Warrior Academy of Hylia
Welcome to the Academy
"Remember." a voice echoed, as myriad others yelled one word, like their lives depended on them, and they did. Somehow he knew they did.
"Persona!"
"Persona!"
"Persona!"
"You will die." the voice continued, as though it were a comfort.
"Persona!"
"Persona!"
"Persona!"
"The remarkable hold the potential...and unlock it." the voice faded, and another emerged behind it.
"Waking up!" a new voice was saying, "He's waking up."
He opened his eyes and saw a ruined land, unsure of it's previous status before it was destroyed, whether rich or poor, in the end it made no difference, it never did, never would. It was beyond status, it was beyond fixing, he knew that. A snarl behind him shook him, he felt like someone was trying to coax him out of his dreams, and he wanted to follow, but couldn't, he was trapped until he could see what he wanted to see, to see what was left behind, it was blurry, but yellow eyes opened to the darkness and held out its hand, and he barely escaped.
"What?" another voice asked, as he swam to the surface.
"I said he's waking up, how many times must a repeat it?" He could see the water shining through the depths, furious red and orange shimmering the light.
"What's his name?" he broke the surface and gasped for air.
He opened his eyes, startled, taking in deep gulps of air, and looked up to find a rather large man standing across from him, two men stood behind him, watching on. He thought they must have been twins.
"Will you two stop bickering?" the large man turned away from the now silent twins and stepped up to his cot where he sat up and gave him a clipboard, "There you are, we just need you to sign here."
The boy looked at his arm, and shook his head, "Link."
"Your name?" a nod answered him.
"Gaepora Kaebora, the Headmaster of...never mind...you can sign later."
"What am I signing for?" Link asked.
"For school, here at...well, incidents are bound to happen, whether they will for you or not isn't the point, but don't worry, this just says you'll take responsibility for anything you do." the Headmaster replied.
"How did I end up like this?" Link looked at his bandaged arm, he felt as though something had clawed at it earlier.
"An incident...the transport that was carrying you ran into some difficulties, but our special unit is looking into that."
"Special unit...kids like me?"
"No, but we do have a younger group training for those positions, and...if you...have the potential, you could join their ranks, but that is fate and not our decision."
The boy hummed in reply and ended the conversation.
The following morning the Headmaster rose early for breakfast and found that the other resident of the Kaebora Villa had already woken up, as usual.
"Morning." he grumbled tiredly.
"Sorry, my harp practice didn't keep you up, did it?" asked the brown haired girl, finishing up her breakfast.
"No, I told you I'd be fine, and I am...but I'm not as young as I was," he said, rubbing his forehead, mentally exhausted, "soon another must take my place."
"Hey, you can do it," she replied, watching as he searched through the refrigerator for an apple, "you've got at least another decade before you can retire, you just have to believe in yourself, Father."
"Ha, and I have to stop being lazy." he said, deciding on an orange instead.
"I wasn't going to say anything." Zelda crossed her arms, smiling, "So, how's the boy they pulled from the wreckage?"
"He's better, but...there's something unusual about him."
"What, you don't think-" she stopped and studied the orange peels on the table.
"Well, he seemed tired, dispirited, but I wouldn't expect any less, my only concern is if he figures how out exactly how he got there, and if he does have the power, who knows what will come of it?" his cell phone rang out the beginning of the "Song of the Hero" and he jumped up, cleaned his messy hands, and answered it, "Hmm...this must be Owlan using Horwell's cell...he still writes out whole words when texting!"
Zelda shook her head, a light chuckle shaking her, "Well, he believes spelling matters, no matter what."
"Eventually he may see how useful that text message dictionary I gave him for his birthday is."
"I think he took that gift the wrong way, later he gave you a book called 'Weightless' by Piper, I'm pretty sure she's a chef...I have a few guesses as to what it's for."
"Ha, well, I guess I complained about my weight enough, he decided to do something about it."
"Well, he's still watching Mia for you, so that's a good sign." Zelda noted, watching as her father frowned at the message, "What's wrong?"
"'Upon further inspection of the crashed vehicle in which the boy found last Wednesday was in, it has been determined that the transport was sliced open by a sharp blade, the wounds on the student victim's right arm were inflicted during the cutting of the walls, the other two showed no signs of injury, but were found collapsed in the surrounding area, face down, similar to the other victims found or self reported over the last week.' Horwell wants me to meet him in my office, so you'll have to find Mia and find a place to put her, I would try Horwell's room, but it's probably locked...oh! The boy's going to try attending today, he wants you to show him around."
"Sure, it's probably a good idea if you're right about him," she said getting up from her chair to the door, "for us to establish a first name relationship, at the very least."
"'Gr8, she's on it.'", he smiled, satisfied with the text, then promptly a text containing a lone punctuation mark was received, "It's a question mark...that's a step, at least. Oh, another one, he understands now, he didn't know what 'great' was."
"Hey, where's the little remlit, anyway?" Zelda turned as she stopped in front of the door.
"Probably on the school roof, again...if you leave her in your room, remember to let her out before night, maybe sometime before seventeen hundred hours."
"Oh, right, remlits...fun times." she said, turning back around, trying to make letting Mia out before night her top priority for the day.
The one time Mia got into the school she was in her room, she recalled that later Karane, a girl whose room was adjacent to her own, said she was glad she asked the brunette to help her make a playlist for the party later that day. Zelda remembered how they thought the strange sounds were the speakers that weren't quite together, but it turned out Mia somehow got in; from where, no one knew.
Just as they were about to bring in Horwell, the resident animal expert, the remlit broke out of Zelda's room and wreaked havoc all through the school, trapping everyone in their rooms until morning, with people fleeing to any room, doors opening to distract the creature for long enough that everyone got to their rooms with nothing that a red potion couldn't fix.
Zelda was so caught up that when she returned to the present, she was standing still, at the edge of the floating island. She took a breath and cleared her atypically cluttered mind, and leapt off the edge with practiced grace, whistled for her loftwing, and got settled before preparing arranging a way to keep her focus on the remlit, this was a serious task that she wasn't accustomed to handling, and after today, she was hiring a professional remlit handler for her father.
She could tell today was going to be interesting with the new kid showing up and her new responsibility for Mia, plus the usual school preparations for the Festival of Time.
As Hylia's Warrior Academy appeared on the horizon, she pushed Mia related thoughts to the side, but not too far off, like the island upon which the school stood, it was on the horizon.
Zelda timed her jump carefully and opened her sailcloth with as much tenacity, guiding her descent towards the roof, a landing she made with great ease, but to her surprise, a blonde haired boy had already gotten to the remlit. He was turned her way and was running too fast to stop before he saw her, she fell back, careful to keep her balance, and sprang back slightly, catching the roof on her way down, while she heard the sound of falling boys and remlits meowing in surprise.
Mia flew down to safety, past Zelda, and licked her paws before settling down for a nap, while Zelda pulled herself back up the ledge, "What, are you crazy, running around with my father's remlit like it's a stuffed doll? You need to be careful!"
"How do you explain dropping out of the sky like that?" he shot back, before sulking away, leaping down to the lower levels with unrefined self confidence, too much, if she was a good judge.
Link had been having a decidedly terrible week, his life was thrown into chaos in the span of less than a month...he couldn't fix things, but he wasn't just going to sit still, either. Suddenly his cell played a familiar song, he dead panned answered it, and sighed heavily, trying to control his tone, "Yes?"
"Hey, Link, are you here now? I'm at the sparring hall, so you should definitely drop by!" the chirpy voice at the end could almost wring a smile from him, but not quite, "Anyway, if you're not here yet, then I can always slack off on my combat forms for a while."
"Ha, I doubt it, you always were the responsible one, even if there was no need for it. Remember that time my grandma got sick, and you ran out during the worst of the thunderstorm just for a can of soup?"
"Ha, ha, I was pretty stupid, huh? Turns out, she had plenty of soup in the fridge just in case she got sick...but that first part's not true," she said quietly, and he thought her voice would become inaudible, "you're my best friend, and all the stupid, responsible things I did, I did because I didn't want you to have to, even when you had to come to my rescue with the umbrella, I still felt like...I don't know, like I did something that, in the end, helped you."
"I didn't know that...look, I just feel like being stupid today, I think I might just go back home tomorrow."
"You know, sometimes I felt like you did ridiculously dangerous things for fun, but now I realize, you did it for attention, didn't you?"
"Huh? How should I know, I was a kid, kids do stupid things all the time."
"True, but I mean...like you wanted to be special? I think that's what made doing the stupid things that I did that made more work for you fun, it was an adventure, something I could come back from, proud of myself for all the reasons there were. You wanted an adventure, too, which is why you climbed up trees, why you found outrageous ways to get your chores done...you'd climb up a tree and throw your Retro Bike collection down into the box below, while you stood on the edge of a limb...putting your toys away was boring otherwise, and same with my doll collection that Mido hid everywhere, you found crazy ways to get things done."
"It felt like I was cool." he said, remembering how she said she could slack off her sword training, and realized she was probably doing that already.
"But you were cool, because of what you did, not the way you did it."
"Thanks...uh, why are you telling me this, though?"
A pause followed, and behind him he heard a plastic clap as the call ended, and he stared at the ground, and exhaled quickly, "Saria?"
"I heard...I couldn't just talk to you over the phone." Saria said, a somber expression that said everything before she spoke quietly sat on face, "So, how are you doing?"
He remembered the call he got in the hospital, how the transport blocked he signal earlier, that was hours before he woke up to two guys arguing and a headmaster with a clipboard. Link stared blankly before furiously crushing the earth under his foot, "I never heard her so torn up! Why'd it have to be her parents, why couldn't it have just been me?!"
"Link-"
"I—I can't believe...on the other side of the line, it was her," he clutched his shirt against his chest, "it was Aryll, it was horrible."
"You could go back for a while." she cautiously stepped up to him, but he quickly dropped his hands back to his side.
"We talked a bit, it was strange, holding a phone in my left hand, laying there, like a corpse, I could never worry her or Grandma, I do want to go home, but I've heard that they might be coming to visit, I'll see what they're going to do first."
"It'll be good for them to get away from there but will they have rooms?"
"I...I don't know, I didn't think about it, but there's not a lot of inns here, huh?"
"I know a place called the Lumpy Pumpkin, it's not too far if you fly fast, and strangely enough, loftwings seem to find those without one."
"That sounds alright, I guess...you should go back, now."
"Um, alright." she took a few steps towards the sparing hall when Link spoke again.
"Thanks for checking up on me."
"You'd have done the same." she said, turning around to walk backwards, waving before turning back to run towards the training facility.
Link decided that since he probably missed classes, he'd stroll through the bazaar, where he met many people, all with varying degrees of quirkiness particular to them and them alone.
Gondo, a man who's stall seemed a bit short for his height, he was working on strengthening a yellow garbed knight's shield, the young man seemed impressed with the shield's upgrade; Luv and Bertie, she ran the stalls, while he held their baby and mixed a large cauldron, probably of potion, considering that was what they offered; Sparrot, a strangely quiet man who offered to see the future of the passerby; Rupin, an antsy man who looked like he had way too much coffee, and was exposed to upbeat music only he could hear; and then there was Peatrice, who was laying on the table when he saw her.
The girl who yelled at him earlier was crouched, searching for something on the floor, when Peatrice looked down at her, seemingly annoyed, "It's fine—Zelda, can you please take your remlit back, now, she's playing with me shoelaces...ugh, she's biting my shoelaces!"
"Sorry, I can't find your pen, maybe it's on your side of the desk?" the other girl stood up looked under another desk across the way.
"Look, I don't mind, I'll just ask everyone to bring their own from now on...ugh, an item check who can't keep up with her own items," Peatrice held her hand to her head but looked up intently at Link, who didn't notice, "how embarrassing...but it was almost out of ink anyway, it's just as well."
"Are you sure?" Zelda came back and followed Peatrice's slightly annoyed gaze behind the counter.
"Anything's better than explaining to my dad that his favorite animal ever had my shoes for dinner...which could probably happen." Peatrice ducked under the counter and came back up with a small, short haired animal that was so adorable, that Link couldn't help be entranced by it, then it meowed, making everyone present smile, and anyone within earshot turned, laughing, to see the big eared creature who seemed to like being carried.
"So, what about you, uh, you, have any items you want me to hold onto?" Peatrice turned to him and stared intently at him, but he shook his head, "Oh, well, if that ever changes, I'll be right here."
"Uh, how many remlits are there, in the city?" Link asked, wondering if that was the same remlit.
"Not many, this is Mia, hey, Zelda, didn't you say some idiot ran into you, or something?"
"Uh, I didn't use those words." Zelda said, giving him an apologetic smile.
"Well, I say he's an idiot, items get broken all the time through negligence, I've seen bottles, sometimes with high quality potions in them...smashed, in a heartbeat it could all be over." Peatrice lectured animatedly when Zelda laughed awkwardly.
"But he was actually doing a favor for Horwell, I mean, I was scared for Mia, but I didn't mean to get off on the wrong foot like that." Zelda shrugged, "Besides, Father once tripped over something, she went up, and then flew down, instead of falling."
"Hey, wait, what?" Peatrice looked between the two as Zelda made the decision to march up to him and offer Mia to the new student.
"Zelda, it's nice to meet you." she said, extending the loudly purring remlit.
"Link..sorry for running into you like that." the remlit meowed quietly as he accepted her.
"It's fine, I did drop in behind you." Zelda pointed out, as Peatrice dazedly watched.
"It's fine...I'm going to go find my room now." Link held Mia back out to her, and turned around after Zelda took her back.
"You're one of the new students, right?" Link turned around to find her watching him.
"Yeah, I was told to meet with the Headmaster's daughter." he explained, "She wasn't here, I guess she would be at the school though."
"Huh, well...how's you arm?" Zelda inquired, noticing that he didn't have a cast or any sort of bandages, and if he hadn't said anything, she might not have known it was him she was to show around.
"Huh? It's better now, thanks—wait, how did you know?!" Link looked at his arm, which showed no signs of being sliced, but the other victims had no injuries at all, from what he heard on the on the news from the hospital's television. Maybe he just took longer to heal, or they were cut first, but then, why'd the monster's go around cutting people?
"Father told me about you, Horwell wanted me to help you get settled in."
"But I'm fine, why'd he ask you, what would happen if he asked you to help everyone who got a little roughed up on the way?"
"'Roughed up' isn't a strong enough word for it, Horwell told Father, and I see his concern." she shook her head dismissively, "Besides, it's just you I'm showing around, tomorrow I'm back to my regularly scheduled party planning, but it's actually better this way, remlits go crazy at night, and it's best to not have a project I can get too involved in, zoning out isn't the best way to make sure she gets out before nightfall."
"Ha, ha, since you're so insistent, then, lead the way." Link said, wandering after her, stopping to talk to people every so often.
Link followed her until she stopped at a bridge, where Zelda pointed to two doors, she explained the one below them first, "See there and there, that one at the bottom is locked at night, the other one is open at night, they're both open during the day, though, so don't worry about that." Zelda saw him turn towards the sparring halls, "That's a pretty straightforward facility, the instructor can explain everything when you show up. Umm, you're not anxious about having to use a sword, are you? You'll probably not even have to draw a blade against a human."
"It's not that, I just have a friend here whose training now." Link explained.
"That's great, maybe you can get an idea of the basics before tomorrow." she sat Mia down and started towards the main building, "We should go in, before it gets too late, wait, what am I thinking; you go ahead, I'll set Mia further away."
"You seem concerned." Link recalled that she mentioned something about remlits going crazy, but she wasn't clear on any dangers.
"It's dangerous for remlits to be this close to the school, at night their appearance darken, like monsters, they look like something out of a nightmare, and if you have the displeasure of meeting one during the night, they'll attack you."
"I have pretty good night vision, I often take walks...took walks, back home," Link tried not to remember the call from Aryll, that she said the village was destroyed, "uh, I could find somewhere to put her."
"So much confidence from the new kid dealing with a dangerous animal," she said, smirking as she started off, "but if you've seen what I've seen, you'd know better."
"I do owe you for knocking you off the roof," Link really needed to clear his head, now more than ever, he needed this walk, "besides, all I need to do is set her somewhere, right?"
"Tell you what, you still have some time before the sun sets, hurry back and you should be fine." she held Mia out so the remlit could see him, and meowed as Zelda left her with the new boy. Link nodded and turned away, facing the lake, and set off to find a place to leave her,. Zelda watched him curiously, something told her this wasn't for the roof, "There's definitely something interesting about him."
"Alright, Mia, you can't keep following me." Link said, picking the remlit back up and setting her down near the lake, then backed away, the remlit watching him curiously and trailing him, skipping every so often in a manner reminiscent of squirrels, "Mia, look-" Link looked beyond the lake and determined that he'd have enough time to run around the lake and leave the remlit there.
"Hello, Zelda, what brings you out here this evening?" a young man wearing a yellow uniform greeted her as she stepped outside; night was already fast approaching, she worried what may have happened to Link.
"You've got clearance to fly around at night, right?" he'd been in the ranks of seniors for a while now, it seemed like he should have clearance, though there were always exceptions.
"Uh, yes, but why-" Pipit began, wondering if there were supplies that still needed to be gathered for the upcoming festival.
"Link went to the lake to leave Mia for the night, but hasn't come back yet, and it really doesn't take long, she doesn't follow anyone far...remlits don't really put much effort into following anything that's not edible." she pointed out where Link was last, "Pipit, could you go check up on him for me? I would, but I don't have proper clearance...and the lake pour out onto the surface, he could fall below,."
"I understand, I'll get Link back here for you." Pipit promised, and clambered up a wall, ran across the yard, and leapt off the edge, out of view until he rose with his loftwing.
She watched on, relieved that one of the most reliable people she knew was on the search, then took up the patrol route that Pipit always followed, faithfully every night for the last year since he became a senior. As she walked she found that she jumped at the bushes rustling in the wind, she was glad such dutiful service was rewarded with even the small sum that Pipit had been given, not just because it could turn into a dangerous job, but because he spent time away from his mom in the process, and he didn't have a room in the dorm even though he was on the special project, wanting instead to defend the residential area.
After walking around once, she began to worry, then heard something in front of her, and cautiously stepped forward, her eyes giving off a faint bluish glow, then rounded the corner and found Karane staring at the ground, "Look, I just want to get this over with, I really, really admire you, I want to...I-I want to be your girl—Zelda?!" she jumped back, scowling as the bright red on her face faded, "Zelda, you're here and not Pipit, what's up with that?!"
"Uh...you I see you haven't told him yet." Zelda said, giving her friend a sad smile, "Sorry, I sent him after Link...but good for you, next time you'll probably find it easier to tell him, plus you might work up the courage sooner...though it probably would have been better if he'd been here."
"Ugh, and I thought so hard about what I was going to say and everything...so annoying...this is so annoying!" Karane stared at the sky and took a deep breath, "It's bad enough I had to worry what to say to him over dinner, but now I'll be losing sleep over not coming out here sooner!"
"Sounds tough, how long have you been crushing on him? A couple of months now?" Zelda honestly stopped counting after the first couple of weeks.
"I know, at this rate someone else will get him, but I can't just go out there and make an idiot out of myself!" Karane thought about that, then amended it, "Okay, actually I can, but not this often! He probably likes someone else—oh, wait...no, Zelda, he doesn't...seem to like you, does he?"
"Not at all, but if he does, he's certainly good at hiding it, or just very bad at expressing himself, hey-"
"I bet he does, too, that'd be my luck!" Karane watched from the loftwing that still hadn't returned yet and sighed, "At least I know you'd tell me if you thought something was up...if you think he likes anybody here at all, you have to tell me!"
"I know, I know, you'll be the first to know! After me, that is." Zelda was about to recommend a yoga club, but decided against it.
"No, she wouldn't like that poem, either," Pipit mused, looking down below, where someone near the lake fell in after being hit by a remlit, "man, I guess I'll have to worry about Karane later!"
Pipit watched the young man swim away from the remlit, to the other side of the shore, but he was steadily moving downstream, and started struggling, flailing his arms as he went over the fall.
"Pipit to the rescue!" he called out to the person as he dove down and caught him with his loftwing, "Hang on to his feathers, citizen, this is where it gets—huh?"
Link had also noticed that the clouds in front of the fiery sun turned from vibrant orange, to purple, gray, and then black, the clouds were racing along to the fliers, and he watched in awe as the darkness raced under them, not realizing that Pipit had started flying towards the ground.
Pipit maneuvered under the dazed Link, and motioned to his loftwing to slam his wings down, disturbing the clouds under them as it bounced the humans, one who held the other, less accustomed down, to prevent him from falling off altogether. After offering brief thanks to Hylia, he flew them over the land and landed the giant bird, who flew away after the two dismounted.
"Let's get out of here, man! I'll race you back, but don't look back, whatever you do!" Pipit started following, but smiled as he gave the back of Link a two finger salute, "I hope Headmaster Kaebora is right, about you...would've been nice to test that theory, but someone has to hold these things off for a while."
Pipit Turned around and watched with a tenacious grin as a horde of monsters formed from the updrafts of black cloud, "Hey, come at me, foe!" Pipit shouted, catching the remlit out of the corner of his eyes as it coward at the sight of his glowing green eyes. The horde flew at him as requested, falling into the form of winged monsters as he folded his arms over his chest, and shouted loud and clear, "I need you, Achilles!"
Suddenly a giant spear wielding figure appeared behind Pipit, and swiped his spear at them, sending them aside before crushing them in his free hand.
Link turned, laughing as he reached the gate, "I thought you'd catch up, but-" he saw no one behind him and faced Zelda and Karane as they opened the gate.
"Link, what's going on?" Zelda asked, walking pass him, "Where's Pipit?"
"He said he'd race me back." Link looked away and wondered at the stream of darkness that he'd seen below them earlier, "Does the dark cloud stuff happen often?"
"I'm going to have to leave that unanswered." she said, running to Pipit's side.
"You should get back inside, I'll see if someone wants to go with me to see what the other two are doing." Link followed the girl with the green beret and she pointed at a line of doors to the left, a key perched at the end of her finger, "You'll need this to get into your room, all of them have their owner's names, yours might not, though, so if you only see a blank nameplate and the key works, it's yours."
"Thanks, uh?" Link winced, realizing he hadn't been introduced yet.
"Karane." she nodded, then pointed at the hall one last time before going right, to the stairs
"Karane, good luck with whatever it is." Link turned and held his hand up by way of parting as he headed for the stairs.
Link saw one door along a line that didn't have a nameplate, so pushed the key against the slot, pushing the door open to find a student with greenish hair and a small frame struggling to life weights that didn't look very large at all.
Immediately the student noticed Link and jumped slightly, dropping the weights on either side of him, "Ah, what're you doing here?!" Link turned away as the other grabbed the shirt behind him.
"Sorry! The door was unlocked." Link shrugged, then looked at his key, before reaching for the doorknob, "Wrong unmarked door."
"Uh, hey, hang on!" Fledge slammed himself against the wall and pointed at Link, "I'm Fledge...and bashful, but mostly Fledge."
"I'm Link...a little sleepy, too, so I'll just go to my room, now." Link backed out of the room and Fledge waved.
"Later, Link, goodnight."
"Night, Fledge."
Link finally found his room and locked the door, leaned against the door, contemplated standing there the rest of the strange night, but searched through the bag in his room, and managed to get his stuff put away before falling onto the bed fulling clothed and stared at a text from Saria, "Uh, I forgot after practice I have some extracurricular (I was surprised too, but looks like they don't let stupid people bash things...my kind of luck, eh?!) stuff to do, so if I ignore you tomorrow, it's me being tired...though I'll probably be fully awake after breakfast...I guess you don't have to worry about running into a no nonsense Saria, huh? Well, later!"
"Yeah, I'm just going to sleep in. What kind of extracurricular stuff? Does it involve the training; huh, probably they'll have you run around an obstacle course."
He sent the message, and fell asleep where he was.
Author's Notes: So, it's pretty obvious that there won't be television worlds or the Dark Hour...you can tell, I hope, that I have something different in mind...just bear with me.
Shout-out time! Thanks a lot to GameLord The Hitman for chatting with me about this stuff, he's encouraged me a good deal, especially with that list and those Persona assignments, it's very reassuring to know someone else thinks an idea will work!
I hope you like this story as much as I do, whoever's reading this now!
KHH OUT! Ahem, I'll go over here now.
