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Chapter Text

On Skyloft

Link felt something hit his head, jolting him awake. He looked down to see what had struck him. A letter?
As he picked the letter off the floor, he took in his surroundings. A small room, a bed, a wardrobe, a desk... Where was he? Link suspiciously unfolded the letter, reading the unfamiliar handwriting.

Hey, sleepyhead! I know how much you like to sleep in, so I'm guessing this letter will be your alarm clock this morning. Did I guess right?
Rise and shine, Link! Today's the Wing Ceremony! You promised to meet me before it starts, remember?
You'd better not keep me waiting. - Zelda

Wing Ceremony? Promise? He didn't know what any of this meant. When did he promise Zelda to meet–
"Oh." Link said aloud. "This is a different incarnation of Hyrule, and I'm.... ohhhh. I swapped places with a different Link." Realizing this, he cheerfully left the room. No more Calamity Ganon! Just... whatever Ganon exists here.
"Hey, Link!" A voice called. He looked over and saw a boy standing next to some barrels. "Do you think you could help me with-"
"Sorry, Zelda told me not to keep her waiting."
"O-oh... okay?"
As Link made his way outside the building, he saw a strange bird-shaped statue. "Hey!" A man called out to him from the roof. "I've got something-"
"Sorry, busy!"
"What- Link! I need to teach you-"
"Meeting with Zelda!"

He made his way up an important-looking staircase. This ought to lead to Zelda, right? He reached the top and beheld a gigantic goddess statue, even bigger than the one inside the temple of time. It looked like it could fit a whole dungeon inside.
"Link, you made it!" Zelda said, turning to look at him. Link hadn't even noticed her standing there beneath the goddess statue. "You, um... look awfully... high-res today."
"It's my second-best quality," Link replied without missing a beat.
"Um... okay." Zelda shook her head, confused. "I was just playing the ballad of the goddess. Would you like to hear it? It's such a beautiful song-"
"Nah."
"What?"
"I said nah. When's the Wing Ceremony? I thought I was supposed to be doing that."
"But Link, you've barely practiced! I don't think you'll be able to do it!"
Wow. Whatever Link was supposed to be here was really making this difficult. "I'll do fine."
"I insist you practice! Come on, let's go!" She dragged him to a wooden jumping platform overlooking an endless sea of clouds. Suddenly he was much less sure about this. "Alright, now jump off the edge and call your Loftwing!"
"Loftwing?"
"Don't play dumb, Link, just... go!" She pushed him off the edge of the platform. "Go on! Whistle like this..." she whistled, "and call your Loftwing!"
Link whistled. And whistled again. Uh-oh.
Zelda watched as he fell. And kept falling... and kept falling... "Something's wrong!" she shouted, jumping off the edge herself. She whistled and a giant bird soared under her, catching her. Zelda flew down as quickly as she could, grabbing Link and dragging him back up to the island.
"Well," Link said after they crash-landed, "I'm going to need a change of pants."
Zelda looked at him disgusted before speaking. "It's so strange that your Loftwing wouldn't respond to your call. Maybe something happened to it."
"I wouldn't know."
"You should go look for your bird. My Loftwing is injured from carrying two of us, so I'll stay here and tend to it."
"Sounds good to me," Link said, already walking off. Where could he find a weapon? Having nothing to defend himself with didn't feel like a great idea. He looked at the goddess statue. Maybe there is a dungeon in there. Would there be weapons, too?

"Link, what are you doing?" Zelda said exasperatedly as he slammed into the goddess statue again.
"I wanna get in there," he responded.
"I already told you, there's nothing-"
Link fell against the wall at a strange angle and vanished. "...Link?"

Link stumbled into a dark room. "Haha, I knew I could do that!" In the center of the room was a pedestal with a sword stuck into it. He approached it and placed his hand atop the sword. It made a strange whispering sound. "The master sword." He readied a stance to pull it from the pedestal and tugged on it, ready for it to hurt-
It came loose in one pull. He lifted the blade to the sky in triumph and it became enveloped in a holy light.
"I always knew you were the hero of legend-"
"AUGH!" Link swung the sword toward the doorway where he heard the man speaking and accidentally unleashed a beam of light toward him. He ducked under it and stared at Link in disbelief.
"Did you just-"
"Yeah, I think I did."
"Okay. Well, let's not kill me today."
A strange purple-and-blue humanoid creature erupted from the sword, landing gracefully on air and bowing to Link.
"Identification complete. Hello, Master Link."

Chapter Text

In Ruined Hyrule

"..."

"Open your eyes..."
A bright blue light shined in Link's eyes.

"Wake up, Link..."
He felt the water surrounding him drain away as he sat up, confused. This place looked... more detailed than normal. He stood and curiously approached a strange-looking terminal on the far side of the room. Its center rose and presented a strange device to him.

That is a Sheikah Slate. Take it. It will help guide you after your long slumber.

"I knew I had a tendency to sleep in, but I didn't think it was this bad," he thought, grabbing the Sheikah Slate. The door before him opened and he continued into the next room, where two treasure chests and another strange pedestal stood. Ooh, treasure! He opened them, disappointed to find they both contained old clothes. Wait... why wasn't he wearing anything? He put on the clothes, ignoring their smell, and approached the second terminal.

Hold the Sheikah Slate up to the pedestal. That will show you the way.

Link did as the strange voice told him, and the door at the end of this room opened, just the same as the first.

Link... You are the light – our light – that must shine upon Hyrule once again. Now, go...

He ran up the stairs and stopped in front of a large rock blocking the path. How was he supposed to get past this? It was too tall to run up the side. Or... was it?
Link ran at the rock at full speed and rammed face-first into it. And then he did the same thing again. And a third time. Eventually, he made it to the top of the rock, but not quite unscathed.
He walked out of the building, blocking his eyes from the harsh sun as he took in the beauty of the landscape. And the scale. Where was the edge? Surely he would've noticed an island this big.
As he approached a man he saw at the bottom of the hill, he heard the voice again.

Link...
Head for the point marked on the map in your Sheikah Slate.

Oh. Guess he was supposed to go to the yellow dot on the map, not the man. He walked toward the yellow dot, ignoring everything else around him. When he arrived at another terminal underneath a strange overhang, he held up the Sheikah Slate to it.
The ground shook violently and the terminal platform began to rise from the ground, scattering rocks in every direction. It rose higher and higher, revealing a tower from underneath the ground.

Link...

You are our final hope...

The fate of Hyrule rests with you!

This island sure was strange.
As Link made his way back to the bottom of the tower, the man from before flew in on a strange glider. "Ho!" he shouted, turning to face Link as he landed. "My, my... It would seem that we have quite the enigma here. This tower and several just like it have erupted across the land, one after another. Very interesting... Did anything... odd happen to you while you were on the top of that tower?"
Link thought for a moment. Anything odd...? No, he didn't think so. He'd been hearing that voice since he got here, so it must be normal. He shook his head.
The man looked surprised. "No? Nothing? Well then... that is a shame."
Link noticed a drop near the tower and walked over to it, wondering how far down it went. As he looked over the edge, he saw nothing but fog, though it didn't look like the cloud barrier. There must be more land down there. Weird.
"Ah, the edge?" The man said. "Here, on this isolated plateau, we are surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs, with no way off or down. If you were to try and jump, well... No death could be more certain or foolish. Of course, if you had a paraglider like me, that would be another story!"
A paraglider, huh? Link starting walking away to look for his own paraglider.
"Where are you going, young man? I have yet to tell you about the shrines!" Link looked at him expectantly, head tilted to the side. "You see, I can give you this paraglider in exchange for a treasure within that shrine over there!"
Treasure? Oh, but the last treasure was old clothes. Link decided he'd better go find a paraglider to find out what's below the plateau.
As he walked through the trees, he started to notice branches strewn across the ground. Could he use them to fashion a paraglider? He rolled into a tree to gather more, and a large leaf fell to the ground. About the size of the man's paraglider.

Makeshift paraglider in hand, Link jumped from the edge of the plateau, soaring over the land far below. He looked in awe at the sprawling lake to his right, landing on a pathway leading to a huge mountain with a crack down the middle. As he walked, he wondered what he would find on this strange new island, and how long he would be exploring it before returning to Skyloft.

Chapter Text

On Skyloft

"What... what are you?" Link asked the strange creature.
"I am the spirit of the master sword," it responded. "My designation is Fi. There was supposed to be a whole sequence through which you meet me, but I guess the demon lord isn't the only one messing with the order of fate."
"Wait, so, there's a... person living in the master sword?"
"I am not a person. But for your purposes, yes."
The man who Link had almost struck with the master sword beam chuckled. "Well, this is all too much for old Gaepora. I'm going back to my quarters."
Link shook his head. "Okay, well, Fi, what fate? What am I supposed to do?"
"Your fate has not begun yet. You must finish the tutorial."
"Well, what about that demon lord guy? Can I fight him? Is it Ganon?"
"Ganon?" Fi tilted her head inquisitively. "What is Ganon?"
"You've got to be kidding me."
"I do not have a complete database of information. You must complete the tutorial."
"Geez, okay!" Fi returned to the master sword and Link sighed. What was he supposed to be doing again? He walked out of the goddess statue and-
"Hey!" Zelda shouted. "What was that?! Is there something inside the goddess statue?!"
"Pfft, no."
"Where did you get that sword?" She pointed to the master sword sheath on his back.
"Got it from nunya."
"What's nunya?"
"Nunya business."
"Link..." Zelda sighed. "Just go see if anyone in town knows what happened to your loftwing."

As he returned to the building he woke up in, he heard arguing around the corner. He looked to see what was going on, and saw two boys standing in front of another building, one wearing a peculiar yellow uniform. "Hey, what are you guys arguing about?"
"Hey, Link," the boy in the yellow uniform said. "I heard your loftwing has gone missing, so I thought I'd join in the search. And get this: when I asked Fledge what he knew, he starting acting weird."
"I'm so sorry, Link!" Fledge said. "I wanted to tell you, but if Groose found out I told you..."
"Go on! Tell him the truth!"
"Just a little while ago, when I was cleaning the dining hall, Groose and his buddies came in. They didn't notice I was there and started talking about their plan to hide your loftwing. I wanted to warn you, Link, but just as I tried to sneak away... They said if I told you, they'd make sure I'd never be able to ride a bird ever again!"
"It sounds like Groose had a plan to hide your Loftwing near a waterfall," the boy in yellow said. "Take a look at your map." Link opened a map from his pocket and the boy pointed at it. "That's it! Right there. I think it means the waterfall I marked here with an X."
"Alright, I'll go there," Link said, closing the map.
"If you're going out to the waterfall, remember there are some dangerous things there. You'll need-" he noticed the sword on Link's back and paused. "Where did you get that?"
"Nunya."
"What's nunya?"
"Nunya business!" Works every time.

As Link approached the waterfall, he noticed a cave entrance. He cut the branches out of the way and entered the cave, swinging his sword at some keese on the ceiling. Pfft, dangerous. Yeah, right. He reached the end of the cave fairly quickly.
He followed a narrow path and suddenly heard strange squealing ahead.
"Look! There he is!" Zelda shouted from behind him. He swiveled around to look at her.
"How did you get here so fast?"
She smiled at him. "Nunya."
"Wow." They approached the bird and saw it stuck behind some wooden bars.
"That's so cruel! They've boarded him up in there! Link, can you do someth-"
Link's loftwing cried out loudly as he walked out of the mini-prison, freed while Zelda was still talking. It stretched its wings and flew off.
A strange noise emanated from below the clouds, and Zelda looked towards it, confused.
"Who's that? Who's calling to me?"
Link looked at her, also confused.
"Sorry, Link, I just got a little... distracted. We should make sure your bird is still flying okay for the Wing Ceremony!"
"So... jump off the cliff and whistle?"
"Yep! Just like every time before!"
Link ran toward the edge and jumped, whistling as loud as he could muster. His loftwing flew beneath him at a leisurely pace, letting him land hard and painfully. Zelda followed, calling her bird, which caught her normally.
"Hey, uh, I don't think this bird likes me!" Link shouted as his loftwing flew erratically, not listening to his commands.
"Of course he likes you, you've had a bond forever! He's probably just hurt, the poor thing."
The bird flew in loops and barrel rolls, making Link nauseous. "I think he's just fine..."
"If you say so."

"Your attention, please. At last, we are ready to begin the Wing Ceremony," an instructor said. "I was beginning to worry we'd have to proceed without Link, but luckily that is no longer a concern. I'm glad you could all make it. Before we start, I'd like to explain the rules to today's competition."
Link spaced out while the instructor explained the rules. Something about a bird with a statue.
"Let's see your finest flying out there. I want to see just how hard you've been practicing. Also, I want to see good, clean flying. Anyone caught interfering with other riders will answer to me!"
"That goes double for you, Groose!" Gaepora yelled at a boy with a terrible haircut. Pff. That's Groose?
"Ready... Begin!"

Chapter Text

In Ruined Hyrule

Link walked along the dirt path, marvelling at the view of the wide-open landscape on all sides. A ways in front of him stood two giant mountains the likes of which he’d never seen. They looked almost like a single mountain that had been split down the middle. Looking back, he saw the Great Plateau behind him atop the tallest cliff he’d ever seen. He walked through what looked like the ruins of buildings. Crumbling stone walls and staircases threatened his mind with the idea that something could cause this much destruction.
The ruins stopped at the bank of a river. To his right stood a weird-looking structure with bright orange glowing details. It bore a terminal just like the one at the tower - it must be for his Sheikah Slate! He ran toward the weird structure and held up the slate to the pedestal. Slowly, the door of the structure opened, revealing… a tiny chamber with nothing but a glowing blue circle and an eye symbol on the floor. That’s weird, he thought, entering the structure. He stood in the circle, just for fun, when it suddenly began to fall.

Inside the strange structure, a large staircase loomed in front of him, as well as a fan on the left and an orange-glowing chest on a platform on the right. The slate on his hip rumbled and he picked it up to see text displayed across the screen. Bosh Kala Shrine: The Wind Guides You. A shrine? The old man on the Plateau mentioned those, he thinks. He placed the slate back on his hip and sauntered up the staircase in front of him, coming to a dropoff. He grinned as he looked over the edge. There may not be clouds down there, but a big drop is definitely something he recognizes. After a quick few steps back, he ran toward the ledge and jumped, loudly whistling as he fell into the darkness.
Link found himself back atop the platform he jumped from. Somehow, falling down… put him back up. Weird. Maybe if he tried again, it would work better.
He’s back on the platform again. He shrugged the confusion off and continued up the stairs to his left, where a blowing fan nearly knocked him straight back off the edge. The wind blew toward a next platform, upon which were more stairs and another fan. He thought through the items in his pockets, which, frankly, weren’t much. But what he did have was a collection of sticks and a giant leaf, all stuck together to make a paraglider with a sort of handcrafted charm.
Jumping across the gap paraglider in hand was strangely fun. He jumped across the next gap the same way, ascending another staircase to face a large, blue box with a silly-looking man inside. Almost immediately, Link reached out to poke the blue box, curious what it would feel like. To his dismay, it dissolved into air when he touched it. A voice echoed within his mind suddenly, and he looked in surprise at the silly man, who now seemed to be speaking to him.

”Your resourcefulness in overcoming this trial speaks to the promise of a hero…”

”In the name of the Goddess Hylia, I bestow upon you this Spirit Orb.”

In an instant, a floating blue orb with what looked like the Goddess Crest appeared in front of the silly man and flew toward Link, flying straight into his chest. A strange rippling sensation pulsed through him for a moment as the orb meshed with his spirit, and a warmness spread across his body. It bore the crest of the Goddess for good reason.

May the Goddess smile upon you.

It seemed head voices really were normal here.
Back outside the shrine, Link looked around. Of course there was the Plateau up on the cliff where he’d come from, as well as the giant, split-in-half mountain. Just in front of one side of the mountain was another tower, this time already erupted from the ground. That was where he should go — those tall towers were good places to jump from.
Link crossed a wooden bridge and continued down the path, stopping repeatedly to look at bugs in the grass. He’d never seen a place this full-to-the-brim with life before. Sure Skyloft was crowded, but that was different. This huge island was open and empty, and it was more full than anywhere he’d ever been. In the sky were scattered wispy clouds; not quite as many clouds as made up the cloud barrier, but definitely more than were usually in the sky above him. He hopped across rocks which conveniently laid out a path across the river, and looked up at the tower.
Goddess, these towers were so tall.
About halfway up the tower, he gasped and panted for air. Even with free footholds, climbing was really hard.
After an embarrassingly long time, Link made it to the top of the tower. Just as he thought, another terminal meant for the slate stood atop it. After a good minute of catching his breath, Link approached it and placed the slate atop it. Again, strange symbols flooded down the pyramid above it, and a droplet of information landed on its screen. A map region filled out on the screen, and Link marvelled at it. This section of the map was somehow even bigger than the last. And still he had yet to see the edge. Just how gigantic was this island? It must be at least five — no, ten times bigger than Skyloft.
Looking over the edge of the tower, Link smiled. He was definitely going to glide in between the split-in-half mountain. It was practically obligatory. Homemade paraglider in hand, he dashed over the edge and jumped.
The sides of the mountain on either side of him were almost daunting. As he flew slowly forward, getting ever closer to the ground, he stared in awe at the sheer size of the rocks. Even this mountain alone must be at least half the size of Skyloft. Or, perhaps its size seemed exaggerated from his position in between the halves. Either way, it was massive and towered over all the landscape beneath it. Even as he landed softly on the grass, he was staring at the side of the mountain. It almost terrified him how big everything was.
But, mostly, it was just really interesting.
Further down the path was a tent built in the shape of… well, some kind of animal, he supposed. Smoke billowed from its snout and people were gathered around the structure.
People!
Link practically sprinted the rest of the way to the tent (at least, as far as he could sprint without completely draining himself of energy). When he reached the colorful tent, he waved at a man standing beside the counter.
“Hey, Welcome to Dueling Peaks Stable!” the man said in response. “What do you think of it? Pretty nice, yeah?”
Link shrugged and nodded. The structure wasn’t bad, even if he had no clue what it was meant to be.
“Well, it might be hard to imagine now, but this place was nearly destroyed 100 years ago. But, well, thanks to the blessings of the Dueling Peaks, everything is full of life again.”
Full of life. Those were exactly the words Link would’ve used to describe the area.
“Why, even the wild horses are back. There’s a lot of energy in this place!”
Link tilted his head at the man. Wild horses?
He raised an eyebrow at Link’s response. “Did you… did you not see any wild horses on your way here? There certainly aren’t as many as in years past, but there are still quite a few around.”
Link could only stare at him in bewilderment. Slowly, he raised an arm to point at the structure.
“The- the stable? Yeah, it’s built to look like a horse. All the stables in Hyrule are.”
Shaking his head, Link pulled the slate from his hip, hoping there would be any kind of information about a ‘wild horse.’ The screen of the device said nothing, and he placed it back on his hip. Link decided instead he’d speak to the man behind the counter, rather than beside it. Hesitantly, he waved again.
“Hello! Welcome, as he said,” he pointed to the man standing beside the counter, “to Dueling Peaks Stable! Have you come to register a horse? Take one out for a ride?”
Link tilted his head again. Everyone here was only talking about ‘horses.’
“...Register a horse…? You- Surely, you’ve seen a horse before?”
Link shook his head. The man standing beside the counter stared at him in bewilderment.
“What?!” he shouted. “Surely you’ve seen a horse! You’ve got to know what a horse is, young man!” Shocked, he addressed the man behind the counter. “Tasseren, this boy doesn’t know what a horse is!”
The man behind the counter, apparently Tasseren, shook his head as well. “Well, as much as I don’t want to believe that’s even possible, I suppose you could have just… never come across one.”
Link shrugged.
“Tasseren, you don’t really believe-”
“Rensa, this boy is a potential customer!” Tasseren hissed. “Do you understand? Don’t scare away another of my customers! What if this boy needs directions?”
Directions! That was precisely what Link needed. He pointed a finger at Tasseren and nodded enthusiastically.
“Now, what did I tell you?” Tasseren sported a knowing smirk. “Looks like the boy needs directions.”
The other man, apparently Rensa, sighed. “Alright then, directions for the boy who doesn’t know what a horse is. Where do you need to be going?”
Link shrugged again, and the incredulous look on Rensa’s face earned a hearty laugh from Tasseren.
“Well.” Rensa practically forced the word out. “There’s Hateno Village, with their research center. It’s east of here; just follow the road north until you reach the fork, and head east from there. It’s a long walk on foot, but, if you had a horse, you’d get there in just under a day.”
Link nodded. Hateno Village.
“And, of course, there’s Kakariko Village,” Rensa continues. “If you leave here and follow the road straight north, you’ll find a big bridge. Just cross it and keep following the path, and you’ll make it there right quick.”
Tasseren smiled. “The Kakariko Village gate is actually quite close to here.”
Link nodded again. Quickly checking the map, he noted which direction was north, and began walking down the road.
“Good luck, young man,” he heard Tasseren shout after him. Link gave a thumbs-up as he walked away, toward, apparently, Kakariko Village.

Chapter Text

On Skyloft

Link ran and dove off the ledge, whistling loudly as he fell. His bird, obnoxious as it was, circled him a few times before catching him. As soon as he was on the bird’s back, it rapidly spun upward. The sky around him blurred until the bright red bird suddenly stopped spinning, flying leisurely toward the golden bird carrying the statue. Link was left dizzy on its back, and nearly fell off as he regained his bearings.

Gaepora raised an eyebrow as he watched the boys’ birds fly after the statuette. He nudged the white-haired instructor beside him and pointed at the crimson Loftwing, flying erratically in the sky. He almost thought he saw Link actually fall off.
“Owlan, do you suppose Link’s bird is quite alright?”
“Now that you mention it, he does seem… a bit out of sorts, yes. But the ceremony has already begun.”
“You’re right, I suppose. Too late to do anything about it now.”

Link’s loftwing flew in swirls, then zigzags, then barrel rolls, then zigzags again. Sure, it was getting closer to the golden bird and the tiny statue, but not without making it as difficult for Link as possible. Left, then right, a little further right, far left, a bit right, left, not to mention the random speeding up and slowing down. Link might’ve vomited in his mouth more than once by now. Eventually, though, he did get close enough to the golden bird to reach out and grab the statue-
“Hey!” Groose’s voice rang out, not that Link was paying any attention to him. “Don’t you know that this is my day to get all the glory?”
Groose’s bird slammed beak-first into Link’s, but not before he was able to grab hold of the statue. Tiny bird statue in hand, Link nearly fell off his bird at the impact, and accidentally dragged the golden bird back by the statue still attached to its talons. Somehow, in the commotion, it dislodged from the bird’s foot, and it screeched and flew off in a flurry of golden feathers.
Link held up the little bird-shaped statue triumphantly. Even if it was the world’s easiest win, he was still kind of proud of it. His bird, however, had other plans, nearly knocking him off again in a barrel roll that would have been really cool if he wasn’t the victim of it. When he was able to lift his head again, he saw Zelda looking over the ledge.
“Link!” She jumped from the island, barrelling toward him. His bird reacted near-instantly, catching Zelda noticeably more gently than how it’d caught him. All of a sudden, now that Zelda was atop his bird, it flew completely normally.
“Oh, I see how it is,” Link mumbled half to himself and half to his bird.
“Great flying, Link! Congratulations!” Zelda practically screamed into his ear. “Now we’d better get on with the ceremony!”
Why did she even jump onto his bird, then?
Either way, he was admittedly grateful for it. With Zelda aboard, the stupid red beast flew straight to the giant Goddess statue and let them off nice and easily (though, it did make sure to flap its wings aggressively when Link was trying to dismount and Zelda wasn’t looking).
“Link, hand me that bird statuette you grabbed in the race. I must offer it to the Goddess.”
Link, still frazzled from his bird-riding experience, silently handed the statue to Zelda, who placed it in a small indent in the Goddess statue where they stood. Again, she pulled out her harp, and began to play the song.
Turning to him, Zelda beckoned for him to kneel. He rolled his eyes, but still did it anyway.
“Great Goddess, blinding light and protector of our people, grant us your blessing and mercy as I act in your stead during this ceremony.”
Link wasn’t exactly paying attention during the whole speech. Something about the Goddess, and birds, and yadda yadda, ceremony things. Zelda took the shawl from her shoulders and folded it neatly before handing it to him. “The blessings of the Goddess drift down from the heavens aloft a sail, which I now pass on to you.”
Thank the Goddess using his bird wasn’t going to be quite so necessary.
“So…” Zelda said after he took the cloth, “do you remember what happens next?”
Link glanced over the edge of the statue and saw a large, circular pattern engraved into the stone beneath them. “I bet I jump off the statue and land in that circle.”
“Mhm!” She hummed cheerfully. “You know, if you were really brave, you’d wait until the last second to… open the sailcloth… and…”
Link was already standing at the bottom.

At the base of the Goddess statue, Zelda smiled at Link. “That was perfect!”
“I have a lot of practice falling off of stuff,” he shrugged.
Zelda ignored him. “You know,” she said, looking at the ground, “seeing as how you won today… and with the weather being so nice…”
Oh no.
“You think maybe you’d like to, you know,”
Oh no.
“Go fly around the clouds together?”
Oh. “Uhh…” Link glared at the bundle of red feathers beside him. “If my bird is up for that,” he grumbled.
Zelda laughed. “I’m sure he’s just fine. I mean, he did win the race today!”
Link scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

Flying beside Zelda’s bird, Link’s crimson Loftwing behaved just beautifully. At least, as long as Zelda and her bird were looking. “Hey, Link!” Zelda called out over the sound of the wind in their ears.
“Yeah?”
“Watching you win the race today and performing the ritual together… I’ll always remember this!”
Link couldn’t help but notice she definitely wasn’t looking at his face.
“It really was wonderful!”
Link turned his head away so he could roll his eyes without Zelda noticing.
She suddenly pulled her bird closer to his. “You know, Link, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about-”
An explosion on the horizon cut her off. Link couldn’t help but smile. Finally. Maybe now he’ll be able to actually start the story.
A giant, dark tornado materialized in front of them, and Link’s bird reared back, this time not with the purpose of messing with its rider. “What’s going on?!” Zelda screamed. The wind whipped around the pair and Zelda was pulled closer to the maelstrom of darkness. The relentless wind pushed Link and his bird away, and Zelda fell from her bird and down into the heart of the storm. ”Link!” she screamed as she fell, reaching toward him in vain. Her bird, too, was pulled into the darkness. Link was battered by the wind as he watched her fall. Without his command, his bird dove toward Zelda, but the wind struck them as if they’d slammed into a solid wall. Link and his bird were blasted backward, and all of a sudden it wasn’t only the tornado that had gone dark.

Chapter Text

Disembodied maraca noises had been sounding around Link for a while since he’d crossed the bridge on the way to Kakariko. Every once in a while, they sounded right in front of his face, and he got a whiff of something awful.
His feet were aching as he walked, flanked on either side by huge cliffs. They weren’t as grand as the split-in-half mountain he had encountered before, but their sheer size still shocked him. Seven little metal cubes stuck out of the wall on his left, and on his right stood a tree with bright green mushrooms at its base. His mouth watered almost as soon as he saw them. Without even hesitating, he grabbed the mushrooms from the ground and bit into them.
Instantly, the tiredness left his legs. He could run a marathon. Revitalized, he sauntered down the path as if he’d never been panting for breath.
In front of him stood a wooden arch from which a few blue banners hung. The banners bore a faded design that looked like a simple eye… with a drop at the bottom? This must be the Kakariko gate, he thought, and passed through it.
A few paces further and he stood beside a large tree. A beetle that looked like if sky stag beetles were yellow sat on its trunk. Link smiled and took a wide path around the tree to avoid bothering the creature. He crossed a wooden bridge over a small rivulet and followed the path in front of him until he was just about bowled over by a girl running by.
“OH! Sorry!” she practically yelled at him, nearly toppling over herself. “I’m just playing!”
Link tilted his head inquisitively.
“I’m playing tag!” she yelled, more a continuation of her thought than actually an answer to Link’s nonverbal question. “But everybody else is busy. I’m so BORED!”
A smile grew on Link’s face. He loved tag.
Link pointed to himself excitedly. The girl’s eyes lit up. “You wanna play tag with me?!”
Link nodded.
“YAAAY! I’ll start running!” and immediately she was off.
Her child-sized height might have been a disadvantage if Link wasn’t also outrageously short. Suddenly he was a lot more grateful that he’d eaten those mushrooms. They’d run back up to the bridge Link had crossed by the time he was able to reach out and tap her shoulder.
“Awh, you win already,” she said. “THAT WAS SO FUN THOUGH! Here, this is my secret treasure, but you can have it!”
Link was a little disappointed by the word ‘treasure’ when she reached into her pocket. Surely she wasn’t going to give him tattered clothes?
She beamed with pride as she handed him a big chunk of pink rock. “Crunchy crunchables!”
Link’s expression matched hers as he took it. Crunchy crunchables sounded like a plan to him.

Dorian nudged the man behind him and pointed at a boy a ways down the path. “Do you suppose you’ve seen him before?”
“Sweet Hylia, what is he doing?” Cado’s voice radiated utter confusion and maybe a little disgust at the sight. A few feet down the path, a boy was trying to gnaw through a chunk of pure rock salt. And he was approaching them. He’d nearly made it to the stairs behind them before Cado remembered to snap into action. “Hey! You there! How dare you trespass upon Lady Impa’s abode!”
“Oh- yes! Who are you?!” Dorian followed.
The boy — who had nearly fit the entire rock in his mouth at this point, and it had become more impressive than disgusting — startled a few steps backward, nearly knocking a strange device from his hip. Upon closer inspection, it almost looked familiar.
“Is that… a Shiekah Slate?” Cado said finally, after a few awkward seconds of staring. “But that would mean that you are… no, it’s not possible,” he wanted to laugh. This boy? Trying-to-fit-an-entire-chunk-of-rock-salt into his mouth boy? The hero of ancient legend? “Can it be…?”
“Please forgive us for behaving so rudely!” Clearly Dorian did not have as much apprehension at the thought as Cado did. “We have heard the legends from Lady Impa herself. Please, friend…” he shuddered involuntarily as a visible droplet of drool fell to the ground, “...go ahead and step inside.”
The both of them watched in a kind of withdrawn awe as the boy ascended the stairs. Cado looked at Dorian beside him. “There’s no way.”
“It’s not our place to judge, Cado.”
“But he was-! I mean, those chunks of rock salt are not small!”
Dorian swallowed a lump in his throat and shrugged. “Well, maybe not the hero we need, but definitely the hero we deserve.”

Link shrugged to himself on his way up the long flight of stairs. The Sheikah Slate was pretty important, apparently.
He reached the top of the stairs and opened the double doors at the front of the building. Inside, an old, very old woman sat atop a pile of cushions. It was a wonder that she hadn’t fallen over. As soon as the door was open, she looked up at him, squinting.
“So, you’re finally awake. It has been quite a long time, Link. Come closer, now. It seems my eyes are not what they used to be.” She continued to speak as he approached her. “I am much older now, but… you remember me, don’t you?”
Link tilted his head, which was decidedly more difficult with a chunk of salt in his mouth. He stopped a few steps in front of her and sat cross-legged on the floor.
“What’s the matter? You are looking at me as if I am a stranger to you. Surely… hang on a minute…” She leaned forward on her pile of cushions. Still, it didn’t topple over. Her eyes went wide and she smacked her forehead. “Oh, Hylia. It’s not my eyes at all. You’re low-poly!”
Link did not know what that meant.
“Link, you are not supposed to be here,” she said. “Yes yes, I am Impa, you have lost your memory, blah blah blah. But you have not lost your memory, have you?”
Link shook his head, retrieving the salt from his mouth and shoving it in his pocket. He figured it was a bit rude to be chewing on salt during this conversation.
“Now,” Impa said, returning to her original position atop the pile and concentrating, “Tell me if this sounds familiar. An island in the sky, a school to train noble knights, a gargantuan red bird…”
He nodded vigorously. Skyloft! He knew it well.
“Oh, dear.” Impa sighed. “Link, you’ve swapped places with the Link who is meant to be in this Hyrule. I have no idea how this could have possibly happened, but it must be righted! Do you recall anything from before you found yourself here? Anything out of the ordinary for you, I mean?”
He shook his head. He’d just gone to bed like normal.
“Well,” Impa said. “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in saving our Hyrule in his place?” she chuckled.
Link shrugged and nodded.
Impa cocked an eyebrow in surprise. “Link, that was… that was a joke. I was joking. You don’t really…” she sighed. “Well! I’ll summarize it for you, I suppose. One hundred years ago, our kingdom of Hyrule was destroyed.”
Link gasped.
“Yes, destroyed, Link. I don’t suppose you’ve faced anything like that in your Hyrule?”
He shook his head. All he knew was peaceful flying and slacking off of practice. Maybe this was the karma for never paying attention to his studies…
“Yadda yadda yadda, Calamity Ganon took the castle and Zelda has been holding him back with the last of her power ever since. The Divine Beasts are under Ganon’s control and you must free them, though I hardly think you are up to that task!”
Link shrugged.
“Hylia have mercy,” Impa said, exasperated. “Have you even figured out how to use your Sheikah Slate’s runes?”
Runes? He didn’t even recognize the word, to be completely honest. He tilted his head.
“Hand me the Slate, Link.”
He did as she said. She tapped on its screen for a bit, becoming visibly more frustrated as she did so.
“Link, how in Hyrule did you manage to make your way here without a single rune on your Sheikah Slate? For Hylia’s sake, that is not supposed to be possible!” She handed the Slate back to him and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You know what? To be quite honest, I don’t see any way out of this other than you freeing our Hyrule, and you could really use the help of the Champions. Link, I’m going to ask you to free the Divine Beasts.”
He practically jumped from his seat on the floor in excitement. He moved toward the door.
“But before you go! Listen to me very carefully,” Impa called after him. “The Rito are not Loftwings!”
The door shut behind Link just after Impa called out those final words to him. He wasn’t sure what exactly she meant by that, and he’d certainly never heard of Rito, so he shrugged it off. The Slate on his hip buzzed and he retrieved it. The map showed four glowing yellow points, one in each corner. Well, almost each corner. The dot that would be in the bottom-right was more in the middle, and it rubbed him the wrong way. He decided he should really go to that dot first — he imagined it would disappear after he did as he was told, just like the first dot that had appeared on the Plateau.
He hummed to himself as he descended the stairs. He didn’t notice the incredulous looks from the two men standing guard in front of Impa’s house, nor how they pointed in disgust at his now drool-stained back pocket, where a forgotten chunk of saliva-covered salt was still stuffed. All that was left for Link to figure out now was where exactly he was going! The part of the map with the dot he’d set his sights on was not actually filled in yet, to his dismay. He supposed he’d just walk in a straight line until he got there.

Chapter Text

Link’s eyes flew open.
He was laying in the bed he’d found himself in this morning. Standing in the center of the room was… well, Link couldn’t quite remember the man’s name, if he was being honest. Something that started with a P or a J, he was pretty sure.
“Hey, pops,” Link groaned. He was suddenly acutely aware of the pain in his body.
“So you’re finally awake,” the man said quietly. “And… it’s Headmaster, not pops.”
Link couldn’t help but feel distinctly like he was missing out on a reference to something. Either way, it didn’t really matter. “Zelda fell down a tornado.”
The Headmaster’s eyes practically bugged out of his skull. “She… she what?!”
“Yeah. Big dark tornado. Zelda fell down into it.” Link gestured downward with his hands to punctuate his point.
“My dear Zelda…”
“Not to worry, though, pops, I got this big fancy sword,” he gestured to the Master Sword set haphazardly in a pile of presumably his things, “so I guess I’ll go down under all those clouds and get her.”
“My boy…” he paused, though he seemed to have given up on correcting Link on his title. “You- you can’t just ‘go under the clouds’ like it’s nothing! Great golden goddesses, even infants know this.”
That last part seemed like an exaggeration.
The Headmaster pinched the bridge of his nose, enunciating his words as though speaking to a very small (and maybe very stupid) child. To be fair, he was, in fact, talking to someone very small and very stupid. “Link, it is impossible to pierce the cloud barrier. That’s the entire point of it.”
The Master Sword fell from the top of the pile as a purple-and-blue light emerged from it, forming midair into the more human form that both recognized. Fi turned to face Link — well, as much as she could without an actual face — and bowed slightly. “Master Link, I have some information that may please you. The one you call Zelda is still alive.”
The Headmaster beside him couldn’t hold back his smile at the news, but Link waved it off. “Yeah, I assumed that,” he said. “Anything else? Like where Ganon is? Or how to go fight him?”
Fi tilted her head in confusion. “To go below the clouds you must place the emerald tablet in its pedestal.” She waved her, for lack of a better word, arms forward and a chunk of stone materialized. On one side protruded a decoratively-cut green gemstone. “Its place is inside the statue of the Goddess, where you first found the sword.”
“Right, right, but what about Ganon?”
“I do not understand.”
“Oh, for Hylia’s sake,” Link grumbled. He barely even noticed the incredulous look he was receiving from the Headmaster.
“Link, do you not realize what she just proposed? It’s a possibility to go below the clouds, to go to the surface the legends speak of! This is a great and unique opportunity! I mean, most knights wouldn’t dare think that anything even exists down there, but you get to actually go and experience it!”
Link was practically geared up and out the door by the time he was finished rambling on. Before he actually left, though, he had just one question for his Headmaster. “Hey, pops, what actually is your name again?”
He seemed taken aback by the question. “It’s… it’s Gaepora,” he answered.
Link smacked himself on the forehead. “Gaepora! Right! Yeah, I’ll remember that better now. Thanks, pops!”
“Link!” Gaepora called after him. “Please, find my daughter!”
Link wasn’t going to bother to turn around and answer, but as he opened the Knight Academy doors, he sighed. “I will,” he said, and vanished outside.

The trudge up the staircase to the statue of the Goddess was a much worse experience after having been knocked out by a tornado. Even worse was the giant stone tablet he had to haul all the way to the top.
“Fi…” he said between heavy breaths, “could you have waited until I was already up there to materialize this thing?”
The blue-and-purple blur from his sword caught him off guard every time she appeared. “Master Link, had you followed the intended sequence of events, that is what would have happened.”
“Well, why didn’t you say anything about it until now?!”
Fi tilted her solid blue head at him in confusion. “I do not understand.”
Link groaned at her response, continuing his trudge up the stairs in silence. He stopped for a moment when he reached the top, catching his breath and setting down the heavy stone tablet for a moment. Something bright green caught his eye, at least, until Fi appeared from the sword on his back again. Link startled, flailing his arms slightly.
“Sweet Hylia, can you give me a warning when you do that?!”
Fi ignored him. “Master Link, the object that you have located is called a Stamina Fruit. Upon consumption of this fruit, the stamina of the body is fully replenished, allowing for continued activities such as running—”
“—and climbing, and jumping, yadda yadda yadda. I get it.”
She tilted her head at him. “I was not going to suggest either of those actions.”
“Right. Okay. Well, could you get it for me?”
“I am not a corporeal being. I am not capable of retrieving objects.”
Link rolled his eyes and walked the short distance to the plant. Oh, what a difficult trudge it was, those three steps. If only he’d had some willing help to stop him from having to experience such a travesty.
Biting into the radioactive-green fruit, all of the soreness instantly left his body. He could probably lift a thousand stone tablets.
Upon lifting the emerald tablet off of the ground, though, he was violently reminded that, no, he could actually only lift one.

The inside of the goddess statue was as boring as it had been the first time around. Link made his way begrudgingly up to the pedestal at the back of the chamber, and slid the emerald tablet into place.
Link stumbled backward as a flash of blue light bolted across his vision. Fi materialized in front of him.
“There has got to be a better way to do that.”
Again, Fi ignored him. “Until now, a cloud barrier created by the Goddess has separated the world you know from the one below. The tablet you placed in the altar has opened a small rift in the barrier. You can use it to travel through the clouds—”
“Didn’t we already go over this?”
“I do not understand.”
Link pinched the bridge of his nose. “I mean, you already told me what the tablet would do before I did it. You don’t have to explain it again, right?”
Somehow, even without a real face, Fi looked confused. “I do not understand.”
“Just — oh, nevermind.” Link said, waiting for Fi to retreat back into the sword before he left the statue.
There, in the distance, was a bright green pillar of light emanating from the land below and piercing the layer of clouds. He supposed that had been the opening in the cloud barrier that Fi was going on and on about.
As if on cue, a flash of blue-and-purple light burst suddenly out of the sword. “Master, I have an update regarding the stone tablet and the resulting column of light it has created. A column of light has appeared to the south of our location—”
“I already know that! I can see it!” He gestured aggressively in the direction of the green pillar of light.
Without another word, Fi returned to the sword.
A heavy breath escaped his lungs. It was going to be a long adventure.