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“Four!”
Sky’s frantic voice echoed across the battlefield, loud and sharp enough to carry above the metal-on-metal shrieking and Moblin bellowing to Hyrule. Some distance away and thoroughly occupied with trying to keep himself, Legend, and Wind from getting hemmed in by the two black-blooded beasts harrowing them, Hyrule’s head snapped up as if on a string. Something in the pitch of the shout sent his instincts screaming razor-bladed alarm bells in his head.
High above the rest of the battlefield, a Hinox raised it’s club. Shards of something sharp glittered in the sunlight, embedded in the club. Time and Sky moved near its feet, bolting forward, too slow. The club came down.
Hyrule recognized the scream that followed. Even the twisting, wretched agony of it couldn’t disguise Four’s piping tones.
His heart leapt into his throat.
Panic and adrenaline buzzed in all his limbs, tried to override his higher thoughts.
A sword beam cut through the air. Huge and battering the air with power, the likes of which he’d only ever seen from Sky. The Hinox staggered. Hyrule dodged a downward swing from a Moblin. The Hinox staggered again at Time’s followup to Sky’s attack and fell. The club caught Time on the way down, what looked like a glancing blow to the head. Hyrule sent a sword beam of his own into the Moblin’s gut, small, trying to reserve what little magic he had left, but enough to distract it from Wind running up behind. Time staggered, but kept his feet. Sky bolted past him, dropping to his knees alongside something - someone - out of Hyrule’s view. Wind got in one good slice to the Moblin, was knocked away before it became a killing blow.
“Potion!” Sky’s voice rang out again, urgency bordering on panic, as the Hinox tried to regain its feet. A Moblin’s backhand caught Legend in the ribs, sent him off his feet and popping right back up again with a look on his face that said he was hurting and mad about it.
Time, moving oddly and shaking his head as though he couldn’t clear his ears, ended the fight with the Hinox with a final downward stab of his greatsword. He yanked the blade free, turning to face the Moblin trying to sneak up on Sky.
Warriors bolted past as Wind knocked their Moblin’s feet out from under it with a hefty swing of a large hammer. Hyrule leapt the flailing hand, coming down sword first.
“Fairy!”
Warriors’ voice this time, and if he was calling for a fairy then however he’d thought his first aid skills might help Four, they weren’t enough. Hyrule’s stomach plummeted. “None!” he called back, freeing his sword just in time to avoid the second Moblin.
“Out!” and “No!” and other negating calls echoed the sentiment from the others.
Legend swore, sharp and loud, and Hyrule came to a decision.
“Cover me!” he snapped.
“Go!” Legend snarled back, forming up with Wind.
Hyrule bolted.
Flames still crackled and burned around the clearing from the fire spell he’d cast earlier. It cut through the first wave, ridding them of the smaller, weaker enemies. Only the strongest remained, and with how much difficulty they were having in putting them down, nearly all of them were black blooded.
Hyrule dodged fights where needed, but they were down to the last few stubborn enemies. He focused in on Sky, back on his feet and helping Time, who struggled to keep up with the Moblins targeting the two on the ground. Sky: fine, but movements choppy with fury. Time: likely concussion from the Hinox’s parting blow. Warriors: kneeling on the ground in a puddle of blood, bent over something colorful.
A Moblin moved into Hyrule’s path.
Hyrule had no intention of stopping. A sword beam staggered it. Hyrule dodged around, leaving Sky and Time to take advantage of the opening he’d given them.
Blood registered first. On Warriors’ hands. All over Four himself. The earth beneath them churned to bloody mud.
Four’s leg. It didn’t look right.
Four lay on his back beneath Warriors’ hands. He was still conscious, breathy drawn-out wails muffled into the bracer he held between his teeth to stifle himself, as if his vocal chords had fallen outside of his control and turned themselves over to the movement of his lungs to convey his pain. His other hand clutched at Warriors’ ankle, as if he’d grabbed the closest thing in reach in an attempt to comfort himself. Hyrule tucked away the hurt that tore at his heart at hearing such a sound. Feelings later, action now.
Warriors bent over Four’s right leg. His bloodied hands held a tourniquet fashioned from bandages and one of the sturdy sticks he kept in his medical kit to use as a splint, clamping it down high on Four’s thigh.
Hyrule slid to his knees on the ground next to Warriors. The knees of his trousers immediately saturated with bloody mud.
“Potion?” Warriors barked at him.
“None,” Hyrule shook his head.
Grim resolve settled over Warriors face. His glance down Four’s leg told Hyrule what he was thinking. Hyrule forced himself to look, though his stomach churned. Hard enough to witness such wounds on an enemy. Infinitely worse to see on a friend instead.
The club must have come down fully on Four’s leg. The arterial bleed alone might be manageable, were Warriors’ surgical skills up to the task. But the deep slice to Four’s thigh, likely from one of those shards Hyrule saw glittering in the clear morning light, was the least of Four’s problems.
Crush damage on a body never, ever looked pretty. Four’s bones weren’t broken so much as shattered, his leggings split open to show the deformed flesh beneath. Without potions or a fairy on hand, and no telling how far to the nearest town...
Warriors nodded at the tourniquet. “I might need you to-”
Hyrule shook his head again. “I have magic that can help.”
He’d never done this on someone else before, but it would work. Hyrule knew it would. He wouldn’t accept anything less.
He didn’t explain further, didn’t wait for Warriors to accept. He wouldn’t leave Four in agony one moment longer than necessary.
Hyrule pulled his hands in close to his own chest, concentrating. He closed his eyes, breathed in, breathed out. As the first wash of healing power stirred to life, he swept his hands out and down, cracking his eyes open only long enough to be sure they hovered over Four’s leg.
For a moment he worried it wouldn’t work. He wrestled with the spell, wrenching it away from himself and directing the flow outward, trying to peel it away from his own body like bandages stuck to a half-healed wound. But worry for Four rode at the forefront of his mind, Four’s life in his hands. He focused on that, pushed, pulled, and the spell snapped into place.
Hyrule knew very little about how bodies were put together, the physical aspects of what connected where. But this magic knew. The spell knew. It dove into Four with purpose, seeking out what wasn’t right, and Hyrule saw as the magic saw.
Healthy flesh it flowed through freely, skimming over and passing on. But here, under his hands? This spot was wrong wrong wrong. The magic swarmed the broken pieces, restoring them to their rightful flow. The smell of it flooded swamped Hyrule, replacing the coppery stench of blood with sweet ozone and concentrated green.
Something else was wrong, though, something blocking…
“The tourniquet is in the way,” Hyrule said without opening his eyes.
Attention to spare for nothing more than his spell, Hyrule didn’t hear any verbal response that Warriors might have made. But the blockage disappeared, the magic free to move once more. He worked more quickly now, blood flowing anew, spilling out of Four’s body. He built the flesh up from the bone outward, aligning what needed to be reattached.
A few moments more and the magic faded away.
Hyrule opened his eyes.
The physical world swam into view, Four’s leg the first thing he saw.
It looked fine. The correct shape, the skin visible through the tears in his leggings unbroken.
A wave of lightheadedness hit him. Hyrule swayed. Warriors sucked in a breath, caught him. Blood still coated his hands; smeared across Hyrule’s bracer when Warriors grabbed him by the elbow. Hyrule accepted the hold only long enough to steady himself. “Four!” He gasped.
He ignored Warriors’ bewildered statement - “You healed him?” - scrambling around Warriors’ back to get to Four’s head. The world swayed again as he stood; he caught himself on one hand as he collapsed back to his knees.
Four panted in silence, staring up at the sky and clutching at the collar of his tunic. Wide eyes turned Hyrule’s way, whites showing all around the irises. The silent, shuddering gasps were nearly as hard to bear as the wailing. Hyrule worked his fingers into the fist clutching at Four’s clothes. Four grabbed hold, squeezed back.
Hyrule thought he heard Warriors speak again (“It’s completely healed.”) but sound went a little funny. Black spots tried to encroach on his vision. He blinked them away, shifted from kneeling to sitting on his rear. More bloody mud on his clothes. He didn’t let go of Four’s hand.
“Four!” Sky this time, dropping to the ground opposite Hyrule. He took hold of Four’s other hand. Good. Sky was good at this part. Better than Hyrule. “Hyrule, you had a fairy?”
“Moblins?” Hyrule asked instead of correcting him.
“They’re done, we’re done.”
Hyrule looked up. It was true. Only his allies remained standing. There was Wild, scuttling down out of the tree he’d been sniping from on the far side of the battlefield. There was Twilight, helping Time sit down and already checking his eyes for the concussion Hyrule suspected he’d find. And there were Wind and Legend, Legend limping and with an arm wrapped around his ribs, Wind hurrying ahead of him with -
“Wind!” Hyrule gasped, scrambling to his feet and ignoring the way his vision went wobbly again, because Wind held a bandage to his hand that was absolutely soaked in blood.
“Arrow went right through!” Wind said in a tone that was probably supposed to be a boast, or a reassurance. He leaned around Hyrule, peering towards Four. Hyrule grabbed his hand, ignoring the cross sound it earned him. Despite the cheerful words, Wind looked far too pale.
“Hey Hyrule? You’re looking a little sick, are you okay?”
Hyrule made a dismissive noise. He eased the wad of bandages away. A messy hole lay right in the center of Wind’s palm, all ragged edges and visible damage to bone, tendons…
Having done it once, it was easy enough to do again. Hyrule watched this time. Fascinating how the magic pooled along the injury all blue and glowing. The tissues rejoined, the wound closed up, the world went gray…
“Woah!”
Wind’s exclamation came as if from down a long tunnel, all echoing and distorted. Someone caught him. He still hit the ground hard enough to jar up his tailbone.
“What happened?” Legend. That was Legend’s voice.
“I don’t know! My hand’s all healed, but I didn’t see a fairy.”
“What?”
“He needs a magical replenishment potion!” Warriors. That was Warriors. Where…?
“What? Yeah, sure, I have some of those.”
The cool smooth glass of a bottle pressed into Hyrule’s hand. Hyrule peered at it. Something… something needed to happen…?
Wind’s hands settled over his own, uncorking it for him. Hyrule grunted his thanks. He sniffed it. It smelled familiar. He drank.
“Wait, does that mean he healed me?”
“He healed Four.” When did Warriors come over? Those were his hands, tipping Hyrule’s head back to look into his eyes. Hyrule blinked at him. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
“M’fine,” Hyrule mumbled, embarrassed at all the fuss. He wasn’t the one injured! He didn’t even feel like he was about to pass out any more, with the potion starting its work.
“How many fingers, Hyrule?”
“Two.”
“Okay. Good. Legend?”
“I’ll live.”
“Legend.”
“Bruised ribs and maybe a sprained ankle. I’ll live, Captain.”
Sky stood, Four cradled in his arms. Four looked pale and small. Blood still stained his clothes. His arms wrapped around himself, his head pillowed on Sky’s shoulder. Wind jogged over to them, touching Four’s elbow and peering up into his face. Hyrule startled, tried to summon up the will to stand as well. “Is he…?”
“He’ll be alright, he just needs rest. He lost a fair bit of blood.” Warriors looked at him like he’d never seen Hyrule before. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
“Never tried it on anyone else before,” Hyrule confessed. He leaned forward, intending to stand. His head spun. Ozone and green and bloody viscera still lingered in his nose, making him feel sick.
Warriors put a hand on his shoulder. “You still look unwell; you need to rest. And you shouldn’t be walking on that until we can wrap it.” He directed the last to Legend, who’d come around in order to look down into Hyrule’s face himself.
“We can’t camp here,” Legend argued. “I’ll be fine until we find someplace to stop.”
“I can carry Hyrule.” Twilight. Hyrule startled again at looking up and finding everyone else around them, he himself the only one still on the ground. Wild had Time’s arm slung across his shoulders; Wind sidled up to Legend with the clear intent to do the same. Twilight turned around and crouched in front of Hyrule. Hyrule grumbled a little, but with everyone watching he didn’t want to make even more of a fuss.
His head spun when Twilight stodd; he dropped it forward onto Twilight’s shoulder with a seasick groan.
Twilight and Warriors took point, walking slowly for the benefit of their injured trailing behind. Hyrule closed his eyes, swallowing back the nausea and the lightheaded spinning.
“I missed it; what happened?” Twilight asked Warriors after some time passed, likely thinking Hyrule asleep. Which, to be fair, in any other circumstances he would be. If only the buzz of adrenaline would fade from his fingertips, if the unsettled note in his stomach hadn’t kept the gentle swaying of Twilight’s steps from being as soothing as they otherwise would.
“Hyrule healed Four,” Warriors returned in a low voice.
“With a fairy?”
“No. I think it was a spell.” A few more steps passed in weighty silence before Warriors spoke again in a voice so low it barely carried to Hyrule. “I thought I was going to have to take off the leg.”
The shoulders under Hyrule’s arms shifted, unsettled, as Twilight considered those words. “Lucky for us,” he finally returned.
“He’s going straight into his bedroll and staying there the rest of the evening. All of them are.”
Twilight snorted. “The big brother routine doesn’t suit you.”
“Like you’re any better, farmboy.”
The two of them fell into a cautious version of their usual sly back and forth, subdued after a long day and a close call. Hyrule listened, trying to let it relax him, trying to feel relieved.
It didn’t work. What-ifs plagued him. Remembered smells plagued him, but above all the sound Four made. Hyrule strained his ears, desperate to hear Four’s voice now: level-headed conversation, sharp-eyed remarks, even raised in anger. Anything to chase away that memory of his voice failing to choke back anguish.
No matter how Hyrule strained his ears, Four remained utterly silent. A paranoid part of Hyrule wanted to turn, check he was still there at all. He shifted just a little, arms tightening around Twilight’s neck.
“Hyrule?”
Hyrule didn’t answer. Twilight’s hands squeezed down where they supported Hyrule’s legs around his waist, thumbs brushing reassurance against his knees.
Hyrule did his best to find it comforting.
△△△
Four could still feel the phantom pain in his leg.
It was the first thing he noticed when he woke, even before noting that he’d exchanged Sky’s arms under his back and legs for his bedroll. A fire crackled, the increasingly familiar sounds and smells of Wild preparing dinner nearby.
They’d made camp, then. Four must have slept through it.
His head was in someone’s lap, a hand brushing soft over his hair. He thought he heard shifting near his feet as well.
He opened his eyes.
“You’re awake,” Sky noticed immediately, voice hushed. His hand stilled in Four’s hair, resting lightly at the back of his head instead. Twilight, the one down by Four’s feet, sat up a little straighter at Sky’s words. “How are you feeling?” Sky continued.
Four considered.
“I’ve been better. I’ve been worse, too.”
Deep breathes.
He shifted his leg, just a touch.
It responded to his command. That… helped. A little.
Not enough.
Four pushed his blankets aside. Sky helped him sit up without comment, scooting in close so Four could lean back against him. “Take it slow,” Twilight cautioned, watching him closely. “You lost a lot of blood.”
He was wearing a long nightshirt that he had vague memories of being changed into earlier. Four flipped his blanket the rest of the way off, pulling the shirt upwards until he could see his entire leg from the spot high on his thigh where the pressure of the tourniquet still stood out vividly in his mind and all the way down to his toes.
Nothing. No split skin or deformed shapes, bone crushed and twisted. Not even a scar.
Four swallowed hard.
A large part of him didn’t want to say it. That if he didn’t acknowledge it, it hadn’t actually happened.
Four knew, by now, that ignoring these kinds of things never helped.
“Warriors was getting ready to take off my leg.”
Stillness above him, the kind that meant Sky and Twilight were having an unspoken conversation consisting entirely of weighted looks and body language. Four kept staring at his leg. He bent his knee just a touch, flexed his ankle. No pain, save the stiffness of a recent injury and a long sleep.
“You weren’t… in good shape,” Sky said, soft and slow, as if the words were being dragged from him.
That’s right. He was there. He’d tried to stop the Hinox, hadn’t gotten there quite fast enough. He’d probably seen it happen.
Four looked up, tried to meet Sky’s eyes, found he couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. He locked gazes with Twilight instead.
Twilight didn’t do him the disservice of platitudes. “With this? I trust Warriors’ judgment. If he was going to take it off, then it was bad.”
Sky’s arms tightened around him. Four leaned into him. He curled his toes. First together, then one at a time. They all responded. He tried to think what that would have been like. If Warriors had to go through with it. If Hyrule hadn’t had that particular trick in reserve. His mind flinched away from it. He shuddered, felt Sky’s hug tighten again.
He’s come close to such terrible, life altering injuries before. Survived a few thanks only to fairies or potions. Had to learn to put himself back together after the Four Sword tore him apart.
The memory of pain lingered, right at the surface of his mind. He was half afraid to move his leg, that it was the healing and not the injury that was the dream.
Four glued his eyes to unbroken skin and flexed his toes again.
Twilight’s hand landed on his foot. Four stiffened. Twilight met his eyes, picked his foot up and set it back down across his own leg. He started massaging it, not hard, but there.
The first careful touches sent lightning bolts all the way up Four’s leg and into his spine. “Too much,” he choked out. Twilight eased up immediately, soft brushes of thumbs and fingers over skin with no pressure behind them.
“Better?”
“Yeah.”
And it was. Harder to remember the pain, with Twilight’s touch a present reminder that he was whole.
“You would have gotten through it,” Sky said, cutting straight to the core of the matter. Four’s heart froze, then thundered in his chest, a frantic pounding that nearly drowned out Sky’s next words. “We would have helped you, but even without us you’re resourceful, and intelligent, and brave. You would have figured out a way.”
Twilight nodded agreement to Sky’s words. “Breathe,” he added, giving Four a crooked smile and a gentle tap of fingers.
Four hadn’t realized he’d stopped. He sucked in a fresh lungfull. It smelled like dinner was almost done. He wasn't sure he had enough appetite to eat it.
Hard not to think of the what-ifs, but… well. He came back from being divided into four separate bodies, four separate minds. He knows how to figure out navigating a new normal. He could have done it again.
He’s immeasurably grateful he doesn’t have to.
His eyes drifted across the fire, to where Hyrule was blinking heavily, one of the tiny little outfits that Warriors liked to sew in his spare time held in one drooping hand, Legend a sleeping lump just beyond them both.
The slightest tightening of Twilight’s hand on his ankle brought him back.
“I need to thank him.”
“Pretty sure that’ll turn him into a stammering mess.” Twilight smirked. Sky made a protesting noise, but Four could hear the relieved laughter hiding under it. “Make sure I’m there to see it, yeah?”
Four kicked him. With his other leg; the recently healed one felt a little too tender for that. Twilight caught it, chortling. Which was how Wild found them when he brought over bowls of steaming soup for dinner. Four hadn’t thought he was hungry, but he managed to eat every drop.