Rise of Legends
[Written by: Stephen J. Sheridan]
Prologue - The Oncoming Storm
The sky was growing increasingly dark and there were whispers of a looming threat from the land below the clouds - the land my people had once called home long ago. It is said that a great evil befell our ancestors down below and in order to save countless future generations of our race, a great Goddess sent what remained of our race skyward beyond the evil's reach. Our ancestors christened their new home, Skyloft, and lived above the clouds in peace for a hundred years. Now, many fear that same evil may be returning as the sky darkens all around us.
I sighed silently as the wind enveloped me, sending strands of my shoulder length blonde hair into my eyes as I stood on a precipice of Skyloft looking downward at the dark storm clouds forming around the small skyborn isle I called home. Suddenly I felt a gentle touch on my shoulder as a strong hand embraced me.
"They say that it is always darker before the dawn." a voice said from my side as I turned to see my longtime friend, Link standing beside me.
"And, who, might I ask, says that?" I queried with a raised eyebrow as I looked into his deep brown eyes that seemed to be brimmed full of courage.
"I'm not quite sure myself to be honest, Zelda. It's something my uncle says to me when I have a bad day." he chuckled as he pushed his medium length, wild, unruly dark blonde hair out of his eyes.
"Your uncle's a wise man, Link. You should heed his teachings." I whispered as I turned back to the dark storm clouds that were encroaching our little isle.
"And, you shouldn't concern yourself with such matters as these clouds, Zelda." Link replied gently as he stroked my cheek with two fingers while putting his arm around me. "It's nothing but another of those freak storms that pass over us from time to time. There really is nothing to fret over." he said, probably doing his best to reassure me.
"I am not sure it is a simple storm. I have a very terrible boding about those dark clouds." I said with a slight shiver as I pulled my dark purple cloak around me.
"You've been having nightmares again, haven't you?" he whispered in concern as he gently turned my face with his hand to face his. "I thought you said that they had stopped a week ago!"
"Well, they had..." I said in a harsh whisper as I closed my eyes as tears began to form within them. "But, they came back last night!" I said, letting it all out as I sobbed into his shoulder.
"Now, don't cry, Zelda. I'm sure it's nothing more than sleeping issues." he whispered as he kissed the top of my head gently and embraced me.
And, so we stood there on the edge of the isle of Skyloft like that for a long while as the sky grew darker. Soon my tears stopped and I just stood there content to be in Link's presence for the present.
"We'll get through this, Zel." he whispered soothingly as he rested his cheek against mine. "I know we will."
Down on the surface, things weren't any better for the inhabitants the Goddess had left behind when she had saved Zelda's ancestors. Everything was in turmoil now with the Goddess and Zelda's people gone. Not a day passed without a breach to the underworld forming where the Goddess had banished the Great Evil and its armies. As time wore on, more and more of the surface was being overrun by this great darkness from the Underworld and without the Goddess there was no way to stop it. Soon the Great Evil would have control of the land beneath the clouds once more.
There were rumors that the Gorons had been enslaved by a tribe of Underworlders who had invaded the Eldin volcano region and that the Zora had made an alliance with yet another group of Underworlders. It seemed as if nowhere in the land beneath the clouds was safe. Villages were being plundered and ravaged by what the land-dwellers could only call demons from the Underworld. Would no one come to save them in their darkest hour?
The next day, I woke to a darkened house. I sat up in bed and frowned. This was bad. Very bad. Something was amiss. To awaken to no sunlight was a very rare thing up here above the clouds in Skyloft.
"Father?" I called as I put on my robe and ran a hand through my sleep tussled hair to straighten it. "Why is it so dark so early in the morning?"
There was no response. The house was eerily quiet. Not to mention dark. I shuddered as I walk down the hall to parlor area where we entertained any guests we might have. I crossed over the rug by the hearth to our front door and stepped out onto the porch to see if Father was out there and had not heard my call. He was no where in sight. In fact, the whole isle was empty and mysteriously quiet.
"Where is everyone?" I wondered aloud, frowning in bewilderment as I walked up to the porch's railings and scanned the isle for any sign of life, yet alone activity.
"Good, you're up!" Link's cheerful voice said from the road down below, breaking into my thoughts as he waved up at me.
"Link, what in all of Skyloft is going on, and furthermore, where is everyone?" I queried, crossing my arms.
"At the special Skyloft community meeting your Father and the Council called for earlier this morning." Link called up to me.
"Why is there a special meeting, Link? What's going on?" I asked, dreading to my core the answer.
"There's been a situation..." Link said in an evasively vague manner. "You had better get yourself presentable and come with me." He told me with an utterly serious expression on his face.
I nodded to him. But as I turned to enter my house once more, he added: "Quickly."
This was indeed serious for Link to be ordering me around. Very serious indeed. I made a dignified, yet hurried, dash into my house and began to prepare for this interesting development Link spoke of whatever it could be.
Fifteen minutes later I was ready. Dressed in a simple white dress with my dark purple cloak over it, I made my way down to Link who was leaning against a tree eating an apple as if there wasn't a care in the world.
"Ready?" I smiled somberly as I looped my arm through his and we made for the Council at the centre of the isle.
As we walked I could glimpse several of Skyloft's loft birds circling above our isle looking down at us with curious looks. I wondered, then, just how intelligent were those avian creatures and if they knew what was happening to the greater world around them. I smiled when I spotted the red one Link sometimes rode through the skies. It tweeted as it spotted its rider. Link waved silently up at it as we approached the building where the Council resided.
"Before you go in..." Link began as we stood on the steps leading up to the Council.
"Father wishes for me to address the Council, does he not?" I guessed with a sigh.
"He does indeed." Link nodded as he opened the wooden double doors and led me inside.
The minute we stepped inside, the eerie quiet that had surrounding me all morning was brought to a halt as we were greet by a storm of voices arguing from the Council chambers. I felt great anger and anxiety emanating from the chambers and froze in my tracks. Never before had I felt such strong emotions such as this. Skyloft had not known anger nor sorrow nor anxiety. Ever. This was indeed startling. I looked at Link with wide eyes. What had happened to disrupt the peace and happiness of our community?
"Link?" I asked, totally unprepared for this.
"Zelda, it's up to you to restore the peace. No one will listen to your father nor the Council members!" he pleaded as we stood there outside the doors to the chamber as the din rose to unheard of levels.
"What can I do?" I gawked at him.
"You have to do something. Anything!" he begged as the arguing picked up pace within the chambers.
"Alright, if I must. I see I have to fix everything as usual." I said with a half smile as I opened the Council chambers wooden doors and stepped into the fury within.
No one seemed to have noticed our presence as the arguing went on unabated as Link and I stood in the open doorway, watching as council members and villager went at it. I gasped when suddenly a villager gripped a councillor by his collar and began to violently shake her.
"Enough!" I said in a soft, stern voice filled with cold fury at the behavior I was seeing around me. "I will have order!"
A sudden hush fell across the chambers as the people within stopped what their arguments and turned as one to face Link and I. I took a deep breath, preparing my next move.
"Fellow members of the esteemed council of Skyloft and fellow citizens, I came in here to aid you in this dark hour but am faced with something even more unsettling, to find you at each other's throats! What has happened to all of you to turn you into such beasts?"
"Zelda," Councillor Maria said, stepping out of the midst of humanity towards Link and I. "I take it you have not heard what has transpired here overnight?"
"You are indeed correct, Councillor." I nodded, indicating for her to fill me in.
"Last night a band of mysterious hooded thugs appeared on our humble little isle and kidnapped all of our daughters." she finished as I took a step back and put a hand to my heart.
"They're gone? All of them?" I asked in a hoarse whisper, hardly believing my ears.
"I am afraid so, my darling." Father said grimly as he stepped forward and embraced me.
"Well, how come they left me?" I queried as it dawned on me.
"We don't know, Zelda. We are just glad you are still with us." Maria said, putting her hand gently on mine.
"Can anyone identify who these kidnappers are and where they came from?"
"It was too dark for anyone to see clearly." a villager spoke up, wiping away a tear from his elderly face. His wife sobbed on his shoulder from beside him, hiding her face with her long, curly auburn hair.
"This is indeed an outrage," I said after a moment's thought. "Has anyone any guesses on where these interlopers may have come from, a neighboring isle perhaps?"
"If I may, Zelda?" Link asked from beside me.
I nodded at him to go ahead. He gave me a small smile of gratitude before continuing with his thought.
"I have a theory if it is alright with the Council to voice it?"
"Permission granted." Father said in his gruff voice as he folded his hands behind his back.
"What if these, interlopers for lack of a better term, came from the land below the clouds?" Link asked warily as as one the members of the Council and the villagers gasped at the very idea.
"What makes you think it was an attack from below, Link?" I asked intrigued.
"Simple. I found this in my front garden this morning." he explained holding up an old, weathered piece of parchment with a grotesque black image of a horrid monster printed on it.
"The Underworlders imprint!" an elderly old woman gasped.
"You recognize this?" I asked gently, looking at her incredulously. Could she really be old enough to have been one of Skyloft's first settlers?
"Indeed I do. I was but a lass when the Goddess sent us up above the clouds. But old age will never erase the image of the Underworlders from my mind. Mark my words, that is their imprint." she said shakily as she sat down in a rickety old rocking chair.
"My apologies, but what exactly is an imprint?" a young boy asked timidly from the sidelines.
"A calling card." Link said grimly as he stroked his chin. "I think it best if all the youngsters be excused for this portion of the meeting."
"I agree." the elderly woman nodded as she took the young boys out of the chambers. I sighed to myself as I thought of all those young girls who had been taken last night. Those poor souls!
Once all the boys had departed and closed the door behind them, I nodded to Link to continue his earlier thought.
"This is merely the calm before the storm. These interlopers are not just going to settle for ransom money, they are going to want to start a war between land and sky."
"Why? What possible gain could they get from war?" a young blonde councilor in her early thirties wondered.
"Revenge." I said, finally catching on with Link's train of thought.
"For what? What have we ever done to them?" exclaimed a mother of two kidnapped daughters.
"Legend says that after the Goddess sent our ancestors up into the sky, she and those that remained below the clouds banished the evil Interlopers and their armies into the Underworld. The Underworlders can't harm the Goddess now so therefore seek to harm us, the descendants of the 'Chosen Ones' who gained Her favor." Link continued.
"But, won't the Goddess protect us like she did a century ago?" another councilor inquired as there were murmurs of agreement around the room.
"Not necessary," I broke in. "Rumor has it that this Goddess vanished along with the Interlopers. No one has seen or heard from Her since." I ended in a whisper as the truth sunk in throughout the room.
"We have to face this threat alone this time. We'll have no other worldly help this time." Link added ruefully.
"Which puts us at a great disadvantage as the Underworlders have great magic and powerful leadership." I added.
"What about those land-dwellers that fought alongside the Goddess when she banished the Interlopers? Where are they? Did they even survive?" a villager chimed in.
"We have no idea. The moment our ancestors were sent up to Skyloft, we were cut off from the land below." I explained.
"Than we need to send a message down to them to alert them that the Interlopers have escaped their prison and are about to wage war with us!" a woman cried out, holding a crying baby in her arms.
"Actually, that sounds like a reasonable plan..." Link said after we mulled the suggestion over for a few moments.
"But, who do we send down?" I asked for the community.
"It'll have to be a knight. Someone who will be able to defend themselves against the perilous dangers below the clouds. We have no idea what it is like down there. It could be a war zone for all we know." father said after a while as he fiddled with his grey mustache.
"I'll go." Link said suddenly from beside me. I closed my eyes. It was always going to be him. He was the most courageous knight I had ever known, always putting others before his own interests. A lone tear slid down my cheek as I opened my eyes and looked at him.
"Oh, Link, why do you have to be so courageous?" I whispered.
"Oh, Zelda, why do you have to be so wise?" he said with that boyish grin of his as he took my hands in his. "I have to go, Zelda. The future of the peoples of Land and Sky depend on someone putting a stop to the Interlopers' conquest. My Uncle says evil can only prevail if good stands to the side and does nothing. So, I'm going to do something!" he concluded as he took my chin in his hand, raised it up a notch, and locked lips with me.
"I love you, Zelda." he whispered as he pulled away after a moment with a sad smile.
"I love you, too, you big fool!" I smiled and cried simultaneously as I embraced him tightly to a sombre applause from our audience.
"Good." father said with a nod. "I thoroughly approve of your choice in men, my daughter."
"Oh, father, you're only saying that because he's about to go off on some fool's quest and end up dead!" I sobbed.
"Do you really think I am that much of a weakling, Zelda?" Link said with a frown.
"No, you know I don't, Link. I just can't bear to think of you going down there to face this great Evil all by yourself..." I said, hastily turning around as another bout of tears welled up in my eyes.
"Well, now that this is all settled and everyone is in agreement I call this meeting of the Skyloft Council and its greater community adjourned!" father announced with a clap of his hands, signaling the end of the discussion for everyone involved.
I took my time wiping my face clean of tears as everyone save for Link and my father filed silently out of the Council Chambers.
"I guess I had better go pack for this journey," Link said after everyone had left. He was thinking like the knight he was and pretending to have forgotten what had just transpired between the two of us. I sighed as I touched my lips with my hand.
"Link, before you go gallivanting off down below the clouds, I believe you may find this to be of some use." father said retrieving an old book with a green faded cover from a shelf towards the back of the chamber. "It's the Book of Mudora and was said to be written by the Goddess herself."
"I don't know how to thank you, Councilor Gaepora." Link said as he took the book and shook hands with my father. "I'll take very good care of this during my travels."
"I trust that you will, Link. Now, I think I'll leave you two lovebirds to your farewells." he nodded as he left us alone in the Council Chambers.
Once he had left, Link took me into his arms, embraced me tightly, and we were once more lip-locked together. He hadn't forgotten after all, I smiled to myself!
"Farewell, my Zelda." he smiled once he had released me after a good five minutes.
I was at a loss for words as he gave me a salute and left the chamber. I was still blinking in shock when Councillor Horwell, a good friend of my family's, walked in.
"Zelda, are you alright? Your father sent me to check on you when you didn't return home after a good while. What happened between you and Link?" he asked as he pulled his long white hair out of his tanned face.
"Oh, nothing, Councillor. Nothing, whatsoever." I smiled as I left him staring in bewilderment at me as I walked out of the chamber.