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Twilight had been mid-conversation about their current predicament when a scream pierced the air.
It had silenced any talk between the six heroes, their remaining three lost during the shift. They were in his era, deep in Faron woods where shadows lurked like creeping water. Thankfully, the rest of them landed close together. Warriors, Four, and Wild had all been at the market when they shifted, while the rest of them had been with Time’s Zelda to discuss and catch up.
When they landed, they took stock of their supplies and surroundings, and immediately noted the three’s absence. That was two days ago.
Time had just been discussing that they should set up camp and build a smoke signal when they heard the cries.
They were guttural and painful, filled with terror and grief that had Twilight’s heart stutter. They were Wild’s cries.
Not wasting a moment longer, Twilight took off, Time and the others hot at his heels. The screams were far off but loud enough that they were unmistakable. He wanted more than anything to transform. He’d get there faster on four legs and he could rip apart whatever was making Wild sound like that.
No one should sound like that; that hopeless.
As bad as it sounded though, he wished Wild would keep shouting. It helped them find him. He hoped Warriors and Four were with him, safe and unhurt.
The closer they got, the more Twilight wished he never wished for anything. Words started to sound more clearly and Twilight felt his stomach sink into his chest. “Stop! Please, stop! I don’t want it! Stop it!”
The chain pushed themselves harder, legs pumping to tear through bushes and over fallen trees.
“Four, please! Stop! Let me go!” Screams of terror mixed with tears.
Hold on! We’re almost there!
Images flashed through his panicked mind. Monsters pinning his brothers down, torturing them. Something evil hurting them slowly and painfully, Wild forced to watch.
Mercenaries, however unlikely in his era, wrangling them for some unknown bounty that they hadn’t known about. He knew he should have gone with them to the market. How could he be so stupid?! So careless?!
“Damnit Four, hurry up!” The Captain’s voice shouted.
“I’m trying!” Four’s tear-filled voice responded.
“I don’t want it! I don’t! Just stop it!” Wild screamed. “Help! Someone, please! Anyone!”
Twilight broke the treeline first, eyes zeroing in on Wild instantly, and stumbled to a stop. Warriors was kneeling over Wild, pinning his arms down by the wrists with Four straddling the boy’s legs. The blue Champion’s tunic was off to the side, along with Wild’s gloves, armguards, belts, chainmail, and wrist wrapping.
His white undershirt was torn off and hanging on his body by his shoulders, arms pinned up by his head to show off his scarred torso.
Four adjusted his position on Wild’s legs when the boy gave another desperate buck of his hips, a clean roll of bandages in his hand and tears in his eyes. Wild’s face was contorted in terror, tears rolling down his cheeks as he tried to move his head around, causing his ponytail to come undone.
“Please! Let me go! I won’t tell, I promise, just please!” Wild cried with a stuttering gasp.
Blood covered the ground, and a nasty wound on Wild’s side looked to be infected. A long-dead campfire and a camp in disarray. Warriors looked up as they came into the clearing, tear tracks on his cheeks as he met Twilight’s gaze. “Thank Hylia. Twi, please! Calm him down!”
Twilight approached with something sick in his chest, Hyrule at his side as he attempted to heal the injury. Closer up, the better he could see Wild’s flushed out and gray skin, eyes hazy and breath labored with a fever.
When Wild’s eyes met his, his look of hope had Twilight frowning. “Twi,” He keened. “Twi, please. Help me. Make them stop!”
“Shhh,” He hushed. “Wild, you’re alright. You’re safe. No one’s hurting you.”
Wild’s responding wail was unexpected, snot and tears making his face messy. He howled and moaned while Hyrule and Four worked to disinfect the slice, the skin around it angry red with dead flesh hanging off as if the blade that caused it was serrated. It was already oozing with liquids and smelled like rot. The soiled bandages on the ground were almost green.
Twilight continued to try consoling him as Time asked what happened. They were attacked while searching for the group. Wild got injured. They had forgotten to change the bandages the night before. By then, he was already sick. “We tried asking him to take his shirt off, but he refused. I would have let him be if it weren’t that we could smell it. His wrappings needed to be changed, but he wouldn’t sit still. Now we’re here,” Warriors summed.
Wild’s moans quietened to whimpers and soft pleas, but his tears still ran. More than the hazy gaze that comes with a high fever, they grew cloudy and distant. There was acceptance on his face as he stopped struggling.
When Hyrule and Four were done, Warriors let go of his arms and Four got off his legs. Wild didn’t move though. He lay there as if he’d never been let go, shaking and pitiful.
Warriors stormed off with a stormy expression, tension lining his shoulders like a drawn bowstring; ready to snap. Legend stepped to the side and let him pass, his usual abrasiveness tamed at the pure fury. They watched him leave silently.
Hyrule grabbed a blanket by the abandoned campfire and covered Wild gently. His whimpers tapered off to quiet mewls as he drifted off to sleep. Not wanting the boy to be laying in the dirt as he slept, Time carefully scooped him up and held him to his chest, carrying him over to a bedroll and covering him up with blankets.
Sky gathered his remaining clothes off the ground and carefully folded them up on a pile by his head for when he woke up. No one moved to pull the clothes on for him.
When the captain returned, tear tracks on his face and blood on his knuckles, no one mentioned it.
And when Wild woke up, fever gone and rationality returned, refusing to look any of them in the eye and flinching from the slightest touch, no one mentioned that, either.