice through gerudo flesh and spill human blood, he'd been appalled with himself. She had cried out in pain, her breathing becoming more labored, and regret had immediately engulfed him. He'd lowered the tip of his sword, apologizing profusely and begging forgiveness.

The thief had promptly bashed him over the head with the pommel of her scimitar and thrown him back in his prison. He'd nursed that headache for the rest of the day. And perhaps he'd deserved it, but that hadn't stopped him from coming to terms with the fact that he had to fight them. It was the only way to move forward, and the band of thieves could only be swayed by feats of strength and skill.

He didn't need to go that hard. He knew his limits, and understood that this was a test of combat skill. Not power. It would be just like his training spars with Twilight.

Four was left pacing in front of the locked prison door while the gerudo soldier led Time out of the bunker. Outside, the air was just beginning to cool. Construction efforts to restore the town following the gibdo sieze were still underway, and several workers were putting in the effort to build up the walls and stalls that had been destroyed in the process.

When the band of heroes had first set foot in Gerudo Town, it had been an eerie sight: nothing but shambling undead infesting what had once been a bright, thriving community.

When Time first saw what this place had become, he'd been reminded of something else. Another town in another era where only the reanimated bodies of the fallen had walked. It had been a sobering reminder of what he stood to lose if he failed again. He couldn't afford that. The hero and princess of these lands deserved better.

Sky dogged his heels every step of the way as they were guided through the maze of broken walls. It looked like he wanted to say something, but the gerudo's legs were long and they set a brisk pace. Townspeople waved and greeted them as they passed by, and every time Sky would acknowledge them with a carefully pronounced Sav'aaq. It was enough to keep him preoccupied from the task at hand, and before long they were standing in the entrance of the training grounds.

Time's eye scanned the courtyard. Gerudo warriors trained here in all hours of the day – even in the scorching afternoon heat – but the area was most active in the coolness of late morning and dusk. Women of varying heights and builds moved through the space with less urgency, putting away weapons and readying their targets for the next day with sweat on their brows. They talked idly amongst one another about battle tactics, reinforcing their perimeters, and the latest gossip.

When Time stepped into the courtyard, hot on the heels of the soldier he'd picked his fight with, several sets of interested eyes acknowledged them. They could plainly see the way that their sister was fuming.

Time searched the small crowd for a familiar face, one that resembled his own in more than just the line of his jaw and shape of his nose. He couldn't help the pang of suspicion that preyed upon his nerves, and he felt all the worse for it.

Twilight wasn't here. He'd said he could train on his own tonight, while Time went and got some rest. The enclosed arena had been the perfect place to do so, provided he kept his dark magic controlled so that it didn't harm the nearby warriors honing their own skills. While Hyrule had taken the initiative to use his more dangerous magic elsewhere, the same would not be said for Twilight. And in truth, he'd preferred to have his troubled protégé nearby.

Time had hoped it would help teach him restraint on his rapidly developing magic. The Goddesses knew that they hadn't exactly been holding back against each other lately.

Even still… where would he have gone? Time could still feel the faint traces of darkness that lingered where his Pup had stepped foot. He had been here, but evidently not for long.

Time looked up into the twilit sky, where stars were just starting to emerge. Perhaps he'd gone out into the desert, guided by his own paws. With the sand shroud gone, the dangers beyond the walls of Gerudo Town had greatly diminished. Time considered the idea that he might always worry for Twilight. For all his brothers, and the burdens they shouldered.

Although, perhaps, this was also for the better. Twilight didn't need to be here for what Time was about to do. Sky was already carefully watching him with tentative concern, despite Time being entirely confident in the decisions that had brought him here.

A gerudo captain approached Time's opponent. “Katta, what brings you here? Your shift hasn't ended yet.”

Katta leaned her golden spear against the wall, swapping it out for two wooden practice spears. Admittedly not Time's first choice of weapon, but he was versed enough in all forms that it would not deter him.

“I've been challenged by one of the Heroes, that voe over there. And who am I to deny him?” She explained, waving one of the weapons at him.

“Time,” he introduced himself, with a name that carried so much weight. “I am Time.”

The captain looked him over with a hard stare before nodding stiffly. “Very well. I'll clear the area for the two of you to hold a duel.” She snapped her fingers for attention and shouted a short order in her native tongue. Within seconds, half the grounds had been evacuated of its occupants. They'd switched to the practice targets on the opposite side of the court or settled on the nearby steps to observe.

Time glanced over at Sky, who had begrudgingly sat down one of the stairs, chin in hand and eyes stormy. “You're not going to say anything?”

Sky only offered him an indifferent shrug. “I already tried. If you haven't changed your mind in the time it took to get here, then you certainly aren't now that you have an audience. Be honest, was there ever anything I could've done to deter you?”

Time pursed him lips, considering that. His ears drooped ever so slightly, and for a moment it truly felt like he was being admonished. “Don't tell Wars about this,” Time said. He may as well admit that his methods were questionable at best.

Sky closed his eyes and sighed, opting to avert his gaze over pretending for even a second that he would be held responsible for whatever might happen next. Time knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that Sky was keeping an eye on him while Warriors was away. It came from a place of concern that, while not unfounded, also wasn't necessary. Time remained sure-footed and sound of mind when it came to his decisions.

Like with this one.

The gerudo captain stepped into the center of the arena, gaze slowly taking in the two combatants. “This will be a clean fight,” she announced, fixing her eyes on Time as if he were new to such rulings. “Fight only with your staff and your heart. First to yield will admit defeat. Is this understood?”

Time gave a firm nod and stepped into the center of the small arena that was set aside for sparring. In truth, this space within the city grounds wasn't big enough to condistitute such battles – that's what the vast stretches of desert and exterior training grounds were meant for instead. But this fight belonged here, within these walls. And Time had fought gerudo thieves and pirates within confined spaces countless times over. This would not be an issue for him.

Katta, his opponent, held her training staff out at an angle. “May the better fighter win,” she grunted, waiting expectantly.

Time likewise held his staff out, crossing hers with a dull thunk. He mumbled those words back to her, but they felt odd leaving his mouth, and he was reminded that he didn't belong here.

It didn't matter who the better fighter was. He would not yield in this match. He would not be thrown in prison or cast outside their fortress walls. He would persist. Time always would.

The captain stepped out of their range and into the shadows of the central gazebo. She raised her hand and spoke a few words in her native tongue – a mark of sorts that sounded vaguely familiar but he ultimately didn't understand. And then she sliced her hand down through the air like an axe. “Begin!”

Time stood his ground as Katta came at him. As expected, she opened with a quick flurry of blows to test his reaction, and he dodged each one with ease. His eye followed her every movement intently, the way she twisted her body, positioned her arms, and transferred her energy into the weapon. In a frontal assault, he missed no detail, and the deftness with which he outmaneuvered her became quickly apparent.

When his opponent got too greedy, letting her defenses slip to get in closer with an attack that would be harder to avoid, Time retaliated with a blow of his own. He struck fast and hard against the weapon, as close to her hands as he could get without breaking her knuckles, and she jumped away.

She began to circle around him, preying upon any sign of weakness she might find in him, and Time maintained to always keep her in his sight. His feet weren't as nimble and precise as the warrior's was, though – not in his current, tired state. And they both knew this. So he refrained from performing any complex footwork unless he absolutely had to. So she kept circling, even as his nerves began to crawl along his spine, and he could already anticipate a blade between his shoulders.

What if another gerudo soldier joined her? It'd be an easy way to fell the loathsome Hero of Time.

Time paused only briefly when he had his back turned to the audience of gerudo women – and Sky. He's here too.

Katta chose that moment to dash quickly to Time's right and make a swift jab at him. He swiveled on his left foot to follow the flow of movement and let her slip past him, but the blunt end of the training spear still managed to catch him in the chest. He wheezed at the force of the blow, without armor or padding to absorb it, and he knew his distrust would leave a bruise on his sternum.

Rather than stand firm and retaliate with equal ferocity, he hopped back. Took a breath. And moved around his opponent so that he could keep an eye on both Katta and the audience. He couldn't afford to let anyone slip past him.

But there was something about his opponent that was becoming increasingly obvious: she struck for his blind side, every time without fail.

They always do.

There was a certain level of underhandedness to it, but he would not fault her for taking advantage of such an obvious exploit. He was, of course, determined to inform her that his blinded eye was not a weakness. He'd held up for years like this, and today was no different.

When she darted towards his right side once more, he strafed to the left to keep her centered in his vision and landed a solid blow against her staff. Even without his gauntlets, she must've felt the strength behind the blow. Katta stumbled back, and Time let her retreat. He didn't like toying with people in a fight. But… he also didn't want anyone to get hurt over a civil spar. So he was fine fighting primarily on the defensive until his opponent understood that she was outclassed. Already, he could see the way her eyes wavered as she began to understand the strength and formidability of the hero she'd agreed to duel.

This shouldn't last much longer.

Out of the corner of his eye, Time briefly caught sight of somebody new entering the area. It was the prisoner, followed closely by a rather nervous-looking Four. Ah. So they'd joined them after all.

It'd been naught but a half-second distraction – so inconsequential an amount of time that he'd hoped he might get away with for once. Even still, he paid the price for it. He always did.

A hard swing connected with his right shoulder, sending a tremor of pain down his arm. Time grunted at the blow, letting go of the staff with his right hand and jumping back to create more distance between them. He clutched his weapon so strongly in his left that it was starting to splinter, and he jumped back again so that he could readjust his grip on it. His opponent's spear swept the air beneath him, where his legs had once been, and the gerudo rushed forward with all the dangerous speed and power that the thieves – no, they're warriors – possessed.

Time was vaguely aware of the wall to his back, so close that he wouldn't be able to jump away again. She had her weapon readied more towards his left, where she'd quickly figured that he favored in a fight to avoid leading with his blind side. Time could so easily remember the way that these foes – these thieves, or pirates, or ranks in Ganon's armies – had thrown all they had at him.

He would not lose anything to them. Not again.

The warrior pulled back her staff intending to hit him square in the chest and drive the air from him. If he dodged to the left, there'd be no avoiding it. So he went right.

The soldier readjusted on a pin, pivoting on one foot and bringing her staff around. For the briefest of moments, he couldn't see his enemy's weapon, and that ignited something within him.

Time lashed out blindly, meaning to knock the weapon away as his head turned to catch up with his movements.

Crack!

Time saw the exact second where the simple training weapon had sliced through the space beneath her own. Instead of being greeted with the knock of wood against wood, he instead bore witness to the splinter of bone.

Katta cried out in pain. It was a familiar sound, he regretted to think.

The weapon dropped from her grasp and she crumpled to her knees, cradling her right arm to her chest. She sucked in a sharp breath, but did not cry out any more.

“Enough!” came a stern call. The gerudo captain marched out from the sidelines.

Time struggled to lower his weapon. Blood rushed in his ears and his eye flicked from one gerudo to the next, wondering if they would meet him with outrage and arrows. None of them looked particularly happy, but nobody seemed overly concerned with him.

He held his battle-ready stance, just in case.

“The fight is over,” she said, calmer now that she stood between them. She crouched by her sister's side, appraising the damage. Her back was turned to Time, despite the ferocity of his last attack. “There'd be no point in going further. You may put the weapon down.”

Time looked past her to see that his opponent's arm was beant oddly, a spur of bone rising up from broken skin. Blood dripped down into the desert sands.

He dropped the weapon and took a step back. Then another, numbly retreating from the damage he'd wrought.

Sky was there in an instant, rushing up behind him and holding him steady.

A medic guided Katta away while she explained the terms of their duel to her superior. Annoyance flashed across her captain's face, and it appeared as though she might have some stern words for the prison guard about where her duty was supposed to be.

The prisoner in question paced anxiously on the sidelines, wondering what his fate would be. “Is that it? Am I truly free now?”

Time hesitated. Normally, this would be the part where the captive fled, swearing to never again set foot on gerudo land. But things could never truly be so simple, and Time hadn't the words to reassure him in good faith.

Thankfully, he didn't have to.

Wind ran into the training grounds, skidding to a halt on the sand-covered flagstone. His head whipped around, keeping tabs on the people following behind him and then the arena of people before him. “Time, I found them! Perda and Aaqlet, I brought them here!” Wind wore a blinding smile, and he looked around to note every detail. His expression faltered as he keenly caught sight of the small splattering of blood in the sand, and Time watched with burning shame as the sailor traced it to where his defeated opponent was being treated for her needless injury.

“Wabbin! You're here? But how?!” A tall gerudo woman with a store apron tied around her waist halted in the entryway of the training grounds, her attention centered on the small hylian man before her. Her eyes watered, and a hand covered her mouth in disbelief. Behind her, an inquisitive child peered around her mother's legs.

Wabbin turned his back to the scene of the battle, his worries remedied by the arrival of his family. A shaky smile emerged across his face. “You're… you're both safe!”

“Daddy!” The young girl squealed in delight, throwing herself into her father's open arms. Wabbin hugged her close, running a hand through her hair and sobbing her name. “Oh, Aaqlet, you have gotten bigger! I won't be able to pick you up for much longer!”

She giggled, burrowing her face into his shirt. “Don't be silly, you're still big and strong! I won't grow up that fast.”

Wabbin pulled away, looking into his daughter's face with the love and pride only a parent could have. “I was so worried, to think that I might miss even a second of it.”

Time watched the touching reunion unfold with a warmth in his chest. Not all the wrongs of each world could be righted, but if he could do little things like this to help the people around him, then not all would be lost. But the longer he stared, feeling from a distance the love this family held for one another, the more he felt his smile begin to wane.

He should be happy to have brought this man and his daughter together. And he was, truly he was.

He thought to approach them, and the annoyed chime of a fairy entered his thoughts for the first time in a long while.

Let them be! Don't you get it? You're so insensitive!

He understood.

The joy he felt was short-lived. In its place, a deeply rooted feeling of loss hollowed his body. An absence that numbed his head and left him cold, as if he'd left part of his soul behind in another era. Or worse yet, in a place that perhaps did not exist at all. He was, after all, the only person who could attest to some things having been real.

His eye grew misty, and the will to fight that had kept him going for so long began to ebb like the tides that were pulled by the moon.

Time took a step back. Then another, before turning his back to the touching scene altogether.

He leaned heavily against the nearest wall, his energy spent, and took a few fleeting seconds to focus on each breath that left him. How he wished the seconds didn't pass so slow. How he prayed his time didn't fly too fast. There was still so much that needed to be done. So many little moments that he didn't want to miss, despite how hard the Goddesses tried to rob them from him.

The image of a young girl with bright red hair and big blue eyes flashed at the forefront of his mind, her chubby little fingers grasping his thumb as a giggle left her mouth.

It has been fifty-eight days since he'd been pulled from his era once more to fight in another. It was as cruel a punishment as any god or demon alike could inflict upon him. Was this in some way deserved? Had his failure to right the wrongs of the past and leave old battles unfinished mandated that he pick up his sword once more?

Tentative hands sought him out, and Time stiffened as one came to rest on his back while another pulled gently at his elbow. He was eased away from the wall, transferring his weight to another who was willing to bear it. Time turned his head, confused, and battled with the relief in his chest when he realized with frustrating slowness that Sky had come to his side.

In the background, Four was getting chewed out by Katta while Wind provided a better explanation of Webbin and Perda's relationship: the family that wished to be whole. Rumor of this ordeal would spread quickly, especially with Webbin likely taking up residence in the town.

It was just another small reassurance that he was desperate to grasp, knowing that something had been done right here today. He let the younger heroes take it from there.

Sky, meanwhile, guided him back towards the bunker and away from curious eyes. The whole way back, he rubbed small circles into Time’s back. He said nothing about the result of the fight, and the silence was welcomed.

It was… a rather surprising gesture from the sky knight. Time didn't always expect the level of care that the younger heroes gave him. He was supposed to be a beacon of reassurance for them. That's what those who were older and more experienced in the woes of the world were supposed to do. But these days, it only served to make him so wretchedly tired. And though his body itself was not nearly old enough to constitute such pains, he felt every trouble too deeply to ignore.

“I miss them, Sky,” Time croaked, in the quiet of the alleyways where he prayed no prying ears could hear his vulnerabilities. The words stuck in his throat like thorns, scraping painfully against him with every thought he tried not to think and every word he tried not to say. He exposed his worries like festering wounds, hoping that the air might soothe the oncoming infection. “I'm not sure how much longer I can do this.”

With a leveled breath, Sky gently leaned his head against Time's shoulder. The gesture was small but comforting – like something that Twilight might do in his wolf form.

“I know,” Sky said, a somber confession. “I miss them, too.”