Chapter Text
Legend sat on the dark grass and enjoyed the sensation of phantom rain falling on his skin. Nobody gets rain right in their dreams, and this one was no exception. There were the visuals, the soft noises of rainfall, but when it came to the actual drops hitting his skin, all he felt was pinpricks and static fuzz. Like touching his finger to Wild’s Slate when the screen was off.
And there was no wetness, no water pooling down his nose. Hell, if he was awake right now, the butt of his tunic would be uncomfortably soaked through from sitting in the grass, but instead he was perfectly dry.
The grass itself could barely be called that. Rather than the blades of plants pushing their way up through the soil, all that lay beneath him was a fuzzy green mass like a massive blanket spread across the ground.
Everything in this dream was blurry and muted. Like looking at the world through a thick fog. You might be able to make out shapes, general impressions, but it was difficult to tell what was going on. Ahead of him, a red smudge and a blue smudge were moving around a large black and red blur, but it was difficult to tell what was happening beyond that. Muffled voices could be heard, but not clearly enough to make out what they were saying. Like overhearing someone speaking from another room.
This was why Legend liked spending the night in Wild’s dreams. They tended to be based on the kid’s old memories, but he didn’t remember enough to fill out all the specific details that made it meaningful. It was just a vague, impressionist’s painting of something that may or may not have happened. Something that would already be slipping out of the kid’s mind by the time he woke up, so Legend wouldn’t have to feel like he was intruding.
And besides that, it was so peaceful and calm here. It was somewhere he could let his guard down, just stop thinking for a while, and actually get a good night’s rest for once.
Legend couldn’t sleep in his own dreams. That was a one way path to waking up gasping and clawing for breath or spending the whole day in a haze, unable to connect with reality. No, spending his nights in other peoples’ dreams was better. And Wild’s were the best.
Green-blue light danced in the corner of his eye, more clearly defined than anything else in this world. He didn’t even have to turn to know who it was.
“Mipha,” he greeted. In front of him, the red blur lunged forward in a sudden burst of speed, and the large black and red blur dissolved into nothingness.
The ghost of the princess sat down next to him, her legs tucked under herself politely. They both watched in silence as another, much smaller, blur crept forward. Red, in the exact same shade as the first one. Its larger color-pair knelt down to embrace it.
“It is nice to see you back again tonight,” the princess said, her voice ringing clear over the more muffled words sounding from the distance.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” he said truthfully, laying back on the false grass, keeping one eye on his companion and one eye on the unfolding scene below.
The blue smudge moved forward, put an ill-defined appendage on the red being’s shoulder. Next to him, the ghost of Mipha tracked them intensely with her eyes. “How has he been doing lately?”
Legend snorted. “He’s been pretty good. Today, him and Wind accidentally burned all the old man’s hair off. He tried to do his ‘disappointed face’, but it was difficult without eyebrows.”
Mipha chuckled lightly behind a hand. “That must have been amusing.”
“Yeah.” They watched the scene play out before them in silence for a few more minutes before Legend finally asked, “do you miss him?”
Mipha’s eyes were distant as she gazed at the blurs in front of them, like she was seeing far more than what was visible in their ill-defined shapes. “Every day,” she said, her voice heavy with longing.
“Yeah. Me too,” Legend responded quietly. They both knew he wasn’t talking about Wild.
Finally, the colors around them swirled and warped together, forming a twisting kaleidoscope of indiscernible shapes.
“The kid’s waking up already?” Legend groaned, “I barely got any sleep! I might need to hang out in Sky’s dumb cryptic dreams if he keeps shorting us both on rear like this!”
A transparent hand landed on his wrist, and Legend looked up to meet wide and pleading eyes.
“Promise me you’ll take care of him?” asked the Zora princess, her grip tight on Legend’s arm.
“Always,” he promised, as the world melted away around him, along with the ghost of a girl he never met.