Chapter Text
Chapter 1 - Beauty in The Wilderness
The sound of leaves being crushed under footsteps began to pull Hyrule out of his deep sleep. The footsteps were light and slow, ones that he recognized to belong to Wild. So Hyrule simply just turned onto his other side and snuggled deeper under his blanket. But as he was starting to fall back to sleep, he felt a hand on his shoulder that shook him lightly. Which caused him to groan as he lifted up a hand to swat at Wild’s hand clumsily.
Wild let out a soft chuckle at that. “Come on Hyrule, there’s something I want to show."
Hyrule mumbled a string of unintelligible words that slurred together. Which only caused Wild to cough, as he tried to mask his soft laughter. "Come on Hyrule! Please! I promise it will be worth it! We'll even be back before the others notice!"
Hyrule sighed then before he slowly started sitting up and blinking his eyes blearily. Now that he had finally opened his eyes, he could now see that everyone was still completely fast asleep around their campsite with the exception of himself and Wild. Under the little bit of light that was just starting to peak on over the horizon, Hyrule could see Wild with a wide grin. Hyrule sighed again as he noticed how it was barely even daybreak, meaning that he was gonna be losing out on some precious sleep.
"Alright, alright. I'm up. What are we doing?" Hyrule asked softly, trying to avoid waking up anyone.
Wild simply grinned as he stood up from where he had been kneeling beside Hyrule before he gestured for Hyrule to follow after him. For a moment, Hyrule debated just falling back to sleep but his curiosity won out and instead, he found himself standing up to and following after Wild.
The pair walked together quietly for a bit and with each and every passing second. Hyrule became more and more curious as to what Wild was up to as they seemed to continue on in some random direction through the lush and overgrown forest.
Every now and then, he'll see what looked to be bits and pieces of rusted metal that were covered in greenery. Some of it looked to have a similar pattern to the guardians that ran around his Hyrule. There was a strange beauty to it, how nature seemed to have reclaimed and healed the land despite all of the destruction the calamity had brought down upon this Hyrule. From burnt, arid canyons to lush fields, swamps, and woodlands once again. It made Hyrule smile and brought the warmth of hope to swell in his chest, hopeful that perhaps, maybe one day, his Hyrule could be healed and flourish just like how Wild's Hyrule has.
Hyrule is brought out of his thoughts when Wild suddenly comes to a stop, catching Hyrule's attention. "Alright! This should be far enough away, so then the light doesn't wake up the others." Wild then brought out his sheikah slate and began tapping away at it.
"What are you doing?" Hyrule asked curiously as he looked over Wild's shoulder to see that he had brought up a map on his sheikah slate.
"I'm bringing up the place we'll be transporting to," Wild stated simply before he held out his arm. "Grab my arm and hold on tight."
Hyrule did as instructed, and closed his eyes shut. There was a flash of blue light that lit up behind his eyelids. He expected to feel the same twisty stomach-turning feeling he always felt when going through the portals. But he didn't, instead, he simply felt like he was floating for a moment before the ground seemed to reappear underneath his feet.
He waited a second before he blinked them open a couple of times. Only to find that they were standing on one of the many shrines that were scattered about across Wild's Hyrule, with some tucked and hidden away in caves or deep within the thickets of a forest.
Hyrule felt his breath was taken away from him when he lifted his head to find that they were someplace high up into the sky. In front of him was the view of land that stretched out far until it met the beginning of the sea. He loved seeing how vast, and open Wild's Hyrule was. How the powerful rivers fed the land, how the skies sang of the freedom most populated places didn't quite have, how the trees and cliffs all hid countless secrets that taunted him every time he came. He loved every part of what made Wild's Hyrule...wild.
"This view is beautiful Wild," Hyrule said as he turned towards Wild. "Was that what you wanted to show me?"
Wild chuckled at the question. "Give it a few moments, and you'll see something even more beautiful."
Hyrule tilted his head at that in disbelief, not understanding how anything could look more beautiful than this. Then out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of an orange-reddish glow that brought him to turn back towards the horizon. The golden hue colored where the horizon met the sea, bathing whatever was in reach of it in the warmth of the golden aura behind two sets of mountains that reached high into the sky. It seemed to grow brighter and brighter as seconds ticked on by, until it was suddenly snuffed out when a thick layer of fog appeared out of nowhere.
Immediately, Hyrule a chill ran down his spine when it felt as if a cold blanket had been wrapped around him. He wrapped his arms around himself, as he looked around in confusion before being mesmerized by the small white dots that seemed to float downwards from the sky. When he let out a breath, he blinked in surprise when a thick cloud of fogginess seemed to appear in front of him. He took a deep breath before blowing out the air, to see a much bigger cloud of fogginess in front of him. It brought a wide stupid grin to spread across his face, childish giddiness seemed to fill his chest. He was so distracted by this strange and foreign new thing that he almost didn't hear Wild let out a frustrated groan.
The sound brought Hyrule to blink as he turned towards Wild, confused as to why he seemed frustrated. Was this not what Wild had wanted to show him? Hyrule watched as Wild messed with Shekiah slate with an annoyed expression; it took a second before he finally looked back up to Hyrule with a sigh and apologetic look. "I am so sorry Hyrule, I didn't realize it was going to start snowing I-"
"Snowing? Is that what this is?" Hyrule asked curiously as he pointed towards the small little white dots that were falling from the sky. He shivered a little as he noticed that the air felt really cold up here.
Hyrule's question brought Wild to look up at Hyrule in surprise. "You...don't know what snow is?"
Hyrule shook his head. "No...my Hyrule doesn't have this...snow?" Hyrule answered as turned his attention back to the white specks of wonder and mysteries as it continued to fall from the sky.
"I...well. Zel-I mean, my Zelda, Flora, she's said that snow is basically frozen water that falls from the sky. It only happens in areas that can get really cold. Places like those are usually fairly high up. So a large mountain like here, gets some snow every now and then. The only place that doesn't get any is Death Mountain because of the heat that comes from the lava." Wild explained while Hyrule hung onto his every word.
"So, it's...basically frozen rain?" Hyrule asked curiously as he turned towards Wild. There was a wide grin that spread across Wild's face at Hyrule's question. "Then what's with the fog that appears in front of me when I breathe?"
"Yes! That's how Zelda explained snow to me before...fog? Oh, uh…" Wild trailed off as he seemed to be thinking. "It's our breath basically, the heat of our breath causes it to become visible in cold air or something like that. I'm not sure how to explain it but you can ask Zelda when we see her!"
Hyrule nodded at that but paused as he remembered how Wild seemed frustrated earlier. "But, this wasn't what you wanted to show me. Was it?" Hyrule then asked, which brought a sheepish look to appear across Wild's face as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"No," Wild said with a sigh. "I wanted to show you the sunrise because it's beautiful seeing the glow being cast over the land from up here. But I didn't think about how the weather up here can be really inconsistent sometimes…"
Hyrule nodded at that, Wild's words painting a vibrant picture in his mind as he looked out into the horizon. He could see what Wild meant, he could imagine the glow of the horizon that had appeared for only a moment, lasting longer in his mind as the sun rose above the land. Painting the mountains, the valleys, the towns, and the people in a golden warm glow.
Instead, they were given icy water that fell from the sky and foggy air. But Hyrule found that he didn't mind though. He found how the snow fell from the sky, sparkling under what little was able to slip through the cracks of the fog that hid the sun away from them.
"That does sound beautiful." Hyrule began as he watched as the bits of snow fell into his hand, and began to melt into tiny puddles of water. "But I think this is beautiful too."
Hyrule's words brought a smile to Wild's face as he relaxed. "Ya, this is beautiful." Wild agreed as they both turned to look out into the distance, even in the fog, Hyrule could still see the shapes of the mountains and the trees, and where the horizon meets the sea.
This was a moment that Hyrule never wanted to forget, he couldn't wait to write it all down into his notebook when he got the chance to. He never wants to forget this moment for the rest of his life.