So I have no idea what on earth came over Franz at the beginning of this chapter. If it sounds like it was written in a state of still-sleep-deprived insanity, it probably was.
Also Link’s parents just decided they should be important. Although I’m not sure when his mother is showing up. In person, I mean.
I totally support Shad/Ashei. : )
This chapter turned out to be unexpectedly long. Good thing I skipped 95% of the dungeon!
Chapter 17: The Sky’s Loft
“Hello,” Link said.
The spirit world faded in around him. “Hello,” said the Hero from the past. “I see you found your parents.”
Link started back in shock. “Wait, what? Really?”
“Yes, really. I know you never knew their names, or anything about them. But you’re blessed by Farore, which may account for your intuition.”
“How do you know they’re my parents? Have you talked to them… in the afterlife?”
“Well, I do like to meet my descendents. I see them now and again. They’re very proud of you, of course. They would tell you so themselves, but they are happy to wait to meet you. They certainly don’t want to rush it.”
“No, I guess not,” Link said. “This is going to take a while to sink in.”
“And your mother wants grandchildren.” The Hero laughed.
Link snorted. “Isn’t that the stereotype for mothers?”
The Hero laughed again, his tail wagging. “I suppose it is. I sure was happy to have grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and even great-great-grandchildren, although by that point it’s a little bit strange, because your presence has long ceased to have any real meaning to those people. It’s like reading a very long story, and wanting to find out what happens next. And a lot of my ancestors feel the same about me. It’s disconcerting.”
Link thought about that. “My parents died fighting against Ganondorf, didn’t they? I know my mother made it to Kokiri Forest to hide me there.”
“Yes. Your father fought against Ganondorf himself. He was a brave knight, fighting for the defense of his home, his wife, and his son. When he failed, your mother rode to the forest in a last desperate attempt to save you. If she hadn’t been followed, she would probably have tried to stay with you, but Ganondorf himself followed her. So you have two more reasons to hate him…”
Link shook his head. “I have enough things to hate Ganondorf for. He has enough to answer for. I’m not going to associate him with my parents, or the other way around. I will find him, and I will kill him, and that will be the end of it. At least, until Gannon finds some other outlet into this world.”
“Very true. Now, show me what you have been working on.”
In the morning, Link went in search of Shad, and found him talking to Impa in the living room. “Hi. Sorry to interrupt, but I have a question.”
“Oh, yes?”
“Actually, now that I think about it… Impa, perhaps you could answer this better. I visited the graveyard last night…”
“I don’t know anything about graves,” Shad said.
“And you probably haven’t focused on relatively recent history, either. Impa, what do you know about two people named Rin and Kulani?”
“A brave knight, and his beautiful wife. They were in the guard of Kakariko when I was but a child and my mother was the mayor. Sir Rin was a quiet man, honourable, and he used to live in Hyrule Castle Town before he moved to Kakariko to raise his family. His wife was equally devoted to him, and she was brave in her own right; I heard she was a farmhand before they met, but I never asked her on that. It’s not something one asks the wife of a knight! She was gentle as a dove, and kind to all the children. When Ganondorf attacked, he was of course mobilized, but allowed to command the division defending Kakariko. He faced Ganondorf himself, and was slain in the resulting combat. I tried to help, but I was only fourteen, and not very skilful then. My mother was also killed in that battle, though she brought down the chief of Ganondorf’s lieutenants. Kulani disappeared after the battle, and I never knew what happened to her until her body was found near the forest a week later. I never found out what happened to the child they had.”
Link sat down. “Thank you.”
Impa suddenly looked hard at Link. “You think you were the child? That they were your parents?”
“I know so.” But Link didn’t say that his ancestor told him. That would have sounded crazy. “I… kind of want to know about them, now that I’m back in Hyrule. Just to know. As a child, I didn’t think about it, because I thought I was a Kokiri. But…”
“I understand,” Impa said. “I will tell you as much as I can remember. I saw Sir Rin quite often. Kulani I saw less, though perhaps Renado could tell you more about her.”
“This is astonishing,” Shad said. “Perhaps you can find other family members, now that you know who your parents were!”
“Perhaps,” Impa said. “But Rin was an only child, so it might be difficult to find relatives of your father. Perhaps the records in Hyrule Castle will reveal more about your mother. We shall see.”
“We shall,” Link said, smiling. “Thank you so much. I…”
“Look out!” Talo screamed from his watchtower far up the hill. “There’s monsters coming from the north!”
Link jumped up and checked his sword. “Gotta go. Thanks.”
“Fight strongly, Hero,” Impa told him.
He ran out into the street, where Franz, Jakob, and Rusl were gathering. “How many monsters? What kind?” he called up to Talo.
“A lot of goblin thingies on boars!” Talo yelled back. “With a bunch of wolves and giant birds, and… and spiders! Giant spiders, eww!”
“All right,” Link said to the others. “Do any of us have any practical tactical experience?”
“Well…” Jakob began mildly. “I’ve served in the Labrynnan army since I came of age, and being assigned to His Highness doesn’t mean I don’t remember tactics…”
Link turned to him. “Please, guide us.”
Jakob’s eyebrows rose thoughtfully. “I’m not sure how I can plan against… wolves and birds and spiders. But… they have two choke points. One is the natural bridge across the ravine.”
“Let’s go there now,” Link said. “You can tell us more on the way. Should I get Epona?”
Jakob shook his head as they began to run down the street. “You’d be more mobile, yes, but if you were to charge anything you would be outnumbered and surrounded. I have no doubt you could survive it, but I’m sure no one here wants you to take that risk.”
He outlined a simple plan: they had a barricade near the bridge, but it wasn’t really heavy enough to stop a boar’s charge. Still, it would slow them for a while, especially if the other creatures attacked first. Franz and Jakob would shoot at the birds, while Link and Rusl dealt with the other things.
There were more there than he expected. Was this one of Zant’s attempts on his life; on the life of Hyrule?
Everything was going all right, but the barricade was blown away in ten minutes and they retreated to Kakariko Gate, which was a bit sturdier. Link took up his bow and joined the archers, trying to keep the monsters from reaching the gate in the first place.
Everything was fine until Franz took a flaming arrow in the thigh. He growled and ripped it out, throwing down his bow and advancing on the monsters.
“Franz! What are you doing?” Link demanded, running up beside him. Franz was still on fire. “Get that fire out!”
“Fire is no trouble,” Franz said. “My earrings protect me from that. But that hurt! They will pay for that!”
“Or they’ll kill you!”
“Don’t be so sure of that! I know what I’m doing. I can take them. Just watch.” The flames shot up around him, and Link backed away from the heat. “I will kill them!
“Franz! Have you gone crazy?”
“He does this every once in a while,” Jakob shouted from further back. “Try to get him back here, please! Before he hurts himself. Or you.”
“Franz-!”
A wave of fire ripped forward from Franz, igniting the dried bushes around the edge of the road. The monsters in front squealed as they turned crispy. There was a throwing motion from the pillar of fire and fireballs flew towards the enemy.
Link backed away. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Hey!” came a Goron roar from the gate. “What’s going on? Why is that human on fire?” Without waiting for an answer, Darunia and four Gorons strode forward, and Darunia knocked Franz to the ground. “Fire’s not good for humans, silly! Link, help me put him out!”
Link rolled Franz over until the flames went out. His clothes were charred to ruins, but…
“You’re not hurt,” Link said in confusion. “Except for the arrow…”
“Get him back here!” Jakob yelled. “We still have incoming!”
“Not anymore,” Link said, drawing the Master Sword again and holding it wide in a crouch. He gave Franz a push back towards the gate.
“No,” said another voice, and the ground trembled. “Not anymore.”
Before the first monster could even take a swing at Link, a bony claw burst out of the ground at its feet and grabbed it. It screeched and flailed, and a complete skeleton pulled itself from the ground. All around, skeletons were emerging from the dirt or cracks in the stone. Some of them had ghostly faces.
Link stared at them in fascination. They were obviously friendly, but… the only other friendly Stalfos he had ever encountered was the Hero from the past.
The one who had risen next to him drew a ghostly sword. “Hello… Link.”
“…Father…?”
The ghost gave him a cheerful smile. “Good to see you too. Let’s drive back these beasts!”
A grin slowly spread across his face. “It would be an honour.”
They ran forward together, and Link found their fighting styles oddly matched. “It’s an honour for me,” his father said, as he decapitated a spider. “You’re the Hero. You succeeded where I failed. You defeated Ganondorf.”
“I couldn’t have succeeded without you,” Link countered. “Or my mother. Or Navi. Navi, this is my father. Father, this is my fairy partner Navi.”
“Hi!” Navi said.
“Hello,” said his father goodnaturedly.
“And I had to wait seven years.”
“You still did it. Don’t make excuses for your own competence,” his father said.
Link smiled. “Duly noted. I’m still very glad to meet you. Even though I only found out your name last night.”
“But we did meet once.”
“What?”
“You were dreaming…”
“On Koholint?” Link actually stopped fighting and stared at his father. He was young and was light-haired, long enough to be tied back in a small ponytail. He wore an older style of armour, although it was torn in several places. His face was marred by a massive wound that cut through his helmet and his left eye – it was probably the one that killed him. His remaining eye still shone brightly.
Rin casually batted away an arrow and turned to him. “Yes, on Koholint. I became caught in your dream world. I wasn’t really aware of what was going on at the time. I became consumed by a need to find our old house here in Kakariko… and you found it for me. Although it had aged as well as I had…”
“Will you two watch out?” Darunia bellowed, and smashed a spider into pulp just in front of them.
“But you’re doing so well,” Link said, smiling.
“We should join back in,” Rin said. “Your swordplay is excellent, by the way. Who has been training you?”
“One of the previous Heroes. I don’t know who. He says he’s met you in the afterlife. Thank you.”
“I’ll check.”
That meant a lot to him, and the heavy Master Sword felt light as he clove through the enemies.
They began fleeing soon after, except the spiders, which had to be killed one by one.
“Take care,” Rin said, before he and his bones faded away into nothing again.
“Good bye,” Link said softly, and turned back to the gate.
Franz was unconscious, though he still did not appear to hurt in any way besides the arrow wound in his leg. Imp was there, bending over him.
“Impa!” Link cried. “I thought you felt it was too risky to fight.”
“I changed my mind when Darunia returned with reinforcements. Did you have a nice chat?”
“Yes, I did. Thank you for the opportunity.”
“It’s not an ability I can use overly often,” Impa said. “The dead are dead and they must rest. There must be an abundance of restless spirits in an area before I can do that, and it’s very draining.”
“It’s one of your powers as a Sage, isn’t it?” Link asked.
Impa nodded. “I am still not sure of my full powers as the Sage of Shadow, although I have full access to any that I may have.”
“It means a lot to have spoken to my father. Even if he can’t come back.”
Impa bowed. “I am glad to have been of service.”
“We should get His Highness inside,” Jakob said to Rusl. “He’s going to wake up very dehydrated.”
“What was that all about?” Rusl asked, picking up Franz’s feet as Jakob hauled him up under the shoulders. Bits of his clothing were flaking off. At this rate he would be only wearing his scalemail by the time he got back to the hotel.
“I dunno, really. He has these enchanted earrings that protect him from being burned… but the ability to control fire and the psycho personality… those only come out when he’s actually on fire. We never asked him about, and he never told us.”
Talo came running to meet them. “That was awesome! What happened to Mr. Franz? Is he okay?”
“He’ll be okay,” Link told him. “Thanks for warning us about the attack.”
“You can count on me!” Talo said, making a monstrous grin at him and dashing back up the hill to his observation post.
Something bumped into Link from behind, and he staggered, and turned to see Goron Link trying to hug him. “Hey, there, kiddo.”
“Hi! You fought off the nasty bad guys, didn’t you!”
“Yes, we did, all of us, especially your dad.”
“He wouldn’t let me come. I’m not afraid! But he let me come down here to the village.”
“I thought it would be good for him to try something new,” Darunia said. “Meeting new humans is sure to be exciting for him.”
Goron Link looked around. “There are so many humans here! I’ve never seen so many humans in one place before!”
Navi laughed. “Just wait until your dad takes you to Hyrule Castle Town.”
“Let me introduce you to the other kids,” Link said. “I think you’ll get along well with them.”
Franz woke up a few hours later, just after supper. Ilia came to get Link.
The prince was looking very tired; there were dark circles under his eyes. But he still smiled cheerfully and sat up with energy. “Hello, Link. You must be wanting an explanation.”
“I think everyone is,” Navi said. “Including Jakob. He said this has happened before?”
Franz laughed a little and looked away. “I know it must seem really… strange. But yes, it’s happened before. Twice. That’s all! It’s not like I go out of my way to be on fire…”
“So what is it?” Navi asked impatiently.
“I… may have a fire spirit living in me,” Franz explained, looking embarrassed. “I can’t say for sure. It’s not like being possessed. It’s more like a… non-sentient, non-sapient entity that gives me power when I’m on fire. Or maybe it’s my soul. It’s partly why I wear these earrings, just in case I happen to be near open flame and have an accident.”
“All right, so if it’s not like being possessed, then why the sudden rage and intent to cause bodily injury to your attackers, sir?” Jakob demanded.
“I’m still me, it’s just… a different part of me.”
“Well, you hide that part very well the rest of the time,” Link said. “Do you know how this happened?”
“No, not at all… I also don’t know if my brothers have similar issues. They might. They have similarly themed… phobias is not the right word. But it is close.”
“I didn’t notice you have a fire phobia,” Link said.
“I wasn’t on fire before. Imagine how much harder it is with a water spirit?”
“Oh, true,” Navi said. “Or an air spirit. That would suck.”
Link got up from the chair. “Well, Renado told me to make sure you rest. Jakob says you’ll be fine tomorrow, but you don’t look that great this exact moment. So I’ll see you tomorrow. Also… thanks. You really softened them up a lot.”
“You’re welcome!”
Rana was expected back that evening, but she didn’t come, and no one else came either. The Goron engineers examined the cannon and argued – rather loudly – over how it worked and how to put it together. The first thing they started doing was taking it even more apart and cleaning it. A lot of the parts look unexpectedly clean, though. They must have been protected inside the body of the thing.
The next day passed slowly in comparison. Link practiced his form, and some of the children, including Talo when he was not on duty, asked to learn a bit. So he showed them some of the footwork he had been learning, explaining that he had learned it was the proper foundation for all sword fighting, and they watched eagerly.
Shad and the Gorons got in a fight over something Link couldn’t understand, something to do with the mechanism that activated the cannon.
The sky was turning pink when Rana was sighted coming in, and she was not alone. There were two people with her: Ashei, and a bizarre little man dressed as a clown in bright, garish colours and make-up. As soon as they arrived, the little man went off to join the Gorons and Shad around the cannon. He spoke slowly, and mumbled, but his words carried authority, so Link assumed he knew what he was doing.
Ashei found Link right away, Midna floating beside her. “I don’t know what you did up on Snowpeak, but it suddenly calmed right down a few days ago. I didn’t see the monster again, and there have been no more sudden storms…”
“The monster is actually a friendly Yeti,” Link told her. “I met him and his wife. They’re very nice. I’ll take you to visit them someday.”
Ashei blinked. “Weird. Oh, hey, there’s Shad. I wondered what the bookworm was up to.” She gave a brief, rare smile to Link. “I’ll see you later.” She wandered over to the cannon casually.
Link heard a familiar squeal he hadn’t heard in a while, and turned to see Rana glomp Shoza. “Finboy! You’re alive!”
“Haha, I am, kittengirl. ‘Sup?”
“Well, stuff. Helping out. What have you been up to? You disappeared without trace or explanation!”
“Eheh. Sorry. I just… Ruto disappeared, and I wanted to find her. Darunia’s been helping me. But then all this crap happened, and I got injured. I’m getting better, though, thanks to the kind folks here.”
“Oh, that’s good,” Rana said. “Wow, it’s Little Link. Hey, buddy! Everyone’s really showing up here, aren’t they?”
“They are,” Link said, leaning against the porch railing at a slight distance. “This is quite the gathering. I’ve never seen so much support in one place for one cause before.”
“It’s a gathering of the best in Hyrule, excepting the other Sages and Auru and Telma,” Rana said. “And Zelda. She would love to be here…”
“You look different,” Navi said. “What happened?”
Rana hesitated, looked at the sky. “We made it to the Castle Town… found Auru… He directed me to this guy at Lake Hylia. I talked with Lanayru… Ashei came with us.”
“I don’t know what they talked about,” Midna whispered in Link’s ear, “but she’s been perky as one of those Kokiri kids ever since, so don’t ruin it.”
He smiled and nodded. “That’s good.”
“Anything exciting happen while we were gone?” Midna demanded.
“We fought off an attack,” Navi told her. “Lots of monsters. I think Zant wants to kill Link, or at least as much of the Resistance as he can. Oh, and also Link met his dad.”
Midna frowned. “I thought you were an orphan. Raised by some talking tree.”
“I am,” Link clarified. “My dad… is a ghost. It was just for a minute during the battle, and it probably won’t happen again anytime soon. But… I was able to meet him, and it’s… a lot.”
“What was he like?” Rana asked.
“A skilful fighter, and proud of my skill in fighting… cheerful, quiet, self-deprecating…”
“Sounds a lot like you,” Midna teased. “You gonna meet your mom too?”
“I have no idea.”
“Did you find out about her family at all?” she asked, pointing at Rana.
“No, I have no idea… I only came across my parents’ grave by accident. The Hero from the past suggested it was my Triforce that led me there. So I don’t know anything about…”
“That’s fine,” Rana said. “The Great Deku Tree was a great dad. I’d rather pretend I’m just a mutant Kokiri anyway.”
Navi laughed. “You sure act like one!” Rana grinned.
“So what’s for supper? We’re starving!”
“Speak for yourself,” Midna said. “Ashei’s totally caught up in her crush, that weird guy is wrapped up in the cannon, and I…”
“You totally eat human food now that you live in the Light World, don’t lie,” Navi said.
Midna glared at her. “Right, but I still don’t have to play by your rules. I’m not hungry. Yet.”
“Come on,” Link said. “Hungry or not, we can all have dinner.”
The next few days were spent in preparation while the engineers worked on putting the cannon back together. It was entertaining to watch, and usually accompanied by a lot of frustrated yelling and banging. But slowly, it came together, and after two days it was standing on its two chicken-like legs.
On the third day, Link noticed Oocco had surreptitiously snuck into town and was living in the chicken coop next to Barnes’ house. Barnes had been asked if he wanted to work on the cannon, but he refused, saying that small explosives were all that he was interested in. If Link understood Shad correctly, this cannon didn’t even involve explosives.
But he asked Oocco if she would let Shad interview her, and for the next two days after that, the scholar left the engineers largely alone while he spent every possible waking moment in the chicken coop. Every evening he carried home a stack of notebooks two inches tall. Link wondered where he was getting them. It turned out that Oocco was from the Attic in the Sky, although she called it the Sky’s Loft, and she was looking for the Sky Cannon to take her back, because she and her son had fallen down accidentally. She didn’t know how to fix it, though, or how it worked.
Rana neither avoided him nor sought him out. She seemed to be cheerful again, though whether it was an act he couldn’t tell, and Naeri wouldn’t tell him. She spent a lot of time with Shoza, who was getting his strength back. She would come to watch Link do his exercises, though, and sometimes disappeared from town, only to come back drenched in sweat, so she was also working hard, if in secret.
There were no more major attacks on the town, but monsters were popping up more and more often, and closer to town, especially at night. It was a very good thing there was a plethora of warriors in town.
Finally, the cannon was finished, and stood, gleaming, beside Renado’s house.
“So how does this work?” Link asked. “And please, give me the layman’s version for idiots.”
“That’s redundant,” Navi pointed out, and he shrugged.
“Well,” began one of the Gorons, “it’s activated by magic. We figured out that much. Not sure exactly what will activate it, but once it does… boom! You’re going to be over the moon, possibly literally.”
“But you have to get inside, first,” said one of the other Gorons. “And it appears to be made for humans only.”
“We haven’t actually tested it…” said the strange man. “We can’t test it. So hopefully it actually goes off correctly and doesn’t just splat you inside.”
Link laughed. “I’ll risk it. I have some things I can try. And I need to get up there.”
The first thing he tried was the Dominion Rod, but it didn’t react. Shad made considering noises and scribbled in his notebook.
He tried Farore’s Wind… he even tried Din’s Fire and Light Arrows, which just bounced off.
He tried playing his Ocarina, the Ocarina of Time, which was magical. At a loss for ideas, he played Zelda’s Lullaby… and something clicked. He played it again, and it clicked again.
“That’s it!” Shad said. “You need to play a variation on that tune. Try… backwards, or upside down?”
Link blinked at him. “That’s a bit random.”
“Well, I think we’re finally on the right track. Go on! Try some things!”
Oocco hopped up beside him. “I do think that sounds familiar. Goodness, I haven’t seen one of these in years. But yes, do try it… upside down.”
“I’ll try. I’m not quite sure how to do that…” He raised the Ocarina to his lips again and after a few false starts, managed to produce what he thought were the correct notes. The cannon clicked again, but did nothing new.
Rana had been scribbling something down in a page from Shad’s notebook, and handed it to him. “Here’s the notes for it upside down, and backwards, and upside down and backwards, in case you need something to go on.”
“Thanks, that’s great.” She held it for him to read as he played. He tried playing it backwards.
With a thunderous crash, the cannon went off beside them, and everyone ducked away from it. When it became evident that it was not going to explode, the Gorons cheered, a cheer that the others joined in.
“All right, let’s load you up!” Darunia said, and picked him up with one hand, hoisting him up to the lip of the cannon so he could climb inside. Oocco followed him.
“Wait,” Link said, sticking his head out. “What about… a parachute, or directions, or anything?”
“Pretty sure this thing is self-guiding,” said the strange little man. “Pretty sure.”
“And I’ve got you covered for a non-lethal landing,” Midna said from where she was tucked in beside him.
“I guess no one else can come,” Link said. “Well, take care of yourselves while I’m up in unknown lands.”
“We will,” Rusl said. “You take care of yourself, lad, and bring back that piece of Mirror safely.”
He smiled and gave them a salute, then wriggled down into the cannon, his adrenaline rising as he set the Ocarina to his lips again.
When the last note played, he felt the cannon shift around him; it rose on its two legs, shook itself in a bird-like way, and adjusted its aim.
He braced himself.
He wasn’t sure how it happened, but suddenly there was a crash and he was shooting through the air into the sky. He grabbed hold of Midna, who grabbed hold of him in return, and yelled in terror and excitement. She did too.
It was amazing to see Hyrule spread out below him; he could see everything. There was the forest, the lake, Death Mountain, the city… It looked so different, and his view was changing with every passing second. He was passing clouds, now, and… what was that ahead?
He was slowing, reaching the top of his arc, and he reached it just in time to plop into a small pool on the edge of the Attic in the Sky.
He surfaced a moment later, blowing out the water that had gotten in his mouth and shaking his wet hair out of his eyes. Midna hovered above him, looking smug for whatever reason. Probably because she hadn’t had to use any of her power.
All around them were stately white marble buildings and grassy green walkways. It looked worthy of what a city built by an advanced race living in the sky might look like. The wind was brisk, but not terribly cold, which surprised him. He would have thought the air would be colder the higher you went, like going up a mountain.
Oocco landed next to him and paddled to the stairs leading to a walkway. “My gracious, it’s good to be back, yes! Oh, there is a friend of mine.” She began to gabble in the unintelligible Oocca tongue, and the rapidly approaching creature gabbled back at her. She turned to Link. “Oh my, it seems that we are under attack by a fearsome dragon! We have to get under cover, quickly!”
Link scrambled out of the water and followed the little Oocca down the walkway to a smaller white building. They could certainly run, despite their tiny size. He glanced up and behind them, in time to see a huge red and black winged dragon swooping down on them.
“In here!” Oocco cried, and turned abruptly into a doorway. He dodged inside after her, just in time to avoid a blast of white-hot fire from the dragon. The grass scorched away with a hiss, revealing the stone underneath, which charred black instantly.
Link slammed the heavy stone door shut and turned to the Oocca, panting. “So how long has that thing been here?”
They exchanged warbles, and then Oocco turned to Link. “Over a week. Would it be related to that mirror you’re looking for, do you think?”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure it must be.”
“This place is pretty peaceful normally, isn’t it?” Midna asked. “Or at least you don’t have dragons trying to eat you, right?”
“Oh, yes, normally it’s the most pleasant land in existence! But now, it seems no one dares venture outside, and with good reason! Would you rid us of this monster? It seems that in centuries of peace, we have all forgotten how to fight.”
“It would be a pleasure,” Link told her. “Any directions for where to start?”
“You can take me with you,” Oocco told him. “Just let me sit on your shoulder and I’ll tell you where you are, and where you can go. This is one of our little shops, a… convenience store, if you like.”
“Do you know where the dragon normally hangs out?” Navi asked. “Where he sleeps?”
A quick conversation, and Oocco said: “He seems to come from high up, from a high platform above the highest building. We normally use it for a farm, but he’s taken it over. I can guide you there. Come along!”
She hopped to his shoulder and directed him to another door at the back of the shop.
Going cautiously, they managed to sneak to the largest building in the city, the Grand Hall. Inside, many Oocca were hiding, and when they caught sight of Link, they all converged on him, squawking. He backed away, rather intimidated by their non-human intensity.
Oocco twittered at them authoritatively, and they backed away from him, looking a little abashed, before she gave some kind of order that had them wandering away, back to where they had been before he came in. “My apologies, sir. They were very surprised to see a human here, and now of all times! I explained that you are the legendary Hero arrived again to rid us of this menace, and you don’t speak Oocca. Very few Oocca speak Hyrulian, either!”
“I see. Thank you. You know about the Hero?”
“Why yes! The Hero was originally a Skyloftian! We know all about him, sir! I can tell you the stories, of course. But not now. Now, we must head over to that corridor.”
It was a long and complicated climb for Link. Clearly the Oocca hadn’t had to deal with humans in centuries, if ever, and it was not designed for someone of his build, even if the ceilings were far higher than necessary for an Oocca.
Eventually, he climbed up a gnarled green vine to the platform where Oocco said the dragon lived. It was very quiet, but the clouds were gathering and turning dark around them. The sun was also beginning to go down.
He turned in a slow circle, but he didn’t see anything…
“Get down!” Navi screamed, and without looking or thinking he dove to the side and rolled, in time to avoid a swoop from the dragon. Fire scorched the spot where he had been standing, and heat washed over him…
Darkness and fire, the smell of horse and fear and forest and the sound of running and the sound of fire and the forest was on fire behind him and the woman who carried him. “Stay here and be silent,” she whispered, as she laid him beneath a tree in the darkness, and ran. He watched helplessly as she left, and he heard screams, and all became quiet again. The sky slowly grew light, and the fire slowly grew faint, and he saw the curious, familiar faces of the Kokiri peering down at him…
He came to himself, his own person and age and time, in time to see the dragon shoot past him and begin to bank around to attack him again.
There were four slim towers on the corners of the field with gratings facing the centre. Link wondered what they were. They looked like industrial fans, and more importantly, like something his hookshots could grab.
“Oocco, get to cover!” The little bird woman left his shoulder and scuttled under one of the towers as he hoisted himself up into the sky on it. His plan was to reach the top and then fire arrows at the dragon until it fell to the field, where he could attack it with his sword.
His dual hookshots proved to provide him with unusual manoeuverability, taking him from one side of the field to the other in the blink of an eye, and frustrating the dragon when it tried to hover and breathe fire at him. He reached the top of a tower, and pulled out his bow, but now the dragon was swooping in circles around him, and he couldn’t get a good shot…
“Hey!” Navi yelled, following the dragon. “Try hookshotting this!” She showed him that the dragon’s tail had a hook in it, and it did look like something he could latch on to…
The dragon roared as it felt the weight on its tail. “Navi! Give me the Iron Boots, and maybe we’ll anchor him to the field!” The extra weight was too much for it, and it sank rapidly, wings beating uselessly against the air. When his feet hit the field, it fluttered for a moment more, and then lost its balance and fell on its face. Link sprang on it, exchanging Iron Boots and hookshots for the Master Sword and his shield, and slashed at it. His sword cut through its outermost layer of armour, the black layer.
The dragon was only momentarily stunned, and he didn’t hit anything vital, so in a moment it had torn away from him and was off into the sky. He watched it for a second. It was a monster, but it was also wild and free and beautiful, especially once it shed all that ugly black armour.
Then he was running for the towers again, before it could come around and toast him into ash.
On his next pass, he took off the rest of the dragon’s armour, revealing an odd-looking scar in the middle of its back. That was a target if he ever saw one. He would try to latch directly onto that next time.
The only problem with that was the dragon was always trying to breath fire at him, which meant he never saw its back… But with some canny evasion, he managed to get into a position where he could grab it, a deadly dance through the sky. Now he wished he could fly like the Zoras could swim.
He caught onto its back, and clinging on with the hookshot in his right hand, drew the Master Sword with his left hand and stabbed as deeply as he could.
It screamed, bucking, and fell, clawing at the air with feet and wings. He stabbed again, looking for its spine, and it stopped screaming and fell limply.
They landed with a crash on the field, and Link fell off, slightly stunned. After a moment, he picked himself up, sweaty and bloodstained, and retrieved his sword. The dragon exploded into a shower of small metallic fragments.
The fragments coalesced into another piece of the Mirror, and Midna snatched it out of the air. “Perfect! Now all we need is to get to the Arbiter’s Grounds as fast as possible, and we can take the fight back to Zant, finally!”
“Surely not after a rest,” Link protested. He had used the hookshots more times that day than he had possibly ever, and his arms were aching.
Midna laughed. “No, I’m not going to insist on saving the world today. A tired Hero is one that makes mistakes and gets killed. Instead…” she hooked a tiny arm over his shoulder and leaned against him casually. “I’m going to tell you to hang out here for the night, if they’ll have you, and learn all you can so you can tell Shad. I want to see that egghead pass out again from the tales you bring.”
Link laughed.
Oocco approached them. “That was spectacular! Well done, boy! I’m not sure we can properly show our gratitude, but we can certainly try! Come down to the Great Hall and we shall have a feast, and give you what gifts we can.”
“Thank you,” Link said. “But you don’t have to give me anything. I’ll come for food, though.”
“Ah,” Oocco said, “but this one gift you must have, for it will get you home safely. Come down, come down.” She hopped to the ledge and fluttered down. Link followed more slowly.