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undertheopensky · 7 months

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Feather Dreams

Whumptober Day 2: Delirium

Characters: Wind, Sky, Warriors

Read on Ao3!

Wars insists he doesn’t snore. Wind knows better. He’s worse than the old man, and Time once snort-snored so loudly it scared a small flock of birds out of a nearby tree. Time, of course, slept right through it, and so did Warriors, because he’s not as light a sleeper as he thinks he is for anything short of metal-on-metal chiming.

Point is, if there are any monsters around, they’re not going to go undetected, but Wind’s not too concerned about that. Anything that hears Wars snoring is going to assume it’s a hinox and steer clear. Wind being on watch is more to make sure the fire doesn’t go out. It’s cold up here.

Time doesn’t like having the younger members of the team on watch, but they’re low on options. Hyrule had to use way too much magic helping Legend take down that lynel, and everyone is exhausted after days of marching through a snowy wasteland. It’s not even fun snow, as Wind discovered when trying to make snowballs. They need as many functional people as possible, and sometimes that means Wind takes a watch shift, much to his delight.

There’s just something exciting about being up so late, when all the adults try their damndest to keep him going to bed on time. He’s a pirate. He spent weeks alone on a one-man sailboat, and sometimes that meant staying up all night using the stars to navigate or fighting a storm. Like, he gets it. He’s small and cute and sets off big brother instincts. He is a big brother, he gets where they’re coming from. But when trying to protect him means they’re hurting themselves, well, then Wind has Opinions about it.

Aside from Certain Snoring Persons, tonight’s been quiet. There’s no insects here; too cold, Wild said. The crackling fire is the loudest noise, underlaid by the soft sounds of sleeping people. Steady breathing, when it’s not drowning out by the snores. Cloth rustling as someone rolls over. A faint whistle that might have been Legend and might have been a nearby owl.

Wind frowns. And a soft, steady whine, like someone close by is in pain.

Quietly, Wind picks his way around the campsite, tracking the whine back to its source, and finds Sky with his face tight in hurt or fear.

He kneels by Sky’s shoulder. Don’t want to get smacked in the face, so no leaning over; just a light shake should do it. “Sky. Wake up, Sky.”

Sky doesn’t stir. And sure, they like to tease him about how he can fall asleep anytime, anywhere, but he’s not — he doesn’t sleep deep, not like Wars does. He should have jolted awake as soon as Wind touched him.

He shakes harder. “Sky, c’mon. It’s just a nightmare.”

The whine cuts off and for a second Wind thinks he’s awake, but Sky just — makes a gulping sound, an odd stutter-step in his breathing, and then just stops.

Ten seconds. Twenty.

Wind starts shaking him again. “C’mon Sky don’t do this to me —”

Sky sucks in air, strained and rattling, and whines again.

He’s — he’s not awake. His eyes aren’t open, and are half-rolled back when Wind checks. Every now and then he whimpers on an exhale, like it hurts. He also won’t wake up no matter what Wind tries.

Sky’s breathing hitches again.

“No no no don’t do that again — Sky please you’re scaring me —”

“Kill them, bring them back,” Sky says, strangely clear, “Blind them, maybe.”

Wind freezes.

Sky’s breathing goes back to being short and shallow, almost panting. He’s shaking, Wind realises distantly, little bursts of full-body trembling. He’s clearly — asleep, or unconscious, or sick, but he’d spoken so clearly —

This was officially beyond Wind’s ability to deal. He needed an adult.

Okay, something going wrong on watch. It wasn’t monsters, so he didn’t need to wake the whole camp. It wasn’t rain, so he didn’t need to wake the whole camp. It wasn’t fire, so he didn’t need to wake Time to put it out.

Okay, focus.

Problem: can’t wake Sky.

Does Sky need to be woken?

Sky whines again, wispy and cracking like he’s in terrible pain.

Spooked, Wind’s shoulders inch towards his ears. That was an unequivocal yes.

Someone not waking up… was a medical problem, right? That was why they kept waking people when they had concussions, to make sure they could wake up.

Warriors it was!

Wars is, as always, a nightmare to wake up. Wind doesn’t actually want to wake the whole camp, so he’s restricted from anything that involves shouting (either him or Wars), which pretty much only leaves shaking him as hard as he can.

“Wars wars wars wars wars wars wars —” he chants, quietly, trying to listen to make sure Sky is still breathing behind him.

“Mgh. You fucking gremlin.” Wars doesn’t even have his eyes open but Wind is still relieved beyond bearing at his voice. “Whadyou want?”

“It’s Sky,” Wind hisses, “I can’t wake him and he’s breathing funny and he keeps saying stuff!”

Wars cracks one eye to glare at him. “Mrrrgh. You woke me up because Sky talks in his sleep?”

“Wars I’m serious —”

“Pour me into a dead sheep and toss me to the moors,” says Sky, still in that eerie, too-clear voice.

They trade horrified looks and scurry over.

Wars immediately sets about looking Sky over. “No fever,” he mutters, “increased heart rate, increased breathing —”

Right on cue, Sky stops breathing.

Wars makes a strangled noise of horror and dives for Sky’s pulse. Wind starts roughly shaking his shoulder. It had worked last time, right? “Sky, wake up, please!” Sky’s head lolls back and forth with the force of it, limp and unresponsive, until finally —

Sky gasps.

Wind slumps back in relief.

“That is not normal.” Wars checks Sky’s temperature again. His frown deepens. “How long would you say this has been happening?”

“About, uh —” Wind cringes as Sky starts to make that horrible pained noise again, then tries to remember the question. “Maybe, um, ten minutes total? I tried to, to wake him before I tried to wake you, and — and I would’ve noticed him doing the gasping thing or talking before that.”

“Okay, good.” Wind bites his lip. Wars’ expression is too grim for ‘good’.

Wind watches him pick up Sky’s hand, and dig a nail into the space between thumb and forefinger. Then, when that doesn’t get a response, he pulls back the bedroll so he can scrub the hard side of his knuckles up and down Sky’s sternum through his sleep shirt.

Sky’s eyelids flutter. But he doesn’t stir, and he doesn’t wake.

“Whisper, whisper,” he murmurs. “Whisper soft or the mermaids will hear.”

Warriors swears quietly and covers him back up.

“Wars? What’s wrong with him? He’ll be okay, right?”

Wars’ face goes tight in the way that means he’s trying not to have an expression. “The delirium without fever, the lack of response — those aren’t good signs. If we’re lucky, he’s been poisoned.”

“But… what do we do for poison?” Wind’s experience boils down to ‘don’t eat things you don’t recognise’ and ‘if you get acid on your skin wash it off immediately’.

Wars stands to get something from his pack, and Wind notices for the first time that he’s in socked feet. He hadn’t so much as paused to grab his boots.

Somehow, that’s when it hits him just how serious this is. Sky could die.

“Wars?” he says in a small voice as he comes back holding a bottle of potion and the Chain’s last fairy, “he is going to be okay, right?”

“We’re not losing Sky to this, sailor,” Wars swears. “Not if I can help it. Now, help me hold him.” Wars hauls Sky into a sit and unstoppers the potion bottle.

Wind reaches to steady him. “But potions can’t fix poison.”

“No, they can’t cure poison, but they can fix the damage poison causes. Sky’s lasted this long. If we can keep him alive long enough for his body to clear it out, we’re in with a chance.”

But whenever he’s not muttering strings of dark nonsense Sky’s jaw is clenched tight. He mumbles something about blood and locks up again before Wars can get more than a few drops onto his tongue. And getting him to swallow is an exercise in frustration. “Sky, work with me here,” Wars pleads.

Sky hums and rolls his head into Wars’ shoulder. “If you’re going to run, you better do it fast.”

“Why? What are we running from, Sky,” Wars tries to prompt.

“Death walks in his wake,” Sky says, and there’s an odd, lilting sigh in his voice that makes Wind sit up anxiously.

This time when Sky gasps, he chokes on it. His whole chest heaves and his hands scrabble in his blankets, and Wind stifles a terrified sob.

“Hhnngwars? Wind? Wassgoinon?”

That’s — that’s not at all the clear voice he was using before. He’s breathing, breathing properly now, deep and hard like he’s been running, and blinking bleary eyes at the two people crowding his bedroll. Wars’ face brightens with hope. “Sky, drink this.”

Dazed, Sky takes a sip, only to splutter and shove the bottle away from his face. “Wha — Wars! Why’re you — we’re low on, we don’t have, why are you giving me this?”

“Just drink the potion Sky. We don’t know when you were poisoned so I’m not taking chances — do you know when you were exposed, did you get an injury fighting that lynel you didn’t tell us about?”

“Can I have more than like five seconds to wake up before you start peppering me with questions?” Sky begs, head in hands. “Please?”

Wind bursts into tears and flings himself at Sky.

“I was so scared!” he wails. “You wouldn’t wake up and you stopped breathing and you kept saying scary stuff!”

Sky pats his head clumsily. “Sorry, Wind. I promise I’m okay. Wars — Wars put that away, I know what it was. I’m not poisoned.”

“Poisoned? Who’s poisoned?” asks Wild. The commotion has finally dragged him to groggy wakefulness, and he’s not the only one stirring at Wind’s hysterical sobs.

“No one’s poisoned. C’mon, Wind, calm down for me.” Sky wraps a clumsy arm around him so he can rock him a bit. “Deep breaths. You’re gonna scare the shit out of everyone.”

“You scared the shit out of me!”

Legend jerks upright with a snort. “Wha? Why’s Wind cryin’?”

“Golden Goddesses,” Sky mutters.

Wild squints across the stirring campsite. Notes the unused healing items, Wind sobbing on a bleary-eyed Sky, and visibly decides not to panic. “Y’know what, I’m gonna make some tea.”

Some minutes later, the whole camp is awake under the stars, mugs of tea in hand and sporting various expressions of confusion.

“Why am I awake?” says Twilight.

“We had a medical emergency,” says Wars. He still hasn’t put his boots on. “Hoping Sky can shed some light on it, because that was damn scary. Sky?”

“In my defense,” Sky says into his hands, I’ve slept in dormitories more than half my life and never had a complaint, so. I didn’t think to warn you.”

“Warn us about what?” Time says.

“It’s, um.” Sky scratches an itch at his collar. “So. Bear with me. I was dreaming. We were walking along a long, long bridge, very tall, made of grey stone, over deep water that was a long way down. In front of us there was an old fountain, covered in moss and lichen, and when we got close, a pair of lizalfos jumped out. Wild was expecting them and took them both out with arrows.” He pauses, briefly, eyes flitting to check their reactions. No one interrupts. “Then… there was a roaring sound, and the air got really hot. And then this — it was so big it broke the fountain when it landed, this massive black dragon landed in front of us. But the proportions were wrong. It had a huge, heavy body with a long thin tail, and three heads crowned with fire each on a long neck —”

“Gleeok,” Hyrule and Legend both say at once. Hyrule waves Legend to continue. “Giant dragon with multiple heads that spits fire,” the veteran says. “Not common.”

“Well it was definitely huge. All it had to do was spin around once and I think everyone was thrown from the bridge by its tail. But it was so hot that hitting the water was almost a relief, except… we weren’t safe there either. There was something in the water with us, and we had to swim quietly, but we had to get out as fast as we could. So we made it to an island in the middle of the lake, and we were safe from the lake, but there was still something — wrong. Something hunting us.”

“Did the gleeok come down after us?” asks Wind from where he’s still curled into Sky’s side.

“No, the dragon didn’t follow us. It was just this little island of sand and rock, and… there was something bad there. Something empty.”

“What happened then?” Time prompts.

Sky shakes his head and looks up from the fire. “I don’t know. It ended there.”

Wild is frowning, more curious than anything. “That’s a near-perfect description of my Lake Hylia, bridge and fountain and island and all. But — we haven’t been there yet. Have we?”

Sky shakes his head. “No.”

“Then, how did you…?”

Wrapping the edges of his sailcloth a little more firmly around his shoulders, Sky tries for a smile. “Um. Sometimes… when I dream… I see things that haven’t happened yet. And they do happen. I dreamed it before the portals started, and when Zelda — my Zelda — right before my adventure I dreamed of the storm that made her vanish.”

“Hm,” says Time, with an air of dawning comprehension. “Prophetic dreams.”

“Yeah.”

“So why did Wind and Wars freak out about it?” asks Twilight, still grumpy.

“Well, when I’m having one of those dreams, I can’t be woken, not until it’s over. And, um. I swear I didn’t know about the rest, Pipit’s never said anything —”

“He stopped breathing a few times,” says Wars. “And said some pretty dark stuff. At one point it was ‘pour me into a dead sheep’ or something. I was convinced you were delirious.”

Sky gets a peculiar look on his face. “What’s a sheep?”

“Ooh I know this one,” says Wild, digging for his slate. “I have a photo, hang on — it’s these things.”

“Hm,” says Sky, looking at the fluffy cloud with horns and a face. “I definitely saw those in a dream once, but had no idea what they were.”

“You didn’t know what the gleeok was either,” says Legend. “So it’s all just… contextless?”

“Yeah.”

“That doesn’t seem very useful.”

Sky laughs, and relaxes for the first time since waking up to terrified faces and the bitter taste of red potion. “It’s really not.”

“Yeah, what was that about poison before?” Wild asks.

“There’s not a lot of things that will make someone drop into a sleep they can’t be roused from, combined with — delirium, with a fever,” Wars explains. “Poison was the most likely, considering we’re constantly coming across new and terrifying monster variants.”

“Well.” Legend throws back the last of his tea like a shot. “Sky’s fine, and I’m tired. Unless there’s something else, I’m going the fuck back to bed. Everything else can wait til morning.”

“He’s got a point,” says Wild. “We still have a long way to go to Snowfield Stable tomorrow. Wind, you should go to bed too — it’s nearly time for my watch anyway.”

Wind opens his mouth to complain — he can take the full watch, for Din’s sake! — before glancing at the moon. It really is close, and honestly, as the last of the adrenaline fades and Wild’s sleepy-tea kicks in, he wants nothing more than his blankets. Except, that would require getting up, and Sky is warm, and —

He squeaks indignantly as Sky flops down and deliberately drags Wind with him. “Sky! Lemme go!”

“Nope. You woke me up. Mine now.”

Sky snuggles into his hair and flips up the edges of the bedroll to block out the chill. And Wind wants to complain, he’s not a little kid, he can sleep in his own damn bed —

Sky is warm, and solid, and breathing. He’s okay. He’s safe.

Wind deliberately ignores the loose grip that he could escape from if he really tried, and closes his eyes to the sound of Wild humming.

#linked universe #lu wind #lu sky #lu warriors #lu fic #whumptober 2023 #this was NOT supposed to get so long #thanks sky #skies writes #WAIT FUCK #I FORGOT TO TAG #totk spoilers #tears of the kingdom spoilers

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