Road work ahead? Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does

Backstory

When he was 10, Silent and his parents were strolling through the natlanian wilderness when they stumbled upon an abyssal rift from which corrupted monsters were pouring. Silent's parents told him to run while they tried to distract the monsters, but they didn't last long. They were slain as Silent was thrown to the ground, throat lacerated by cold, sharp claws.

He was saved in extremis by another boy around his age, who killed the monsters in record time with a shimmering silver sword incrusted with rubies. The boy, noticing the state Silent was in, crouched by his side as his hands started to glow. Silent's throat was stitched back together without a scar, although he permanently lost the ability to speak. Then the mysterious boy vanished as quickly as he arrived.

Since Silent and his parents were travelers, he didn't belong to any tribe. He was found curled up on the ground, catatonic, by a man from the Masters of the Night-Wind. This man, Lueberry, a blacksmith, took him in and raised him as his son, although he really was raised by the whole tribe.

Since Silent's parents were killed, he swore to protect others from suffering the same fate and is now the most skilled swordsman of the tribe at only 16 years old.

Echo is the chief's daughter from the tribe of the Children of Echoes. Her aunt is Impa (yes, the Impas are all called Impa and they're all different people), the sister of Lueberry.

When Echo was ten, she saved a monetoo from a pack of angry saurians, aka she threw snacks at the beasts to settle them. Monetoos are like little fairies that guide you to treasure ⬇️

But this monetoo didn't guide Echo to a treasure chest after being rescued; it guided her to a hidden cave with walls covered in glowing runes. In the middle was an altar where an ancient polearm was stuck in stone (kinda like Excalibur) : the Tri Spear.

The monetoo decided to stay by Echo's side afterwards, so she named it Tri in honor of the polearm and they became inseperable.

Silent and Echo's adventure

Silent and Echo met during a fighting tournament between tribes. They were introduced to each other by Lueberry and Impa, just before they fought against each other in the tournament. Silent won, but he offered Echo to teach her swordsmanship afterwards, and in exchange, she offered to teach him how to use a polearm. They quickly became best friends and the best fighter duo in Natlan.

Since the abyss is very present in Natlan, they were no stranger to facing abyssal monsters and rifts. They took commissions all across Natlan to take care of the abyss.

One day, they took a comission issued anonymously that led them to a very remote location. On site, there were huge abyssal rifts and the place was crawling with corrupted monsters. It was a little weird since such big threats were usually handled by the pyro archon herself, but the pair was confident they could take on the monsters.

And they were right, to an extent. They were capable of handling the monsters, at least until a Ganon Shadow suddenly appeared out of a rift.

They were taken by surprise. Silent got trapped in a crystal-like abyssal net, Echo narrowly avoiding the same fate. In trying to get him out of the crystal and battling against the shadow, she noticed her spear getting hotter and hotter in her hands. It wasn't until she shot a wave of flames at the shadow that she noticed the new glowing pyro vision incrusted on her glove.

While Echo fought against the Ganon Shadow, Silent tried to free himself by hacking away at his prison with his sword and bashing it with his shield. With the wave of fire Echo unleashed on the monster, the crystal finally broke and Silent was freed...

...just in time to see a rift opening up beneath Echo's feet. He pushed her out of the way, falling into the rift in her place. The Ganon Shadow, strangely, stopped attacking Echo and jumped right after him. Echo didn't miss a beat and went after them, but Tri didn't have the time to follow her; the rift closed, and the monetoo was the only living thing left in sight.

Later, when a group of heroes stumble into Natlan, Tri will wait at the border for them and guide them to the empty plain with the traces of abyssal energy, and Tri will save its friends Echo and Silent.

But for now, the two young fighters are still unaccounted for, still lost in the abyss, where time passes strangely and no light ever reaches.

Concept art

Silent's official art ⬇️

He's so babygirl

Also yes the sword does look like the sword from Phantom Hourglass because of the colours. This was not intentional but I don't wanna change the colours now that it's done so this is what we get

Silent and Echo's designs ⬇️

Echo's hair is a mix between her bun from the Wisdomverse and her ponytail from EoW

Yes Silent has three piercings on each ear. The reason? It looks good

Since she's a chief's daughter, Echo has way more details and a way more colourful palette than Silent

They both have the traditional natlanese face and body tattoos. Silent's tattoos are concentrated on the lower half of his face and on his hands and forearms, to express his muteness and the fact that he communicates with his hands using sign language

They have shared custody of Silent's cape

Echo in battle ⬇️

With her pyro vision, she can create fiery copies of herself, animals or monsters to aid her in battle

“Hi,” the other Link breathes out. “You okay?”

He can’t really respond with words at the moment, so he just cranes his neck upwards and, after a moment of hesitation, licks the brunette’s face in acknowledgement. The boy looks at him with round shocked eyes, cheek slobbery with wolf saliva.

“Ew,” he states. “What was that for?”

The ranch-hand doesn’t respond (duh). A moment passes.

It’s at that moment that wolf-brain takes over again. He pounces, tongue lolling, and the defenseless Link screeches in disgust. Every ounce of visible skin is promptly licked. The Skyloftian tries to protect his face with his arms, but a wolf’s tongue is sneaky and merciless. No one can escape a Wolfie lick-attack.

—

Link and Wolfie return inside the Sealed Temple fifteen minutes later, one trotting proudly without a care in the world, the other drenched in wolf slobber and dirt.