Archive of Our Own ^beta

      “What, something on my face?” Four could feel the eyes on him even without looking up from his passage.

      They’d just barely escaped a lightning storm in Wild’s Hyrule and were bunkered in the depths of a cave - Wild making food with a brief warning of the possibility of the Blood Moon; embers of malice swirled through the air but it was hard to tell if it was because of the Moon or if it was just because.

      Four had quickly picked a seat at the far wall, the fire set up in the middle to keep the group warm and stave off what little water managed to hit them was enough light for Four to read without straining his eyes.

      “It’s your shadow! It’s got fangs-”

      “-And claws-”

      “-And piercing red eyes!”

      One by one Warriors, Wind, and Hyrule called out about an absurd oddity hanging around Four. The smithy was unperturbed, hardly bothered to look up from his page, rolling his eyes at the mere thought of their claims.

      In reality, Four simply took his time judging his peers to get a feeling for the world around him, to ‘see’ what they were seeing, and to know how he could help.

      He saw his shadow.

      His Shadow.

      He must’ve woken up.

      The chain had just returned from Four’s world, and them from their ritual - determined to bring Shadow back in some form, some corporeal shadowy form. Shadow’s magic must’ve finally settled and attached to the new tether - a makeshift bookmark Vio had given him just before... Shadow never let go of it until he was dust in the wind.

      Four briefly wondered if the dark malice swirling around permanently in Wild’s time sped up the process.

      “It must be from the moon’s reflection.” Four egged them on, while applying sound reasoning to settle them, “The deep red of the Blood Moon is being bounced around the cave walls.” The slowly rising moon was swallowing them in a red hue, and many of their objects were glowing that same piercing red. No one's shadow however. But Four continued nonetheless, “As it appears, the cave can be blamed for everything; the jagged structure is warping my shadow so it presents as if having a more supernatural appearance.”

      Warriors shook his head, not convinced that a bit of light could create the silhouette of a hylian with red eyes. Not convinced, because real shadows didn’t work like that and he had eight examples well within his reach to prove that! “I don’t know. I swear I saw it touch your shoulder.” T’was true, the claws stretched over the green square of the smiths tunic, just resting, but clearly crossing the boundary between light and dark in a way thought impossible.

      “Not probable. Shadows don’t move on their own.”

-

      Wild called for supper not too long after.

      The battle between fact and instinct came to a halt with no other bizarre events to spark discourse.

      It didn’t help that the majority weren’t nearby, and did not notice anything strange.

      Well, until…

      “It just smiled!” Warriors stuck an accusatory finger at the space behind Four, who was no longer sitting against the wall, the chain all gathered around Wild and their cooking pot.

      “Smile?” Wind huffed as he set his empty dish down and crossed his arms, “That’s a grin if ever I’ve seen one.” 

      “What difference does that make?” Hyrule called, a pull of dark magic making him sneeze three times in quick succession - it never did him any good to mix different types of magic.

      “A smile is wider, and higher,” Wind claimed, sitting straight up as a new plate of food was passed his way, “A grin is a slight pull, especially to one side - and is usually done by cheeky bastards.” He stuck his fork out at Four’s spot, “That is a grin!” He finished with a plate of Prime Poultry Pilaf shoved down his throat.

      “Wind. There was nothing there,” Time said, “I think it’s time you got some rest.”

      Four had to keep his smirk hidden deep inside, as Wind fought back on his claim - and the fact that he wasn’t tired.

      Wind had no idea how correct he was, but Four wasn’t going to let him or the others know. This was the first time Shadow had been free in forever, and Four didn’t want to make his companion retreat for any reason.

      Nor did he want this charade to end.

-

      No conclusion came to the nature of the expression. Warriors once again denying the stance that this was your average hylian shadow. And Wind pulling Hyrule away to teach him the intricate differences between a smile, a grin, and a smirk - all of which looked completely the same on the sailor.

      The moon was well past its peak, the Blood Moon’s ritual having come and gone with little but a few keeses and chu’s trying to reclaim the cave, but the heroes had no problem clearing them out; finders keepers, and all that.

      Time called for watch volunteer’s which came in the form of an indifferent Twilight, a bored Legend, and a paranoid Warriors who was quick to volunteer.

      The rest were free to set out their bedding and get some shuteye.

-

      Wolfie was quick to take over Twilight’s watch, easier to spot danger when you can actually see it coming. He kept his senses sharp, his ear swiveling between the snores of the cave, and the roar of outside, but still nothing approached.

      Wolfie sat stock still in the entrance,  ever-watching, ever-noticing, ever-ready. But nothing came.

      Fighting off a yawn Twilight switched forms, pulling out a torch and some fruit Wild had an abundance of. Late night snack in hand, he returned full force to his watch.

      Huh!

      What was that? Twilight could’ve sworn he heard something. 

      …

      There it was again!

      From behind, in the cave. Did something sneak in during the few seconds he was away from his post?

      No. Nothing would’ve gotten past him, all his stuff was right near the entrance - he’d bump into anything coming in or out.

      So where, who?

      Taking a look outside, he found no immediate tells of monsters nearby, and felt it safe enough to abandon his post for the sake of figuring out what was in the cave with them.

      But, to be safe and sure, “Legend.” Twilight began waking the veteran to prep him for his watch. “Legend, my shift’s almost over.”

      Legend gave a groan in return, slapping his arm over his face, “I’m up, I’m up!” He claimed, still laying down.

      Twilight stood by, scanning the cave for anything that seemed off. It was near pitch black, and the torch in hand only lit up about a foot in front of him, but he swears he saw the pitch black swirl on the wall near Four. However, when Twilight rubbed his eyes there was nothing strange there.

      “Alright. What’s the sitch? Anyone try to kill us yet?” Legend ribbed, knowing it would’ve been unusual for any of them to still be asleep had something attacked.

      Legend expected more of a response from Twi, but instead he was met with a finger to his mouth and told to shut up.

      Twilight’s ears twitched, spinning towards new sounds, but Legend couldn’t hear anything ‘sides Wind’s snoring, and Sky’s sleep-muttering.

      “There’s something in here with us.” The rancher whispered, pointing a shaking finger to the far side of the cave where Four, Sky, and Hyrule had laid down.

      Nothing looked wrong with them, all perfectly asleep, no lines or wrinkles on their peaceful faces. Hyrule sneezed again, still three times in a row.

      Shifting back into Wolfie, he trod closer to the trio, he could sense a puddle of dark magic nearby, but that was it, he didn’t see nor hear anything.

      Legend came behind, holding a purple magnifying glass. Wolfie gruffed in confusion, “It’s the Old Man’s, he won’t mind.” Was all he said before holding it up to his eye and scanning. He suddenly took it down, blinked, then brought it back up, focused solely on Four. “Uhh, rancher, come tell me I’m not crazy!”

      Twilight held his hand out forcefully, taking no longer to notice what Legend was talking about. He did the same, lowering, blinking, rising, repeat.

      “I think I may be crazy too.” Twilight gaped, watching as the space near Four’s head held a dark copy of their smith. Sitting, smiling, reading.

      They retreated back to the watch post, facing Four or more accurately, Four’s copy.

      It didn’t have any depth to it, they noticed as they took turns watching through Time’s item. It was a solid color -  same as the darkness - save for its piercing red eyes which were not as soft as Four’s sometimes appeared, but not as frightening as the ones The Shadow bore through them during the thrall of battle. It didn’t look too different from any other light-casted shadow (well except for those eyes), but it was rather uncanny how much it acted like Four.

      Twilight and Legend kept blank stares as whatever the hell they were watching did absolutely nothing, it didn’t even seem to notice they were watching it, nose in a book, only bothered to thumb a small rectangular scrap of paper left resting on its leg.

-

      They kept it up for hours, long enough for the book to be swapped out, the creature digging another out of Four’s bag like it was no big deal. They lost sense of time and their surroundings, jumping as a sudden voice spoke behind them, “Anything to report?” 

      A yelp shot out of the vet as he turned around quickly, shushing Warriors as fast as possible. “Abpt- Shh! Get down!”

      Warriors, confused but smart, took a seat next to Twilight who shoved a weird purple item into his hands, no instructions given.

      Warriors shrugged and held it up to his eye. “What am I supposed to be looking at?” He whispered, too much to see, and nothing standing out.

      Legend returned, twisting one of his many magic rings, “On the ground. Near Four.”

      And Warriors saw it. He stared into the dark as a Four he hadn’t been able to see with his eyes just sat in the dark, holding a book. It didn’t seem to look up, it didn’t even seem to breathe. “That’s the thing we saw at dinner!” He exclaimed, tossing the item back into Twilight's fumbling hands. 

      “I thought Wind was just pranking us again.” Twilight said, trying not to let this Four take all his attention.

      “I pointed him -it -whatever out first!” Warriors shot back, “but Four-” He paused, face churning, brow furrowed in thought. “Four. Four kept saying all this smart sciencey crap, more or less telling me that it was in my imagination. That little punk knew about this!”

      “We don’t know that for sure.” Twilight reasoned, “we still haven’t ruled out a prank.”

      All went quiet, nothing more than the sounds of the land waking up at first dawn, and the final trio of sneezes from Hyrule to drown out their thoughts.

      The oranges of the early morning sky were beginning to peer through the trees and valleys, not yet reaching their cave floor.

      Silence was broken as Legend huffed, back leaned against the wall, as he looked over to their smith, “It’s not something Four would typically do, a prank I mean. But, his personality, the way he speaks too, seems to change with no warning.” He stared at Warriors and Twilight, tired, worried,  “There’s a chance he at least knows or knew of this thing, and doesn’t care to share that with us.” Legend trailed off, watching the rising sun, bothered by the still-dark cave.

      “Of course he knows! He’s the one that brought me back.”