Alright, everyone who wanted a continuation for the three sentence fics for pinned and searching, here you go! I made this longer then it needed to be but that’s ok it was fun *looks guiltily at other things I’m supposed to be writing* ...heh.
Warning for some blood, injury, and uhhh being stuck under a collapsed cave.
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Warriors shut his eyes a moment, trying to focus despite the pain in his middle and the small space he was trapped in that felt like it was closing in around him. He needed to get himself and Wild out of here in one piece, but he had no clue how on earth he was going to do that.
Warriors breathed out, and felt around the hand he’d found, trying to brush the debris off of it. He couldn’t reach any further then a little past the wrist though, and he couldn’t tell how buried Wild was.
He needed to get himself out first, it seemed.
Warriors swallowed and momentarily let go of Wild’s hand, feeling around the large thing he himself was trapped under. It felt heavy, but Warriors tried to shift it anyway, gasping as pure agony burned up his side at the movement.
He fell still again and panted as he waited for the pain to go down, coughing out some of the dust coating his lungs. Even once the worst of it faded, there was still a sharp pulse of pain that remained in his middle, somewhere near his ribs or lungs. Warriors didn’t know for sure, but either way it hurt, and that along with the fact that he was half buried, he knew he wouldn’t be able to free himself or Wild.
It looked like they’d just have to wait for rescue.
Warriors felt out Wild’s hand again, wishing he could move the fabric away from his wrist and check his pulse. It was too thick for him to feel anything, but the angle was wrong for him to pull it off. All he could do was hope Wild was still breathing, that the rest of him was okay.
I don’t even know if his head is uncovered, he thought suddenly, panic stealing his breath . He might be too buried to breathe, I don’t even know if his head is okay, who’s to say it wasn’t bashed in by a rock and I’m holding the hand of a—
A weak cough interrupted his spiraling panic, and Warriors froze, his heart thudding in his ears. Another followed it, faint and rasping, and the fingers in Warriors’ grip twitched just a little.
“Champion?” he asked, barely daring to breathe.
The coughing faded, followed by a wavering inhale, and Warriors held tighter to the hand in his.
“Wild?” he asked again, trying desperately to see though the darkness. He couldn’t make out a thing, but he was certain he hadn’t imagined the noises. Unless of course, he was starting to run out of air and was hallucinating things. Which was always a possibility.
“...W-Wars..?” a voice finally croaked, and Warriors breathed out a sigh of relief, ignoring the ache that shot up his middle due to it. Looks like we still have some air yet.
“Yeah. Yeah, ‘s me,” Warriors whispered back, giving the hand in his a squeeze.
“Wh-what...” Wild stammered, his voice weak and crackling, “wh... where..?”
“Wild, are you hurt?” Warriors asked, and it was quiet for a second.
“...Dunno. Th-think... ‘m arm h’rts...”
Something faintly rumbled in the distance, and Warriors held his breath as a few stray pebbles fell on his face. It faded again moments later, but he thought the pressure on his middle had slightly increased with the noise.
Wild’s breath suddenly hitched. “W’re... buried.”
Warriors breathed out. “Yeah.”
Wild’s breath hitched again, and the hand in Warriors’ began to shake, fingers fumbling as they tried to clutch at Warriors’.
“Wild, hey, easy,” Warriors breathed, holding more tightly to his hand, but he could hear Wild’s breathing speed up.
“No... n-no I can’t—”
“Wild, calm down,” Warriors said in as clear of a voice as he could, then coughed, the pain in his middle feeling worse. That’s starting to hurt an awful lot. “The... the others ‘ll come.”
“W’re buried,” Wild gasped, panic making him cough, and Warriors heard rubble shift, like Wild was trying to move. “W-Wars I can’t—”
“Wild. Listen,” Warriors said in a commanding voice, ignoring the urge to cough again. “You need to stay calm. I don’t kn-know how much air w-we have, we need to stay... calm.”
He grabbed firmly at Wild’s hand, and Wild clutched back at it, his breath still rasping loudly in the enclosed space.
“‘S too small,” Wild whispered, fingers shaking as he clung to Warriors’ hand. “Too... tight, ‘s like the... too small.”
Wild’s voice was small and scared, lacking the usual bright and teasing quality it almost always held. Warriors squeezed his eyes shut as he ran his fingers over Wild’s, then reopened them, trying to think past the fog trying to overtake his senses. Something was trying to break through it, an idea of sorts that they could use to get out, but it hadn’t succeeded yet.
“‘M not a fan of smaller spaces either,” Warriors admitted in a soft rasp. “Not fun. Gimme... ‘n open field any day.”
“Don’ sound so w-worried yr’self,” Wild muttered shakily, and Warriors coughed out a laugh.
“Perfected th-the art of faking it, bud.”
Wild let out a small, hysterical croak, a distant mirror of a laugh, but his frantic gasps had begun to ease. His breath still rasped more then it should, but Warriors was relieved at even the slight improvement.
Things fell silent between them for a moment, and Warriors took a minute to breathe, an action that was getting harder and harder to do successfully. The hot, painful feeling in his middle was starting to grow to an agonizing degree, and the fog was growing thicker around his senses. But the idea that had been forming in his head finally broke through, and Warriors shifted his head towards where Wild was.
“Wild,” he said, unable to keep his voice from hitching with pain. “C-can you reach your... slate?”
The fingers in Warriors’ twitched, then slowly withdrew, the quiet sound of rocks and pebbles being shifted reaching him. For a moment it was all Warriors could hear, that and an occasional shaky inhale like Wild was stopping himself from letting out a more pained noise, but then he heard a small hum.
“I... I c’n touch it,” Wild said, voice more shaky then it had been before. “Don’ think I can... pull it, but... m-might be able to get... Wind.”
“Okay,” Warriors breathed, squeezing his eyes shut and reopening them. “See if... you c-can—”
A cough spilled from his lips, and Warriors was unable to stop the fit he suddenly broke into, coughs that were thick and painful, bringing tears to his eyes with how they made his chest burn.
He wasn’t able to stop for several long moments, and his head spun dizzyingly as he caught his breath, middle full of a liquid fire so intense he could barely breathe.
“Wars?” Wild asked in a sharp, terrified voice, and Warriors coughed again, something warm dripping down his lip.
“‘M fi...” he rasped, dragging in another breath. “Fine, ‘m fine Wild. Call... Wind.”
Wild didn’t reply, but Warriors could feel the disbelief radiating from him as the quiet sounds of him shuffling in the debris sounded out again. The only other noise was Warriors’ wheezing breaths, and it was a few moments before Warriors heard a soft click.
The faintest bit of blue shone through the rocks nearby, not enough to see by, but enough that Warriors knew Wild had succeeded in turning on his slate.
“Sailor,” Wild rasped, trying to make his voice louder, and then coughing due to the effort. “S-Sailor... y’there..?”
He fell silent, and both of them strained their ears, even though Warriors was having an extremely hard time focusing. It felt like a Goron had sat on his chest, and was occasionally stomping around on his ribs, painful and heavy on his bones. But he couldn’t free himself, so it was just something he’d have to deal with.
Warriors shivered, and tried not to wheeze as his middle ached at the movement.
The sooner the both of them got out, the better.
“...hea...know I...see if...”
Warriors and Wild both stilled at the faint words, and listened in silence, Warriors’ heart beating loudly in his ears.
“—ampion! Is that you?!”
Wild let out a slightly hysterical laugh, and Warriors smiled, even though he knew Wild couldn’t see it.
“‘S me, m-me and Wars,” Wild said, relief thick in his voice. The connection that had come through was weak and staticky, and Warriors couldn’t entirely tell who had spoken, but they’d made contact at least.
“Are you two—kay?” the voice continued on, and Warriors thought it might’ve been Twilight’s. “We’re working on digging you—might be a bit.”
“Wars isn’t... he’s pretty b-bad,” Wild replied, and when Warriors opened his mouth to protest that Wild was equally bad-off if not worse, all that came out was another string of thick coughs.
He missed whatever was said next, a swirl of pain and fog clouding his senses, more warmth dripping down his chin. When he finally checked back in, Wild’s hand had grabbed at his again, and Warriors dragged in a rasping breath, the faint light from Wild’s slate growing blurry.
“—old on a bit longer, we’re going as fast as we can,” the voice came through again, more frantic then before. “Just hold on you two, we’re coming, I promise.”
“Y’ hear that W-Wars?” Wild croaked, holding his hand with a shaky grip. “Jus’... hold on.”
“Only ‘f you... do too,” Warriors rasped, and Wild hummed softly in reply, the sound thin with pain.
The voice from the slate said something again, but Warriors didn’t catch it, and he didn’t think Wild did either, based on how the voice seemed to grow frantic again, and louder. He couldn’t make out any of the words, and Warriors began to sink into the fog of pain his mind was fighting so hard to resist.
He thought he might have heard the rumbling sound in the distance again, like the rocks trapping them were being shifted, but he wasn’t sure. Dust fell on his head, but Warriors merely closed his eyes against it, too numb to even be scared any more. If he was going to be crushed, so be it. He only wished he’d gotten the chance to speak with his friends in his own time once more.
The fog had fully enveloped him now. The only thing that was clear was Wild’s hand pressed against his, fingers trembling, coated in dust and dirt and something sticky.
Warriors drifted along like that for what felt like forever, clinging to what few sensations he had left, Wild’s hand the only thing keeping him from fully falling away.
“—found them!”
And then there was light, so bright that Warriors had to close his eyes against it, and couldn’t help the whimper he let out. The voice was louder then ever, like Wild’s slate was right against his ear, and Warriors wished he could cover his ears.
“—get the rocks off, this thing is huge, he must be—”
“—lot of blood, that’s too much—”
“—lia I don’t know how either of them didn’t just—”
“—easy Link, easy, we’re getting you out, hold on.”
Something touched his face, and Warriors flinched, sounds and light and the endless pain in his middle too overwhelming for him to focus on anything. The voices kept floating around and over him, but Warriors could only catch bits of what was spoken.
Was Wild’s slate glitching?
The thing touched his face again, gentle and soft as it carefully turned his head to the side, and when fingers brushed his forehead, Warriors’ scrambled senses finally put together the fact that this must mean they’d finally been rescued.
He wheezed out a soft gasp of relief, and did his best to squeeze Wild’s hand, their fingers still connected. Wild faintly twitched back, and Warriors exhaled, relief swamping over him.
He didn’t remember any of the rest of their rescue, his senses fading out as the others pulled them from the rubble of the cave. Any travel or bandaging was lost to him, and he had no clue how long it had been when he flickered back awake.
The first thing he noticed was that he was on a soft bed, and that there was sunshine and a fresh breeze spilling in through the curtains. Time and Twilight were asleep on chairs by the bed, Wind flopped on their laps, Twilight’s head resting on Time’s shoulder. They all looked exhausted, and Warriors listened to Twilight snore for a minute, then looked down at himself.
His injuries were bandaged, blood and dirt cleaned from his clothes. His scarf had been cleaned as well, the blue bright and soft, and when Warriors looked beside him and saw Wild in a similar state to himself, the relief hit him again, even more intensely.
They’d made it.
They were out, and they were both alive.
Warriors exhaled, closing his eyes again. His head hurt and he was sore what felt like everywhere, not to mention his breathing still held an odd rasp, but he and Wild were okay.
They’d made it.
He felt out Wild’s hand again, and gave it a soft squeeze, relieved when Wild softly squeezed it back. The champion nestled up a bit closer to his side, and Warriors let himself drift off again, feeling perfectly content.
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Febuwhump Day 12: Semiconscious (Warriors & Time)
Ao3
CW for poisoning, vomiting, blood and injury, and a near death experience
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He stopped seeing clearly long ago.
His surroundings are no longer distinctive shapes. No, they are mere colors now, smeared and edged in the glare of lantern light. It is as though someone poured oil out on the street and left it to be trampled.
Warriors stumbles over something substantial and nonexistent. Another wheezing breath tears out of his lungs. Everything tips sideways and he goes with it, tripping over his own feet. He collides with a lamp post, frightens a blurred figure, garners murmurs of “inebriated” and “not right in the mind.”
He doesn’t care. Not much is bothersome, he’s quickly realizing, when you can’t breathe.
Wildly, he glances around. The buildings lean right, then left, their glowing windows seeming to leer at him. The inn…he has to find it. That is where his brothers await, that is where he can get help.
Warriors gulps in air and gains nothing from it. The ground tilts. He goes down, bile rising in his throat. He has already vomited up everything his stomach contained. But his body is desperate, desperate to rid itself of whatever is killing him.
So, it tries again.
He comes up feeling no less dizzy, no less sick. If anything, it is worse now. When he shoves to his feet, his vision goes abruptly dark. For a moment, he is certain that this is it. This is when he collapses, surrendering to the bitter embrace of oblivion. But then it screams back into a mirage of shifting shapes and nauseating shades of vibrancy.
“Captain?”
Warriors blinks rapidly. Someone is standing before him – a woman he thinks. The visible edges of her expression convey worry.
“Are you well?”
He grins and it feels wrong. Lopsided, clumsy, sharp…a grimace more than anything else.
“Not to worry. ‘M fine.”
“Oh.” She frowns now. Or at least, he thinks that she does. Drunk, her silence screams. Irresponsible. “O-oh alright, then. Goodnight to you.”
It’s good a thing, his mind assures him, as Warriors gazes dazedly at her retreating form.
It’s a good thing that they think you’ve drank too much. Better than them knowing. Safer.
…yeah. Safer.
He is certain he’s going to be sick again. His lungs rise and fall, and nothing comes of their efforts. The ground churns like the sea in Wind’s Hyrule. If only it were warm here like it is on that beautiful beach. But no. Here it is icy cold.
He shivers, stops the failure of his equilibrium with a nearby wall.
Just find them. Find…find your brothers.
Darkness tinges his vision again, spreading like an ink blot on cloth. It grows from left to right, and he lists sideways, drifting towards it. Something catches his boot on the way over. He stumbles, fails to catch himself, crashes down in a tangle of long limbs and thick fabric.
“Oh, look what we’ve got here!”
Giant forms move in the borders of his waning sight. Warriors stares up at them, icy heat prickling the back of his neck and head. Everything smells and tastes of iron. Everything hurts.
“It’s the princess’s favorite little errand boy!”
Something flat and harsh connects with his cheek. Warriors’ head snaps sideways. He chokes, coughing blood onto the pavement.
Get up! His instincts screech. Get up and fight!
He ignores them. It’s so easy to do that now. They are usually so loud, so boisterous and unignorable, hardened and loudened by years of experience.
It’s nice to silence them for once.
“He don’t look so good. Looks like somebody already got a hit on ‘im.”
“Poison?”
“Seems like it. He reeks of something rancid and it ain’t whiskey. His breathin’ ain’t right either.”
“Well, then.”
A hand fists in his collar. The next thing he knows, the ground is falling out from beneath him. He hovers somewhere above it, gazing obliviously at the space before him. Something is there – or maybe someone – but he can’t make out their features.
“He’s all lonesome out here. Might as well finish what they started. It’ll be easy.”
He should be afraid. He’s not.
Warriors feels nothing now except pain. Well, pain and the curious sensation of drowning. Strange, he doesn’t remember seeing water anywhere around here. But maybe he’s simply floating in it, unknowing, unseeing. That would certainly explain how cold he is.
His body slams back into the ground, and what little wheezing breaths he had managed to garner abruptly flee. Dull panic slices through the haze for a split second – just long enough for him to grab a wisp of air. Then, it’s back, a fog as thick as the stuff hovering over Time’s Lost Woods.
Unavigatable. Unbeatable.
For once, he can’t win this battle. For once, he has an excuse to succumb.
And he’s not one for giving in – his stubbornness is practically unmatched – but throwing in the proverbial towel now…fills him with relief.
“Go on boys! Gut him!”
The words reach his ears, but he hardly hears them. And he certainly doesn’t comprehend. Everything is so very far away…
It’s odd how without oxygen the world grows soft.
His head flops sideways. Lazily, he blinks into the indistinct expanse of Castle Town. The colors run together more than ever now. He can hardly tell them apart anymore.
Its beautiful, he thinks, with a loopy smile. Like Arty.
The soft shink of deadly metal surrounds him. Pain streaks through his abdomen. He coughs. Blood spills down his chin and drapes his tunic in crimson. It is wonderfully warm.
Again, metal strikes. More blood, more warmth. More pain.
His eyes flutter. There is not much to see now. But darkness is beginning to be replaced with dazzling light.
It is as beautiful as Castle Town…maybe even more. It beckons him, envelops him like a hug.
Come, it whispers, in the voice of his mother, come to me, dear child. Rest.
Somewhere, someone screams.
Warriors smiles and it is a soft, gentle thing. He starts to step forward.
“No!”
Hands grasp his wrist, as small as a child’s yet, much too calloused to be. Warriors dares to glance over his shoulder.
Mask stands there, his green clothing even more vibrant in the world of white. Tears have turned his large blue eyes the color of Warriors’ scarf. His lip trembles, despite the way he has it between his teeth. And while his grip is strong, his expression is a rapidly crumbling wall.
Warriors feels the tug again, the call from the endless light. He needs to go. He wants to. Sweet Hylia, he wants to.
“Sprite…”
“You-you can’t!” Mask shouts, stepping closer. He is shaking, Warriors realizes. The child who has faced monsters larger than himself armed with nothing more than a cocky grin and a slingshot is shaking. “You can’t leave me!”
The tears fall and smudge the markings that have now appeared on his face. Shades of blue and red trickle down his cheeks.
Warriors blinks and suddenly, the child’s hands are drenched in blood. He gasps, stumbling back. But Mask holds on.
“Sprite, I’ve got to go,” he says, desperately, because he must see that he can’t remain here. It’s time…isn’t it?
“No. It’s not.”
Mask ducks his head, as a sob tears at his tiny body. Salty water plunks onto the ground. It sounds like raindrops.
A downpour on a sunny day. A child curled beneath his scarf, grinning mischievously. A beautiful woman laughing, face upturned to the sky.
A tear slides down Warriors’ own cheek.
“Oh, Link…”
“Please,” he croaks, soft now, vulnerable. Broken. “Please, don’t leave.”
A single eye meets Warriors’ two. A face marked by a war god crumples, every year, every battle, every loss written in the tears streaming down it.
The captain moves closer. The light seems to dim now, lessened by the aching in his heart. Time…Time should never look like that. If he could reach him, maybe he could make that pain go away.
Time drags in a trembling breath. Crimson-drenched fingers fist in Warriors’ scarf like he did so often as a child.
“I need you, big brother.”
Warriors take another step and another and another. He can’t stop now. The decision seems plain. Whatever is behind him, wonderful though it may seem, is not yet for him. Not when Time is looking at him as though he is his entire world and then some. Not when he can hear them now — the faint pleas of the other heroes.
His brothers. His family.
He reaches out, fingers brushing Time’s cheek. The hero’s breath hitches as he leans into his touch.
“I’m right here, Sprite,” the captain promises. “And I’m not going anywhere.”
With a sob, Time falls into his arms. Warriors closes his eyes and buries his face in his shoulder. And as they cling to each other, the endless white surrounding them comes crashing down.
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