#tc shields

one of the sudden arrivals runs off after the horse, three are panicking, one's in a hood and not saying much, and--

oh. oh no. someone's bleeding. apparently they don't have any healing. one of the newcomers looks like a monster, though.

wild doesn't have a sword at the moment but he does have a stick. the moment he tries to strike, the injured one blocks the way.

it's hard to tell how much is blood.

"if you wanna hurt them..." the guy says, through pained breaths, barely supported by a spear. "you'll have to get through me."

it's at this point the injured guy collapses. more panic. the horse and the one who went after it come back and something bolts from the bag into the forest.

the one in the hood perks up but says nothing. then their head whips around and he sees red in their eyes.

"oh no" is all the stranger says. "the others are here."

the one who ran after the horse looks more annoyed. "please tell me you're joking."

"who are the others?" wild finally says something to them. "and who're you all, for that matter, and how did you teleport on top of me?"

"the others are shadows and we're heroes and we teleported with this!" one of the other creatures - a skull kid, if he remembers right - holds out a lute. "we were in a fight and one of them got a strong hit on link and--"

wild is already not having a great day and this really isn't helping, but he's not about to let someone down again. "we're not far to a town. there's people who can help there."

"really?"

he nods, not telling them he doesn't know for sure if they can help. if it's another case like twilight's... wild brushes off the thought and picks up this other link as best he can. "where're the shadows?"

the hooded one points towards where wild left the rest of his brothers.

they split off when they reach town. wild, other link, blue-hair, the fairy who was not a healer, and the small plant head into town, leaving red-hair, green-hair, hood, and the skull kid take the horse to meet up with wild's brothers and help deal with "the others".

the town group runs into the smith - his nickname of "four" makes a lot more sense now - who doesn't comment on the injured hylian or the broken sword wild tossed down before he ran off. no, his(their?) eyes are trained on hood, who isn't on the horse despite additional space. green hair looks back at the town group before snapping the reigns and they bolt off.

hood vanishes into the horse's shadow and four's eyes go wide. wider than wild felt his own going at seeing the same thing.

"are you sure there's space for him here?" blue hair asks, pulling wild's attention.

"positive," four murmurs, eyes fixed on the rapidly-disappearing horse.

"mhm."

"they why're we just standing around here?" the fairy gripes. "the sooner link gets help, the better."

the horse vanishes over the horizon and four finally gives the group full attention. "link?"

"that's his name, yes." the plant answers.

four's shoulders rise a little, but whatever he was going to say is dispelled with a twitch of the head. "are you... familiar with the shadow?"

"he's our friend," blue-hair says. "if it wasn't for him warning us, link would be dead right now."

the words sting in wild's ears.

"link isn't going to die."

four's words are as much reassurance for the strangers as they are for wild. even if he knows four is just as scared if the red one was anything to go by.

wild isn't going to let anyone die this time. not twilight, not any of his brothers, not this stranger.