I knew I was supposed to feel sorry for the pathetic girl mewling on the floor, but my cold stone heart really didn't crumble at her hopeless wails. Wild seemed equally as nonchalant, fiddling with his tangled bangs as she clutched at his ankles, weeping like a spoiled brat who hadn't got her way. I liked Wild, he seemed like a genuinely cool hero, unlike pretty much all of us, but this pathetic, snivelling princess made me want to scream. She reminded me of Hilda at her worst, back when she was practically an empty shell with a shock of silky purple hair and some red eyes that always glinted like she was planning a murder. I walked up to her, face carefully snarky, keeping my signature smirk plastered over my internal disgusted grimace. "Come on. It's all very tragic and your life has just fallen apart because your beloved, handsome little hero isn't attractive to you anymore but you are being a sick little rat and I think you should wake up, straighten up and GROW A BACKBONE ALREADY!" Twilight gave me an appalled look, coupled with Sky wiping away tears of laughter and Wild's shoulders shaking as he shot me an amused, approving look. Wars knelt by her and offered her his hand, which she snatched up immediately and held tightly. "Watch out, Vet!" Wind giggled as Time ruffled his hair. "You might break her!" I sniffed, trying to look like I wasn't trying not to laugh. "I think it would be a very good idea if you stopped judging purely on appearance. Am I attractive? No, not in the slightest". Hyrule gave me a strange look after that, which told me clearly that at least he didn't think I looked like a rat. "Do I have people willing to sell their souls to marry me? Yeah, I do." I gave her a withering glare, crossing my arms and leaning against the wall like I couldn't care less. "So, haul yourself up, dust yourself off and get out. Right. Now." She looked at me with wide, emerald eyes, batting her long eyelashes like that made her more convincing. "But.. But those hideous wounds were my doing! I'm such a failure of a princess!" She buried her head in her hands, almost hysterical at this point. Ugh, Hylians have such complicated emotions.

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While Zelda was hyperventilating on the floor, Wild was just stood there, standing with the group but not within touching distance of any of us. He shrugged his shoulders uncaringly, looking at the Princess with a disappointed stare. "Pathetic" He signed, turning to the door at the same moment a pretty girl pushed it open. Wild fell backwards and she fell backwards and they both ended up on the floor laughing like old friends. Warriors gave the young woman an appraising look before Zelda took his other hand as well and he directed his attention to her. I rolled my eyes, watching as Impa greeted the newcomer. "Ah, Paya. May you direct these gentlemen through the village?" Paya nodded shyly, beckoning to us to follow her. Warriors extracted himself carefully from Zelda's grip and waved goodbye to her. Wind groaned, as he wanted to explore and poke around the village. I grabbed the back of his tunic and yanked him along behind me, ignoring his wriggling and explicitly worded protests. Following Paya, we made our way out of the village and up a small hill, towards a small, glowing blue structure. Wild stomped his foot against the hard surface for attention, and only I noticed. He glared at Time's back as he thought, before I saw the spark in his eyes of an idea. Before I even know he was there, Wild was hurtling towards me, aiming to knock me over. Well, it worked. I went flying, smashing into the edge of the hill with a thump. I felt the crunch of something dislocating and I guess I must've screamed because the others looked around at us. "What the hell, Wild?" I shouted, picking myself up, eyes sparking with fury. I grabbed the front of his tunic, yanking him in front of my face. At least he had the decency to look scared. I took as deep a breath as I could, while the pain from my dislocated rib throbbed miserably in the background, before screaming things in his ears that would've made Ganon go crying for his mother. I vaguely heard Paya's little voice worrying before Warriors ran over, easing me away from the newest Link, who now looked pleased that he had everyone's attention. Wild made eye contact with Time, fingers signing fluidly to us. "I'm going to do something. Stay here. If you don't, I have full reason to kill you." And with those words, he dismissed Paya and stalked off into the woods. Paya stuttered out a goodbye, wishing us luck on our quest, and then rushed back to the village, presumably to check on the whining princess. I growled slightly, glaring at Wild's retreating form. Sky gave me a worried glance, but since Four was guiding him through sword maintenance, he didn't see me snarling at him in return. I tuned out the others' noise and focused on the peaceful sound of someone playing a reed flute in the village, a pretty rustic sound, but it reminded me of home. Wherever 'home' was without me. The quiet only lasted a few moments though as a jagged scream of pure anguish split the air like a machete. Twi's head jerked up, along with Hyrule's. "Is that Wild?" He grunted, to Four's deadpan reply of "Huh." and the Rancher stood up, powerfully marching towards the woods. "If that's Wild, I'm going to get him. That sounded worse than Legend's joints on a rainy day." Time seized the back of his collar, dragging our resident cowboy back to the group. "Oh no you don't, Twilight."

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I balled my hands into tight fists, unearthing my raw anger at the world. It was just unfair. When I first joined the group, because I kept drawing my sword and running, Time tied me to his leg with magic so I couldn't run away from them. But what really got to me was that they just met this kid, his name is literally Wild, and they trust him enough to let him go into a random forest on his own, and to scream like that. Like he was in pain. He could be getting the hell outta here, which I wouldn't mind. His scars were freaky at best, kid looked like literal tree bark. But, because I was so lost in my head, I didn't realise I had been power walking away from the group, who had settled on the platform of the structure. A powerful arm shot out from behind me and grabbed me around the waist, lifting me up like I was a child. I started struggling in their hold, before I caught a look at their face. Warriors' perfectly white smile gleamed at me, and in that moment I completely panicked. "I thought you were past your running away days, Vet! Getting a case of angry feels?" I increased my thrashing, gritting my teeth and spitting at him. "Lemme go, you... You playboy!" He pretended to be hurt, but his broad grin told me he was laughing at my predicament. I might be only a little bit taller than Wind, but I am not a child!! I twisted in his grip, and did the only thing I could with my arms pinned to my sides. I bit him. Really, really hard. Right on his undefended wrist. It sounds wrong, but the sound he made, that undignified yelp, that was satisfying. He dropped me like I was a rock, and I rolled to avoid the impact. Of course, by now the others were attempting to console him. I took my chance, dodging Twilight's attempt at grabbing me again, I activated my Pegasus Boots and sped into the trees. I heard Time's shout of "Legend! Come back here!", but I paid it no mind.

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I slowed down by running into a tree. Which, at the speed I was going, probably broke my nose but I didn't care. With blood dripping slowly down the side of my gaunt face, I had decided to run away, as this might not be my Hyrule but sooner or later a portal was gonna come and mess everything up, so I valued my precious alone time. It was so quiet here, unlike my Hyrule where the constant cries and shrieks of village children or the clatter of Soldier's armour really didn't make for very silent silence. I was alone, or so I thought. A broken, scratchy scream of pure grief made it to my pointy ears, and I jumped up to my feet, kicking the ground, tilting my head to try and catch the sound again. There was a sharp crack like a hammer hitting a spear and then nothing. I ran towards the sound, cause nobody should ever have to sound that broken. As I got closer, I noticed shards of what looked like an ornate sword blade lying among the grass, along with flecks and trails of blood, which made me think. Didn't Wild have a blade like that when he entered the forest? I kept running, coming across the biggest flower I have ever seen, and Wild standing on a petal platform at the front. A female voice flowed from the flower as an enormous, very pretty woman spiralled out of the water, casting her eyes down to Wild. "Ah, boy. You've returned. You know I cannot do anything more for you, so I'm guessing you came by for some other reason. I snuck through the undergrowth, my arthritic knees not enjoying the crouch-walking. With a few snaps of my joints, I made it to Wild, who was sobbing and screaming his heart out to the massive woman, who could've only have been a Great Fairy. His scars were covered in small slits, bleeding little trickles of blood that dripped down his cheeks along with his tears. He'd clearly been scratching at them. I stood up, slowly making my way towards Wild, who was collapsed on the pedestal, crying. The Great Fairy saw me, and gave me a little wink, before quietly sinking back into the water. "Wild?" He looked up at me, nearly jumping out of his own skin. "L-L-Lege? W-h-hat..." I sat beside him, looking him in the eyes, waiting for him to crack and spill. It didn't even take fifteen seconds for him to grab me, leap on to my lap and wail into my tunic. All the while, I was rubbing his back, running my fingers through his hair, getting all the knots out, while his sobs slowly died down enough for him to explain. "So, Zelda never liked me. Always yelled me to leave her alone, and to stop following her. But then, I saved her from a Yiga attack and she began to warm up to me. We became sort of friends. After a while though, she started doing things with me that were more on the... Romantic side. She took me into a flower field for 'research purposes' and we just so happened to find her favourite flower there. She also tried to make me eat a frog. Of course, I was silent, so I couldn't tell her I was already taken, so she kept on flirting with me." I sighed, running my fingers through my own bangs, which were beginning to turn a bit pink again. I'd need to find some way of getting rid of everyone else so I could redye it. "And so, after the Great Calamity, she sealed Ganon with her powers and waited for me to come. By that time, all the Champions, including my fiancé, were dead. I was colder than ever, and above all, my heart was shattered. Everyone I loved was dead, powerful, motherly Urbosa, mighty, hearty Daruk, that arrogant talking Cucco Revali, and... And gentle, loving Mipha... I just found myself slowly beginning to resent her. I went back to sign language after a year of being me again. When it came time at last to best Ganon, I had nothing to say to her. I only did it for them so their deaths weren't in vain. Urbosa told me... Told me... To take care of her. And I failed. I-" I stroked his now silky hair, untying it from its badly-done ponytail. "Well, she was being a little judgemental, wasn't she?" I said, unknowingly using my regular voice instead of the gravelly one I use with the others. Wild snuggled into my chest, and even through my thick tunic I could feel his ribs. This kid was starved, and was even smaller than me. Around Wind's height and even more underfed than 'Roolie when we first recruited him. Wild was... Really not good at taking care of himself. It really made me wonder how the others hadn't noticed. I silently made a pact to myself that I'd look after this kid even if it was the death of me.

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After his massive breakdown, Wild made me swear by the Goddess Hylia that I wouldn't tell anyone about what he'd told me, and I did, as I respected private thoughts. He took me hand, much to my dismay, and led me out of the forest. As we jogged together, he let go of my wrist, which was nice as his grip had cut off my blood supply and my right hand had gone completely numb. That wouldn't have usually been a problem as I'm left-handed but with all the Black-Bloods roaming around, I needed my shield on me at all times. And because he'd practically rendered my hand useless, I thought I would be killed in my sleep. And of course, I was probably right. But, I wanted to get back to our makeshift camp alive, so I grabbed Wild's hand again and pulled him along, with him occasionally chipping in with directions out. I pulled at his arm, and he stumbled in my footsteps. We'd probably get back okay. Maybe. Though with Wild you can never be sure.

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I'M SO SORRY I'VE BEEN INACTIVE!! I just had other things on my mind, like people being rude to me on here, coupled with theories and TotK excitement! Just a quick not for the future of this fanfic. I'm ignoring TotK until this one's finished and I'm taking Wild out of most of Memories of a Shattered Face. Sound good? I thought so! And you can actually find the spot where this scene takes place in game! Just fast-travel to the Ta'loh Naeg shrine and head to Cotera's fountain! Have a good day my people, and remember to take care of yourself! We're so nearly at the end! Or at least- we WOULD be if I didn't keep adding more to the paper version! It now numbers at a whopping 159 pages!

~G0ddessSw0rdF1