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Kass was a simple man, at least he liked to think so.
He was a musician, trained under a great master of the art, and witness to the end of the world. He sang songs of old, trying to keep history from fading away like the weathering stone in the deep canyon outside the home he’d left.
He was a husband and a father. Five aspiring singers and a dearly beloved wife waited for him back at his roost, they understood why he’d felt the need to leave. To see the world and understand his late teacher better, to inspire the people of this healing land and bring comfort to those who needed it most. To give his guidance to the next savior to carry the torch.
And Kass was also a patient soul. He was happy to play his songs to empty audiences in strange locations, content with the birdsong and shifting grass. The lyrics and notes he knew by heart told him of a great hero of the past. His deeds remembered only through crumbling monuments and vague memory. And he’d made a promise to share the wisdom of those songs with the next Champion on Hyrule.
So Kass traveled and sang and waited, because he was a simple man, waiting to fulfill a simple promise.
><><><><
It was dusk when he’d met the strange child from the forest. Faron woods was a dark and damp place, thick air filled the lungs and a heavy blanket of mist coated all things at all times. Lightning often split the sky as if the ancient dragon of lightning itself made the expanse of trees its home.
The minstrel had just lit his campfire and begun playing his concertina once again when two glowing blue dots began to drift through the fog towards him. The motion of those two small spotlights was jerky, as if being puppeted by a small child. It wasn’t until a shape began to form in the darkening light that Kass heard any sound from the figure.
The mud barely made a noise underneath the newcomers feet as they nearly glided across the ground, Kass was dumbfounded by the agility and grace they seemed to carry, despite the stumbling movement that drove them forward.
He set his instrument to the side and held a feathered hand to the small knife at his hip, he didn’t like the look of those glowing eyes as he now recognized them to be. Bright and blue and unnatural.
But despite his concerns, Kass was a kind soul, and a feeling in his gut told him something was amiss here, this was no monster of Ganon’s. This presence felt old, ancient even, but so unlike the tang of malice that infected dangerous places. It was chill on his tongue and warm in his veins. The smell of oncoming rain and fresh earth upturned by creatures great and small.
Yes, this was something else, something strange, but not unwelcome. He let go of his sheath and called out to the shadowed figure in between the foliage.
“Hello, Traveler! Are you looking for a place to rest?”
There was no answer from the stranger in the trees.
“I have a campfire set up and enough food to share, would you care to join me?”
That did the trick, at the word ‘food’ the figure stepped out of the shadows and into the firelight.
Kass’s first impression was that they were short, small in stature with a thin frame and slightly oversized clothing. A tattered shirt of what must’ve once been a cream colored fabric was now absolutely soaked with a disturbing mix of blood and mud. Too short tan trousers were ripped at the knees and caked in grime. A sword belt was strapped across their chest holding a wooden bow, significantly damaged metal shield, and a rusty sword specked with gore.
Dark honey hair was chopped into haphazard bangs framing their face and two ribbons of hair hung down to their shoulders on either side of their face. The longer bits of hair were pulled into a neat ponytail and what wasn’t long enough to be pinned back hung just below the scraped chin of the traveler.
A large scar warped one side of the hylian’s cheek, a smaller slash mark danced over an eyebrow. Burn scars peeked out from the hems of their clothing and told a gruesome tale for someone who looked so painfully young. Baby fat still clung to scraped up cheeks and the gleam in their unnatural eyes spoke of a strange innocence that the rest of their appearance seemed to conflict with.
They locked eyes with Kass, distrustful like a wild animal. The Rito could see how the stranger held a clenched hand to their forearm, tight as if holding in blood. An easy assumption to make with how beat up they were.
“Are you quite alright?” Kass moved ever so slowly, hoping not to spook this injured young person. “You seem to be injured, why don’t you sit down and let me have a look at that arm?”
The strangers face twitched and they began to back away slowly, silently.
Kass, still concerned and hoping to distract them enough to calm down, held up his concertina. “Would you like to hear a song at least. it’s been passed down over the eons?”
Surprisingly enough they stayed put throughout the entire song, head swaying with the tune, fingers flapping with the words. As soon as the bard set his instrument back down the stranger smiled a bit too wildly and bolted off into the thick forest.
Kass knew he would have no hope finding them in the dark, so he just sat back down at his campfire, befuddled. After a few moments of contemplation over whether or not he had eaten the wrong mushrooms for dinner he decided he’d either probably imagined the entire scenario, or perhaps that had been some sort of forest spirit or ghost who’d become lost in the woods.
He’d probably never know, so Kass decided he was content with the mystery.
><><><><
Kass had just about forgotten about his strange encounter with the (spirit?) when he saw it again.
Rabia plain was gorgeous in the early morning, glistening dew speckled the soft grass, and graceful wildlife scampered about the rolling hills and small forest. The birds were singing brightly and he happily harmonized with his concertina, content to enjoy his day waiting for a miracle.
Surprisingly enough he didn’t have to wait very long. Just as the grass was beginning to dry a humanoid silhouette appeared on a cliff face directly in his line of sight. Kass was immediately concerned, why was there someone so high up? What if they fell? And to his surprise they did just that.
The figure leaped off of the cliff and before Kass could spread his wings to begin a rescue the person had whipped a paraglider of some kind out of thin air and was peacefully floating towards him.
About halfway to the ground the glider disappeared and the person dropped to the ground and disappeared into the tall grass. Kass hadn’t even taken two steps when the figure, wearing what appeared to be a bright blue tunic and dark leggings, popped up out the tall grasses and began sprinting in his direction.
Trying to regain some composure, Kass opened a wing in greeting to the stranger, but they only ran straight past him and up to the strange glowing circle on the dark stone platform in the ground.
Thoroughly befuddled and bemused, Kass picked up his discarded concertina and casually walked up the strange stone surface, making enough noise so as to not startle the poor (Hylian?)
Now that the bard was actually looking at the person, there was something off about them. From the dark, mud-splattered leggings paired with the impeccably clean tunic. To the slightly damp, but seemingly clean, hair that stuck to their neck and obscured their face. A large spear made of wood and bone was strapped to their back with a fire mangled wooden shield on its last leg.
“Hello traveler,” Kass began in his usual way. The stranger may be a bit unprecedented, but Kass liked to see all meetings as an opportunity to make new friends and acquaintances. With the state of their world it only made sense to build strong connections with those around oneself.
At Kass’s greeting the stranger flipped their head to him and uncanny blue eyes met his own.
It was the spirit.
Or at least, whatever this person was. In the warm daylight they seemed much less intimidating. Though, the unnatural feeling remained, not necessarily bad, just….. wild.
“Well it seems we’ve met before my friend, it appears that you are quite interested in this ancient monument?”
The traveler nodded absently in his direction while inspecting the platform, running scarred fingers through the glowing grooves in the always cold stone.
“Well, I do have a song that seems connected to this area, perhaps it could provide some clues to whatever answer you are seeking.”
The spirit stood and, now attention fully on him, jumped slightly on the balls of their feet.
“But, first may I have your name?” Kass questioned genuinely, he couldn’t keep calling them ‘the traveler’ afterall. And perhaps some clues to this person's identity would be useful in the future, in case this strange spirit was a part of something bigger.
The traveler looked a bit hesitant, mouth silently forming syllables a few times and hands twitching before raising their voice to a creaky whisper, hands moving with the word in what Kass assumed to be a language he didn’t understand.
“Li- Link.”
Oh.
That…. That made things a bit more complicated. His teacher had said that the Hero’s name was Link. That it wasn’t a common name, only really finding use in old records of fighters and heroes, that it was something similar to the former Princess’s of Hyrule’s name. Borderline sacred.
No normal parent would name their child such a thing, especially not in times like these, when the people of this shattered land were still bitter and mourning over what could have been.
This was Link. It seemed that the ancient tales of resurrection were true. The boy(? It was hard to tell with this one, but for now he’d assume so.) standing in front of him, was something escaped from the cold hands of death herself. And with the multitude of scars, missing bits of his ear and aura so ancient yet new, it was really the only conclusion.
This was no spirit, this was the hero Hyrule had been waiting for. And it was Kass’s time to shine.
“Well, Link. It’s wonderful to meet you properly, my name is Kass. And it seems,” he flourished his concertina, “That I owe you a song.”
“A beast that wears a crown of bone,
Prancing through the lush green.
Mount the beast upon its throne,
For only then the shrine is seen.”
Kass let his round baritone voice hold onto the last few words for dramatic effect, and watched as Link immediately seemed to brighten. Then the kid dashed off towards the woodland behind them and Kass was left in the dust, wondering what the riddle could mean. He’d never really figured it out.
For five minutes he strained his eyes watching a blue blur run around in the woods haphazardly before Link returned, sitting down on a buck like a horse and seemingly very pleased with himself.
The boy managed to convince his new animal friend to stand on the platform with a scratch behind the ears and a hoarse whining grunt. How the kid seemed to know the language of deer, Kass had no idea. But if this was truly The Hero back from the dead…. Well maybe resurrection gave one a connection with the very earth they decayed in.
The bard watched in awe as a glowing orange shrine erupted from the top of the hill, causing the ground to shake and rumble, but Link seemed perfectly calm. As if he’d seen this before. The boy rode up to the shrine, dismounted, pulled an apple out of the pouch on his belt and hand fed it to the buck, bowing his head slightly in appreciation.
What a strange lad, Kass thought as Link placed a strange stone tablet to a platform on the shrine, making the orange lights turn blue, the very unnatural blue of the boy’s eyes. He then squared his shoulders, walked to the back of the alcove, and began to descend into the earth itself.
Kass stood back, unsure if this was normal, if The Hero would be okay down there alone. Because even if he was Link, the boy was obviously still very young. And Kass was a father first.
So the musician sat down by the entrance of the shrine and began to absently play his beloved instrument, melancholic music drifting in the wind as he waited to see if the young-hero would need help when he exited that shrine.
><><><><
It wasn’t even a full hour later when The Hero returned, clutching at his chest absently and staring off into the distance.
Kass stood to greet the boy and caught the look in his eyes. Something both lost and determined, regretful but ready for a fight. The bard had never seen anything quite like it, and unsure how to break Link from this newfound trance, simply stood back. And watched him walk towards the edge of the cliff overlooking the wetlands.
In a moment of horror Kass began to run forward, fearful the boy would jump, only to miss his shoulder by an inch as he began to plummet. Then a paraglider was pulled out of nowhere and Link began to glide down safely to the small islands in the marsh.
The musician watched him go, knowing better than to stop a man on an obvious mission.
><><><><
Kass had heard through the grapevine (a Zora woman he’d flown by in Lake Hylia) that Divine Beast Vah Ruta had calmed down. It was wonderful news, and also unsurprising when he remembered Link’s determined face as he headed in the direction of Zora’s Domain. Kass had no doubts the recently resurrected Hero had something to do with the situation. Which likely meant that the boy was a different type of courageous to take down such a terror.
But he wasn’t expecting to watch the lad attempt to blow himself asunder with lightning. Courage was one thing, stupidity was another. As he rushed to the smoking pile of Hylian that was already brushing himself off with an embarrassed smile he was planning to tell the kid that very thing.
Unfortunately the large mound of dirt that had just been struck by lightning, fell apart to reveal another shrine. And despite the reek of singed hair and burnt flesh, Kass stood back to let The Hero do his job.
There was no stopping a force of nature after all.
><><><><
It wasn’t long before The Hero re-emerged with a dazed expression and stumbling feet. Kass didn’t hesitate as he caught the boy before he fell to the ground unconscious. It was honestly a wonder that he’d made it this long before passing out from what Kass assumed was pain.
Not everyone could survive a direct lightning blast, but the bard figured that if anyone could, it would be the long prophesied Hero of Hyrule.
He would still be getting him to a stable and hopefully a healer though, because Kass wasn’t one to stand by and watch a child suffer. He was a father after all.
After situating the unconscious, twitching, and concerningly light swordsman on his back Kass took flight, the sky rumbled above him as he cut through the air towards the nearby stable. He was thankful that the storm was seemingly beginning to pass on, the last thing he needed was to be struck down by the heavens as well.
They landed softly near the stable and Kass moved him from his back to hold him in his wings as he hurried on his talons into the large tent. Kass watched the stuttering rise and fall of Link’s breath and called out as he slid into the safety of the tent.
“Is there a healer here?” His voice boomed through the crowded area. The were at least ten people seeking safety from the worsening storm, Kass hoped at least one of them had medical training.
There was confused silence and Kass’s heart sank before a throat cleared and a dark skinned Hylian man stood from where he had been sitting at a wooden table and reading a thick book.
“I’m a traveling healer, what do you need?”
Kass smiled hopefully and clacked his way over to the middle-aged man, the other patrons went back to their business as Kass lowered his wings to let the healer see Link.
“Oh dear, what happened to him?” The man asked with furrowed eyebrows.
Kass ran a feathered finger over the teenager’s forehead, “he was struck by lightning, he seemed fine immediately after, but after a few minutes he started to spasm and just passed out.”
“That’s strange, people don’t usually survive a direct blast, much less walk it off even for a bit.”
Kass sighed, he didn’t want to reveal Link’s true identity, many people had little love for the hero of the past. They blamed him for The Calamity. Very few knew anything about the boy who wielded the Master Sword one hundred years ago, they didn’t know about the hardships he must’ve faced. Even Kass only knew what his teacher had told him.
“I don’t know how he did it, but I suppose anything is possible.” It was rather lazy reasoning, but without going into details it was all he could come up with on the spot.
“Well, I guess we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” The man put down his book and pulled a leather bag from where it was sitting underneath the table. “If I had a bed I’d tell you to lay him down there, but by the time I arrived here all the beds were spoken for, so the floor will have to do.”
Kass nodded, feeling a bit guilty for laying the injured boy on the dirty floor before someone else approached and interrupted before he could put Link down.
“Excuse me, but I couldn't help but overhear. You said this boy was struck by lightning?”
Kass nodded, wondering where this conversation was going.
“I rented a bed for the night but it would be a shame to put a wounded teenager on the floor.” The dark haired woman frowned at the thought. “He needs the comfort more than I do, he can have my spot.”
Kass’s heart warmed at the display of selflessness. This land may have been devastated a century ago, but its people watched out for each other. “If you are sure my good lady?”
The woman nodded firmly, “Of course, it’s the last bed on the left.”
“Thank you kindly,” the healer said with a kind smile and the woman responded in kind.
Kass wasted no more time in finding the soft bed and laying The Hero on top of the well worn quilted blanket. Link’s breathing was still erratic and the muscles underneath his skin were twitching sporadically.
The healer joined them and placed his leather bag on the bed at Link’s feet, there was plenty of space at the end of the bed because of Link’s small stature.
“Did you see him get hit by the bolt? Do you know the point of contact?” The man’s demeanor shifted into something Kass had seen from many a healer. A kind of deep focus where only the problem at hand existed.
“He was holding a metal sword in his left hand.”
The man nodded and went to work removing the leather glove and arm wrap from Link’s left arm with steady hands.
“My name is Edwyn by the way.” The healer said as he worked off the wet fabric that was sticking to pale skin.
“I am Kass, a traveling bard.” He introduced himself in kind.
Edwyn nodded and finished removing the thick green and orange fabric from the boy’s arm, to reveal strange pink marks on the already scarred flesh of his hand and arm.
The lines branched off multiple times in an unpredictable pattern that reached past the elbow and halfway up his bicep. Kass didn’t recognize the injury but it seemed Edwyn did.
“The lighting sure left its mark.”
“Oh.” Kass inspected the marks closer, they looked painful. “Will they go away?” From the little bit of skin the bard could see, Link had more scars and still healing injuries then he’d ever seen on one living person. He wondered how the boy would feel waking up to a forearm covered in lightning scars.
“No,” Edwyn said quietly as he picked up Link’s wrist to feel his pulse. “He will likely have these till the day he dies.”
Kass sighed and left briefly to pull up a stool for himself to sit on by The Hero’s bedside. He was glad he’d found a healer, he wouldn’t know what to do otherwise.
“His pulse is irregular, he shouldn’t be alone until it stops stuttering, but otherwise I don’t think there’s much we can do until he wakes and we know fully what kind of after effects we’re dealing with.”
“Thank you so much for your help sir, I really appreciate it.” Kass said with sincerity as he reached into his coin purse to pay the man.
Edwyn took the rupees but didn’t leave, instead opting to pull up his own chair to join the waiting. “I don’t leave my patients until they are safe to be on their own, besides,” he pointed out to the darkening sky. “It’s not like I’m going out in that storm, much less at night. I’m not much of a fighter.”
The two sat in silence for a while, content to watch Link’s chest rise and fall jerkily and listen to the thunder shaking the skies.
“What’s his name?” Edwyn asked in a hushed voice after the last patron retired to bed.
Kass wasn’t paying much attention at that point, he’d been humming a jaunty tune to himself for a while now, trying to ignore the haunting lyrics that accompanied the music. He’d have to share the song with Link one day, it had been his teacher's last request.
“Link,” he said without much thought. Completely forgetting that he wasn’t planning on saying The Hero’s real name.
“I had a feeling.” Edwyn said with a somber tone.
This is when Kass realized he had made a blunder, but it was too late to cover up his mistake. “Wait, what do you mean you had a feeling?”
Edwyn chuckled to himself, “My great grandfather, Eugene was his name, he kept a journal back before The Calamity.”
Kass was a storyteller, and he could tell this one would be good. He settled in for an interesting tale.
“I never met him of course, but he managed to survive the destruction. He was also a traveling healer, he trained in Zora’s Domain back in the day. This of course brings me back to my original reasoning for assuming this was Link.
My great grandfather wrote of his travels, people he met, patients he treated. One such entry was about the day he met The Hero of Hyrule, Link.”
Edwyn reached into his leather bag and pulled out a very old book, wrapped in water stained leather and kept closed with brass buckles. The healer carefully opened the ancient journal and flipped through the yellow pages to find a specific entry.
“I won’t read the whole thing, but I’ll paraphrase.”
Kass waited with bated breath, completely fascinated by this turn of events. To think a personal encounter with the injured ghost of a person in front of him still survived. It was nothing short of a miracle.
“Today was a strange one, I was just waking up to order breakfast at the inn I’m currently staying at, when Princess Zelda of Hyrule approached the counter I was heading to. She asked the innkeeper if there was perhaps a healer staying here and I inserted myself into the conversation from there.
She told me that her knight, The Hero, had been injured while on the road and that she feared his wound would grow infected if he didn’t receive the proper help.
I of course agreed and soon enough she brought The Hero to me and told me more about his injuries.
I approached the situation as usual, asking questions to make sure I was giving the correct treatment, that’s when I learned that the rumors of the Princess’s ‘silent knight’ weren’t just hearsay.
The Hero of Hyrule can’t speak, or at least chooses not to. I’m not sure why it surprised me so much, I suppose the fault is my own for assuming such a thing.
That is all besides the point, we found a way to communicate regardless (though apparently, The Hero is unable (or unwilling) to write as well) and after the Princess gave us some privacy I got a look at the wound.
It was a nasty stab to the gut, but he didn’t flinch once. I’m used to stoic soldiers and stubborn farmers, but his face seemed to be made of stone. To be honest I regret not being able to do more for him. I sent him off with a low level healing elixir, but still, something about the entire interaction is still eating at me.
I hope I run into him again, if I do I swear that I will try harder to get to the bottom of the boy’s strangeness. I hope this uneasiness in my gut leaves me soon, and I hope I can help him more next time.”
Edwyn finished the page and set down the journal. “He never met The Hero again, and he wrote about the interaction again after learning of The Hero’s death near Fort Hateno. I won’t read that one, but the tone is regretful.”
Kass felt his stomach sink even deeper, the information on Link’s character was haunting, especially when he was currently looking at the boy, unconscious and likely in pain.
The healer sighed and looked down at Link’s battered face, twitching in sleep.
“He never got over that unsettled feeling, at least when the topic came up. He felt something a bit nefarious was going on to make the knight so stoic.”
“I would have to agree with him,” Kass said quietly. “I’ve met many people in my travels, and no one I have had the pleasure of encountering is as stone faced as what your great grandfather described.”
Edwyn nodded sagely and placed the back of his hand on his patient's forehead. His eyebrows pinched in response to whatever he discovered there.
“His temperature is warmer than it was when you first brought him to me, he’s catching cold.”
Kass shook his head and sighed deeply. Of course The Hero was sick, and under his care too. He knew none of this was his job, but it still chafed at his soft heart. Because he was a simple man, who cared when children were hurting.
“Do you have a cloth or something? I can go soak it in the rain and bring it back to help cool him off.”
“That’s exactly what I was going to say,” Edwyn said as he passed him a thick square of off white fabric. The man had a glint if determination in his eyes that Kass could easily understand, it didn’t have to be said out loud, but Kass could guess that Edwyn felt inclined to carry on his great grandfather’s legacy, and find a way to help The Hero this time.
Kass took the rag and approached the closed rain curtains of the stable, sticking a wing out to let the fabric soak up the cold rain that fell in sheets. Once he felt it was thoroughly soaked the bard shut the curtains and returned to the injured boy’s bedside.
Edwyn took the dripping rag from him and after squeezing it just a bit, he placed the cold towel on Link’s forehead.
“He isn’t twitching anymore,” the kind eyed man said.
“That’s wonderful,” Kass replied as he took his seat once more.
They spoke quietly through the night, exchanging anecdotes and stories of their travels. At some point before the sun rose Kass was able to convince his new friend to rest his eyes, promising that he would wake him if Link’s condition changed in the slightest.
He spent the small hours watching the slow rise and fall of Link’s chest, replacing his damp towel with a new one every half hour, and wondering about The Hero’s past.
What had happened to the boy to make him so stoic and stone faced?
Why did he try to walk off such serious injuries?
Kass let the thoughts spin around in his brain until the other patrons of the stable began to rise and bustle around in the room, getting ready for the day and speaking in hushed tones. That’s when he shut down his contemplations, knowing he would likely never know the answers.
Not long after the rain began to slow outside, Edwyn woke up with a loud yawn.
“How is he doing?” He asked with a sleep deep voice.
“Pretty well I believe, he hasn’t woken up at all but his breathing is even and I think his fever might be going down.
The healer placed a hand on Link’s forehead and hummed, “I do believe you are right. He must’ve sweated the fever out in the night, that’s good. Now he just needs to wake up.”
Kass nodded. “Should we try to wake him?”
Edwyn shook his head, long braided hair swaying with the movement. “Judging by the state of his eyebags, I doubt he gets much sleep. Passing out was probably just his body’s excuse to finally rest.” He took out a thin leather cord and began to tie his hair back into a low ponytail. “But if he isn’t awake by this time tomorrow then I might start to worry.”
“You make it sound like you're leaving?”
“I’m needed in Hateno Village, I’ve lost enough time getting there already.” The man placed a gentle hand on Link’s forehead one more time. “He’s going to be fine, just keep him resting and when he’s awake give him this.”
Edwyn dug through his bag and produced a palm sized glass jar filled with a thick honey-like substance that smelled heavily of mint.
“This is a numbing tincture, it should help with some of the pain of that lightning strike. It’s quite easily replicated as well,” he pulled a small piece of parchment from his bag as well and handed it over with the jar. “Here’s the instructions and ingredients, make sure he rubs this into his arm when he wakes up, it should take the edge off a bit.”
“I can’t thank you enough for your help, good sir.” Kass shook his hand with fervor and passed over a few more rupees in gratitude.
“Of course,” Edwyn smiled a bit sadly. “I owe it to my great grandfather after all. Let the kid know he has a friend in Edwyn Beirne of Hateno Village. You are both welcome to stop by my house anytime.”
Kass smiled and waved off his new friend as he left the stable and started his journey back home.
Now he just had to wait for The Hero to wake up once more.
><><><><
The boy awoke with the sudden opening of his unnaturally bright eyes. He was completely silent as he took in the world around him, only his eyeballs dared to move. Otherwise he was entirely still. Kass watched on from his stool in concern. He didn’t like the implications of a child waking up and knowing they had to be unmoving but alert.
“Good afternoon, Link.” He used the same smooth and quiet voice as he did when one of his daughters woke up from a bad dream.
The teenager locked eyes with him and Kass suppressed a shiver, those eyes had seen too many things, known too many tragedies. The boy in front of him must be haunted.
“How are you feeling?” He continued with a calm tone, he may find the kid quite strange, but he was still a kid. An injured one at that.
The boy twitched his lips and moved his right hand to poke at his left hand without hesitation. Kass watched on in concern and confusion as Link didn’t even grimace as he sat up and inspected his new branching scars.
“Do you remember what happened?”
Link nodded and motioned holding up a sword with his right hand and then zig-zagged his finger though the air to demonstrate lightning and ended his summary with clenching his fist and then opening it suddenly to indicate an explosion. Kass was surprised he remembered so much.
“Yes, that is correct. You blew yourself up with lightning. Why did you do that anyway?”
Link simply shrugged and Kass decided he actually didn’t need to know the thought process on that decision.
Kass pulled the jar of pain gel from his own bag and held it out to The Hero. “The healer said to rub this into the injury and it should help numb the pain somewhat. I also have the instructions to replicate this tincture, so you should be able to give that to any healer or cook and they should be able to whip up a new batch for you.” He handed over the piece of parchment as well and Link took them with heavily scarred fingers.
Kass had never fully noticed that detail before, how damaged the teenager's hands were. He had only seen a few scars on the tips of his fingers, but this was something else entirely. As the boy followed his instructions and applied the medicine Kass took a moment to study them.
Link’s right hand was still gloved but his other was bare and showed off the true horror of his existence.
Dozens of light pink and reddish brown scars adorned the calloused flesh. Everything from burns to acid, to slice wounds. Kass wondered how much feeling he had left in his hands due to the extremely likely nerve damage.
His fingernails were jagged, as if they had been chewed on, and what little nail existed beyond the bed was caked with dirt and dried blood caught underneath the nail.
Kass’s heart sank as he realized that it was unlikely Link had suffered such injuries only to his hands. He hoped he never had to see whatever was underneath his tunic, if only so he could hope that it wasn’t as bad as he was currently imagining.
He was shaken from his thoughts by the sound of a whoosh and he looked up to find the jar and instructions vanishing into a sickly teal light that was sucked into the strange stone Link was now holding in his hands.
Kass decided that whatever magic was afoot was none of his business.
He then realized that it absolutely was his business when Link tapped at the stone again and materialized a silver rupee from nowhere, set it on the bed nearest to Kass with a small smile, and then turned blue and disappeared into a thousand tiny lights without a warning.
Kass stared at the empty bed in horror before hanging his head in defeat and bemoaning, “He doesn’t even know that Edwyn wants to help him.”
><><><><
The sun was just beginning to set on the beautiful land of Hyrule as Kass contemplated his goals.
His master had instructed him to share the wisdom of his songs with The Champion. And Kass had been doing that for months now. He’d run into the resurrected hero many times since he disappeared in a flash of light.
He’d played his songs and the boy had listened patiently before dashing off to complete some kind of puzzle or challenge. He didn’t interact much with Kass, just listened and waved a hello and goodbye. For all of his strangeness, The Hero seemed to be a very sweet and good-hearted kid.
The bard sometimes wondered how someone who had endured so much suffering could be so kind. Someone who completed every request asked of him by complete strangers and stopped to fight with travelers on the road not expecting any reward. Someone who shared his meals at stables and made honey candies to share. People talked, and Kass had heard countless tales of Link’s helpful disposition and willingness to risk life and limb for quite literally anyone who asked.
Sometimes these tales concerned him greatly, as there was no possibility that Link was taking time to rest or simply slow down. He was always on the go, completing shrines, fighting monsters, and digging through the wreckage of a world he once knew.
Kass often wondered if there was something more he could do to help.
He sat and pondered this quandary as he played his concertina into the cooling air. The moon had yet to rise above Mount Lanaryu, but the bard already had an uneasy feeling about the night. The horizon looked a bit more red than usual. It was a good thing he was already at his shelter.
He was just starting to close his eyes and drift off when there was a sudden sound from nearby.
“Hyah!”
Kass looked around but found nothing, then he heard it again, hoarse and exhausted and even closer. Just as he was standing up and reaching for his dagger a hand reached over the edge of the large mushroom-tree his hideaway was built on.
A Hylian hand, one covered in scars and scrapes and wearing a brown fingerless leather glove.
“Why hello Link, what a surprise to see you up here so late.”
The boy responded with only a grunt of exertion as he dragged himself over the ledge and rolled onto his back away from the edge. His chest rose and fell with heaving breaths, as if he had been running for a long distance.
“Did you run all the way here? You seem exhausted.” Kass silently apologized to his aging knees as he crouched down next to his new guest. His plan was to share his evening meal with the kid and hope he stuck around long enough to actually rest. He looked thoroughly beat.
As Link continued to heave, Kass noticed something else.
Link’s eyes were red rimmed and his skin was covered in a sheen of sweat, he looked almost sickly in the fading light. His breathing was strained and wet, and his honey blonde hair was dark and shiny with sweat and grease. As if he hadn’t bothered to bathe in a week or so.
After focusing on the smells around him for a brief moment, Kass realized that he definitely hadn’t. And that something other than stinky teenage body odor permeated the crisp dusk air.
Sickness.
The sour and acidic smell was familiar to the man. He was a father of five young children after all. The young ones were always prone to illness. He was just frustrated with himself that he had not realized the signs the moment he heard the ragged breathing.
Link was sick, and now the bard needed to figure out how badly he was doing.
“Here kid, drink some water, you don’t sound so good there.” Kass reached for his own waterskin but Link hazily waved him off and without even looking tapped at the strange glowing slate on his belt and a waterskin appeared in a burst of teal light.
The teenager grasped at it with sweaty hands and brought it shakily to his cracked lips before Kass stopped him.
“You might want to sit up first, that way you don’t choke.” He warned, using his best ‘placating parent’ voice. Link just rolled to his side and propped himself up on an arm before chugging it.
When he’s seemingly drunk his fill and the waterskin dematerialized into light Kass held out a wing and helped pull the exhausted teenager up from the ground and showed him towards floor cushions that surrounded the low wooden table that consisted of most of his home away from home.
The moment he was sitting with his legs crossed and hands resting in his lap Link sneezed so hard he nearly toppled over.
“That’s a nasty cold you have there Link.” Kass said as he began digging through his own bag in search of his blanket. He could tell the kid was shivering in the cooling evening air. He could see the red moon rising over the mountains and shook his head sadly. He would need to avoid landing while traveling for the next week or so. He had never been much of a fighter.
He turned back to Link, colorful woven blanket in wing, to find the boy not where he left him but instead looking over the edge of the mushroom-tree and pointing at the strange glowing platform on the ground below.
“Ah, I suppose you would like to hear the song associated with this area?” Kass asked reluctantly. He wanted the kid to lay down and drink some more water and maybe eat some food and then go to sleep so he could get better. But he had known Link long enough and seen the look in his eyes whenever he faced one of those shrines enough to know that he wouldn’t rest until his mission was done.
The bard simply sighed when Link nodded up and down and then clutched his head in what Kass assumed was a dizzy spell.
He couldn’t fight it, so he picked up his concertina and sang the strange riddle to his audience of one strange hero and the malice tainted moon.
Once he had completed his verses and set down the instrument, he leaned back against one of the supports to his small huts roof and waited for Link to eventually figure it out.
He expected the teen to pull out his strange gliding contraption and sail towards the shrine.
And he was half right.
Because after a moment of careful thought and then a quick glance to the moon, Link materialized a longsword taller than he was with a tap on his glowing slate, he then tapped at it again and all his clothes except his undergarments disappeared. Then he jumped off the ledge with the sword held between his bare feet and pulled his glider from nowhere while halfway to the ground.
Kass didn’t know why this was his life, or why this hero was his responsibility.
He wondered if every Hero of Legend had been this uncivilized and sporadic.
As he watched the hidden shrine erupt from the ground and glow the same blue of the living ghosts eyes he decided he probably didn’t want to know the answer.
><><><><
Kass sat on the edge of his mushroom-tree until Link returned from whatever trial he had faced. It hadn’t been a long wait, but the teen looked worse for wear and one shoulder was smoking just slightly.
Kass was just beginning to fly down and check in on the boy when he tapped at his Hylia-forsaken slate and vanished into thin air once more.
“Dindamnit!” Kass cursed. “He better be going somewhere with a warm bed and a hearty meal.”
Somehow, he doubted it.
><><><><
It was a week since the boy had disappeared in a flash from the shrine by his hideaway. It was only after Kass got over the frustration of his disappearance and obvious disregard for his own wellbeing that the bard realized that he had sung all his riddles and could finally return home.
After months of traveling and waiting and wandering Kass was finally home in Rito Village.
He returned to great fanfare from the community and to the happy surprise that Divine Beast Vah Medoh was calmly roosting with its laser beam focused on the ruined castle.
His dearly missed wife Amali informed him that Link had come by a few weeks back and joined Teba in a battle against the dangerous machine.
Kass had then followed up with Teba on the subject and was both concerned and vindicated to find that Link had been just as strange and unpredictable with his friend as he had been with him.
“He can shoot a bow as well as any archer I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting,” the man had informed him while they flew through the skies and chatted. “His skills might even rival the tales of Champion Revali.”
Kass had never seen Link shoot a bow so he took his old friend’s word as truth. He told tale of some of his own interactions with The Hero.
“I worry about the lad,” he confessed over the whistling wind. “He seems so, for the lack of a better word, new.”
Teba nodded in agreement and responded solemnly. “The elder believes that the boy is the descendant of The Hero who fell in the great calamity. But I have my doubts.”
Kass wasn’t surprised that Teba had caught onto what Link truly was, the man was not a respected battle strategist for nothing.
“It’s his eyes,” Teba said in a hushed voice as they landed on the large rock formation next to the Divine Beast. “They are much older than his appearance suggests.”
“Indeed my friend. I feel that our young Hero has many secrets.”
Teba opened his beak to respond but Kass would never know what he was planning to say at that moment because out of the corner of his eye he saw the shrine in the village glow a brighter teal and chime with use.
Speak of the Hero.
Kass and Teba locked eyes and they both understood their next move. They turned on the air in unison and half dove half raced back towards the shrine, somewhat giddy with the joy of the wind in their feathers.
The joy died down abruptly when they two fathers landed close by the bloodied and beaten figure of Link.
“Son, are you alright?” Teba spoke first, concern lacing his words.
Link’s bruised face looked up and he locked his unearthly teal eyes with the bard’s and he promptly fell to the ground with a relieved sigh.
“Oh gods.” Kass breathed as he and Teba rushed toward and fell to their knees before the unconscious teenager.
Teba (who knew much more about medicine from his training) put his ear over Link’s heart and huffed out a relieved breath.
“His heartbeat is fine, if a bit fast.” He quickly inspected the boy for obvious injuries. Kass sat back, knowing he would be unhelpful at this moment.
“I think he’s safe to move,” the man eventually concluded. “Would you go tell Saki that Link is here and needs medical attention? Also could you make sure Tulin is out of the hut, he doesn’t need to see this.”
Kass nodded firmly, knowing that this was how he could be helpful, and hurried off over the bridge towards Teba’s hut, talons clicking furiously beneath him.
“Saki!” His voice was more frantic than he was planning when he announced his presence.
The woman and her son both turned to him in surprise.
“Are you alright? Has something happened?!” Her voice began to match his stressed energy. “Where is Teba?!”
Kass took a deep breath, reminding himself that there was a kid here, and continued in a calmer manner. “Teba is fine, but Link is here and he needs some medical attention.”
Saki’s brow furrowed in determination and bent down to speak calmly to her child.
“Tulin, everything is fine, but mama needs you to do her a favor. Can you go help Amali out with dinner?”
Kass joined in. “Yes I’m sure she would be very thankful for your help. Let her know I sent you, okay?”
Tulin squinted at him, knowing something was up, but still shrugged his small shoulders and pecked his mom on the cheek.
“Okay, I’ll go help.” And he ran off on his short legs down to the cookpot.
Saki turned to him with a thankful smile, “Thank you for the backup, Link is his hero, he doesn’t need to see him hurt enough to make you panic.”
“I wasn’t panicking,” Kass lied.
Saki just gave him an unbelieving look and gestured to a chest on the ground. “There’s some extra blankets and pillows in there for the cold months, could you arrange them on the floor for our guest?”
Kass responded by doing what she asked, keeping an ear out for the clicking talons of his old friend as he arranged a makeshift bed on the wooden floor.
Not even a minute later Teba walked in with Link cradled in his wings like a much younger kid. Saki gasped at the boy’s beat up appearance but quickly recovered and began to close the rarely drawn curtains for privacy.
“What happened to him?” The woman asked as her husband carefully lay down the teenager on the fluffy makeshift bed underneath the exit window that looked over the canyon.
Teba sighed and reached his wing out for his wife’s to hold in a supportive gesture. “He appeared in the shrine all bloody and bruised, once he noticed us there he seemed relieved. Then he just collapsed.”
Saki nodded and took a deep breath, she kneeled down next to Link’s bloodied head. Used the tips of her wings to carefully move around his stained hair and search for any apparent injuries to the skull. After a few tense minutes she gave her diagnosis.
“There are no fractures to the skull, but there is a large gash on the back of his head, like he scraped his head on something rough.” She delicately pulled back his eyelids and made an unhappy clicking sound with her beak.
“He’s concussed,” she gestured to his eyes again. “See, his pupils are uneven.”
Teba sighed and ran a wing down his face, “of course he is. I shouldn’t expect anything else from him.”
Kass was about to chime in when Saki laughed sadly and said, “No dear, you shouldn’t.”
Kass sat back while the couple looked Link over for more visible injuries, he had very little knowledge of medicine after all. It was best to leave it to a trained warrior and the village healer. When they started to carefully remove pieces of Link’s clothing to reveal dark bruises, and too many scars and half healed wounds to count, Kass decided to leave and get some fresh air before he threw up.
“I’m going to go find him some clean clothes.” He called over his shoulders.
“That would be great, thank you friend.” Teba responded while he passed his wife a basket of fresh water and a rag.
“Oh, while you’re doing that, could you heat this up at the cooking fire? It needs to be red hot.” Saki handed him a small thin needle and Kass gulped down the acid in his throat.
“Absolutely.”
Kass tried to ignore the gruesome thoughts about what could’ve happened to The Hero to leave him so injured. Not to mention the scars and old injuries… the bard supposed he must’ve died from something.
><><><><
Link woke up two days later while he and Teba were watching over the boy.
Saki was in her hammock up in the rafters sleeping off the exhaustion from taking the night shift, and Teba was clumsily whittling some sort of creature Kass couldn’t decipher. Kass himself was humming a lullaby he didn’t know the name of as he watched The Hero breath in and out in a thankfully calm sleep.
It wasn’t often that Link’s dreams seemed to be restful, according to Saki he’d spent half of the previous night fighting his blankets and mumbling wordless noises in a panicked tone. He’d only calmed when she’d removed his blanket and hummed the same solemn lullaby he was currently continuing.
Something about the lilting notes seemed to reach into his bad dreams and chase the fear away. Kass wondered if his parents used to sing him the same tune when he was a small child over a century ago.
The bard had just finished the last note and was taking a deep breath to restart the song when Link blinked his eyes open silently.
Teba stilled his carving and locked eyes with Kass, asking a silent question. Kass nodded his head just slightly and addressed the until recently unconscious teenager.
“Good morning Link, how are you feeling?”
The boy in question blinked his eyes harder and raised a hand to look at the neat stitches running along the top of his hand. He raised a questioning eyebrow to Teba.
“We don’t know what happened to you, you just appeared at the village shrine and then collapsed. It’s been three days since then, Saki and I made sure to clean you up and take care of your wounds.”
A quirk of his thin lips and a glance at Kass.
Teba chuckled, “No he wasn’t helping much with your injuries, my friend here isn’t good with blood.”
Kass glared at his friend but his gaze softened when he heard the hoarse laughter of the teenager.
“Yes, well, I was still helpful.”
Teba agreed and stood up to grab a waterskin and an orange from the counter.
“Here, small sips.” The man said in a soft voice that Kass recognized well. It was the same tone he took when speaking to his own children. He supposed he wasn’t the only father who saw a young hero and felt the need to care for him. Call it parental instinct.
As Teba helped Link to sit up and drink his water Kass took the small fruit and began to peel off the skin with his sharp teeth. Once Link was done drinking he handed the boy fruit, piece by piece. Making sure he didn’t eat too much at once and make himself sick.
When the food was gone and Link’s eyes were dropping dangerously, Kass helped him lay back down and told him “Go back to sleep Link, we can discuss how you ended up here when you wake again.”
It seemed the teen didn’t need to be told twice as he immediately started snoring softly.
Kass sat back and resumed the haunting lullaby. He had made a promise to help The Hero, and if all he could do was ease his nightmares, then he would do it with gusto.
><><><><
The routine of waking, eating, and taking care of basic hygiene and sleeping again continued for another two days before the adults agreed that Link was healed enough to walk by himself without falling.
They had each tried to ask what had happened to him, why he was so hurt, but he always just averted his eyes and his expression lost any emotion it had previously showed.
Kass wasn’t surprised when he caught Link slinking out of Teba and Saki’s tent and towards the glowing shrine in the dead of night.
“What ho! Link.” He called out into the cold night air, hoping he wouldn’t scare away the skittish chosen one. Link had seemed relaxed enough around them all (and Kass had learned that Teba and Saki always let him stay the night whenever he was on business in the village) but if he was leaving Kass would like to have a conversation with him first. He didn’t need to scare him off.
Faintly glowing eyes locked into him and the bard had to fight back the fear and unease that his too-alive eyes caused. He knew that the boy was something back from the dead, but it wasn’t often that Kass remembered that particular fact.
His subconscious wasn’t eased by the manner in which Link approached. Slow and silent like a predator on the hunt, waiting for the moment to pounce. But once the boy was closer to him in the torchlight Kass could see the baby fat still clinging to his cheeks and the bags underneath his eyes, and he looked much more mortal.
“Are you off to continue your adventures, young hero?”
Link nodded and fidgeted with the glowing slate in his hands.
“Before you go back into the fray, may I ask a favor of you?”
Another hesitant nod.
“I want to tell you a story, about how I came to know all the strange songs and riddles that have aided you on your quest.”
Link looked at him with sparkling curiosity in his eyes and Kass hoped he took the news alright. He’d promised his teacher this one last thing, one last song for The Hero.
Kass did what he did best, he put in a show.
><><><><
Link left in the early hours of morning after he listened to Kass’s story and song. He seemed to take the song that told of his own death in the most non-traumatic way imaginable. Which wasn’t much, but he deserved to know.
It was in a short half mimed half guessed conversation after that he learned Link didn’t remember anything before he woke up except a few small things about Princess Zelda. And that he appreciated the knowledge that the girl he was fighting day and night to save cared about him in some capacity.
And then the boy disappeared.
><><><><
Kass returned to Teba and Saki’s roost as the dawn broke, planning to tell them of Link’s leaving. But instead of two fretting parents, he found a note on Link’s bed and his two friends sharing an early morning cup of tea.
“He’s gone.” Saki said with a sigh, staring off into the sunrise.
“I watched him leave,” Kass told them. “He seemed alright.”
“That’s good to know,” Teba said with a sad smile. “Would you join us for some tea, old friend?”
Kass smiled and took hold of the third steaming cup already set out for him on the counter, “I would love to, it seems we have much to discuss about our mutual concern.”
And so they discussed all they knew about the strange hero named Link. Because they wanted to help him. And because Kass may have fulfilled his promise to his teacher, but he had yet to finish his new quest; to get the strange boy who had inserted himself in his life to stop running around for five seconds and actually rest.
Because goddesses-alive, the kid looked like hell.