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Sky is used to odd dreams. He’s had to be - his prophetic dreams are rare, but they do happen, and most of his “regular” dreams are still vivid and weird.
He knows most of the others also struggle with odd dreams, frequent nightmares, sleep paralysis, and the like. None of them talk about it, not really, but there’s a silent camaraderie that comes with sitting together after a nightmare, or seeing someone wake up with a look on their face like they’re questioning how sane they are. Some of those dreams get shared, most don’t.
And then there’s Legend.
Sure, he gets nightmares, and sure, when the others are in a sharing mood, sometimes he’ll chime in with an odd dream he’s had. But every once in a while, he’ll have a different kind of dream.
A magnetic kind of dream.
Sky can’t explain it. Not really. It has the fingerprints of something old and powerful, but so do Sky’s dreams, so he can’t judge Legend for that. All he knows is that sometimes, when he falls asleep in camp, he’ll wake up in a dream that isn’t his.
Like tonight, for example.
Sky opens his eyes to warm sunlight and grass underneath him. That’s nice - sometimes it’s sand, and dream sand has no right to cling to his clothes and his skin the same way real sand does.
He’d been expecting a magnetic dream, quite honestly. There’s a bit of a pattern to them. They never happen when Legend is too tense, or when he’s injured, so Sky can usually assume he’ll stay in his own head when someone is hurt or when they’ve been so busy walking and fighting that they barely have the energy to set up camp. They’ve had a peaceful stretch, though, and today has been leisurely enough that Sky isn’t at all surprised Legend is somewhat relaxed.
He sits up, brushing a stray blade of grass from his cheek, and looks around.
He’s in a little village. There are small houses with colorful roofs, everything is pleasantly, vibrantly green, and there are a few people wandering around. They wave happily to him.
Sky waves back. He can’t usually keep many details from these dreams, but he thinks he’s been here before. Still, this looks like dream familiarity rather than actual familiarity.
There are two people sitting nearby, next to a simple wooden fence. A girl with bright red hair and a blue dress, a hibiscus flower tucked behind her ear, is wrapping bandages around the arm of a boy in a green tunic and cap.
Sky knows the boy very well. There are fewer cares in Legend’s eyes during these dreams.
He stands and wanders over toward them, for lack of anything better to do. The world won’t bend at his attention the way it does for Legend. It isn’t Sky’s dream, after all.
“Honestly, Link,” the girl is saying, carefully tying off the bandage. “I worry about you, running around with all those monsters roaming the island. You should be more careful.”
“I’m plenty careful,” Legend huffs, light and playful in a way he has only recently started to be with the Chain.
The girl gives him a look. Legend gives her a look right back.
The stalemate lasts for a few seconds before their stern facades crack, and they both break into fits of laughter. Legend leans against the fence, his head tipped back as he laughs, uncaring, at ease.
It takes her a moment, but eventually the girl manages to collect herself. She stifles the aftershocks of giggles as she says “I’m serious, Link. I just… I don’t like seeing you hurt.”
Legend takes her hand, lacing their fingers together easily as anything. “I know. I am careful, that moblin just got in a lucky shot.”
“You have a shield, you know,” she chides teasingly. “I’ve seen you use it often enough.”
“Just because I have one doesn’t mean a monster can’t get lucky sometimes -”
Sky wanders off again, not wanting to interrupt them. He also doesn’t want to hear too much - Legend has such a casual, comfortable familiarity with this girl, and he deserves his privacy.
The magnetism is strong tonight. As he wanders, Sky sees Wind running around with a group of children and throwing a ball, and he catches a glimpse of Four ducking into a building marked “Library.” When he finds a pond up to the north, he sees Time and Twilight sitting with a fisherman, fishing poles in hand. They’re talking quietly together, and they wave when they see Sky. Warriors is lying in a sunny patch of grass just outside the village, eyes closed, though Sky doubts he’s actually able to nap here. Wild and Hyrule are nowhere to be seen, but Sky glances at the forest next to the village and knows they’ve gone exploring in there.
It’s a peaceful village. A peaceful dream, despite Legend’s injury and the talk of monsters.
Sky wonders why he dreams of it so often.
He sits down next to Wars, looking out over the meadow and beach to the vast expanse of blue beyond it, and starts running an absent hand through his brother’s hair.
“Mm, hey,” Wars mumbles without opening his eyes.
“Hey,” Sky replies with a glance over and a fond little smile. “Resting well?”
“Resting fantastic,” Wars tells him in the sleepy way of someone trying to nap in a dream. “Goddesses, it’s so nice here.”
Sky hums in quiet agreement, scratching gentle circles into Wars’ scalp just to hear the happy little sound it earns him.
Below them, Legend and the girl are walking toward the beach, hand in hand. She’s tugging him along, just a bit, and Sky can catch the faintest hint of a laugh on the breeze as Legend hurries to catch up.
“They’re sweet together,” Sky muses.
“Who?” Wars asks, cracking an eye open.
“Legend and that girl.”
Below, the girl pauses. Despite the distance, despite the way it doesn’t make sense, she looks up and makes direct eye contact with Sky. For a moment, she looks very, very sad. Then he blinks, and she’s laughing with Legend again, running off toward the distant surf.
“Mm, yeah, they are,” Wars agrees, his eyes already closed again.
“I wonder how he knows her,” Sky says thoughtfully, still running a hand through Wars’ hair. “He has to, for her to be here so often.”
Wars frowns just a bit. “What do you mean?”
Sky shakes his head. “Don’t worry about it, I’m just thinking out loud.”
“If you’re sure,” Wars hums, letting the point go in a way he never would when they were awake. “Think as much as you want.”
“They probably met on one of his adventures,” Sky muses. This place must be from an adventure, too - a place Legend enjoyed being, most likely. The girl’s hometown? She certainly seems comfortable here. “I wonder which one.”
He’ll likely never get an answer. He doesn’t intend to pry, he never does, and the others never seem to hang onto enough detail to ask. Sky isn’t worried about it, though. He can wonder, and theorize, and then wake up again and let it be. That’s plenty for him.
Still. A hazy hour or so later, when the dream fades and Sky blinks awake back in their campsite, he looks over at Legend and wonders how much of his own dreams he remembers.
For Legend’s sake, Sky hopes it’s most of it. His brother deserves that much, after everything he’s been through.