~*I dedicate this first part to Madi for pushing me to write!*~
The rain has only began to pour down harder since I started my training earlier. Not just any rain either, no, this rain is as cold as snow but feels like sharp ice pellets when the droplets pound on my skin. As much as I hate being out in this weather, I can't even compare myself to my loftwing.
Poor guy, has to be out flying with me on his back in this weather. It almost seems abusive towards him. But trust me, training today was definatly not my idea. Actually, training is almost never my idea.
My best friend, Zelda, always tells me I must work harder if I want to become a Knight and protect the residents of Skyloft. I've been attending the Knight Acadamy for awhile now and I can ace all the written tests but when it comes to the physical testings... Well, you can say I look like a total loser next to some of the other students.
It's not only me that can't cope with all the physical training, my loftwing can't always preform his best either. Especially in this weather. He keeps shaking and shivering and all he had protecting him is his feathers...
We land in the plaza. I can't stand to watch him suffer in the cold, out here soaking wet. It is getting kind of dark out anyway. I watch my loftwing fly off before heading to the acadamy.
I run for the bottom floor doors and twist the knob. 'Damn...' I think to myself. 'Locked out again...'. Freezing and wet, I attempt to climb the ledge for a faster way to acess the top floor door but my fingers are so cold that I can't get a grip. Even if I did then I'd probally slip off because of the water.
Noticing how the sky intensly darkend, I make my way all the way back down the stairs and up another set. 'This is probally the most exersice I've had in months,' I grab ahold of the railing after almost slipping, 'most dangerous workout...'.
I twist the door knob and I feel heat finally return to my body. "Link!" I am instantly interupted from my reuniting with heat. "Hey! Arn't you cold?" He asks me. I nod my head, 'No kidding, Pipit, I think im actually turning blue..'.
"Your soaking wet. You know, you better go change those clothes before you catch a cold!" Says Pipit, joyful and smiling. Once again I nod my head, but walking away this time. 'Nooo, I wanted to stay in these...'
I close my bedroom door and as quickly as I can, I begin practically peeling my basically frozen clothing off of me. A weight has literally been lifted from me once all the cold, heavy, soaking wet clothes are removed. My skin gets this weird itching feeling but I fight the erge to skratch. Insted, I push the clothes aside for now and hop into my nice, cozy, warm bed.
'I wont fall asleep...' I tell myself. 'I'll just lie here until I've warmed up...' I think. 'I really need to study...' My brain knows that but my body doesnt. Insted of 'Just five more minuites...' of warming up I am suddenly hit by a wave of tiredness and I'm not getting a second wind.
"Link!" Someone is calling out. "Link! Wake up!" They call out again. "Hmmm...?" I tiredly manage to moan out. "Ugh, what a mess! You can't pick up your own clothes, or even have the decency to put more on after?" Asks Zelda.
Zelda always wakes me up if I'm not awake early enough. Not only does she take it apon herself to be my alarm but she also has a thing for complaining about me in some sort of way when she does. "Link..." She calls out once again.
"Mhmm..." I moan out, still extreamly tired but I know for a fact that once she has me awake she will not let me go back to bed. "It's a nice day out," She starts, "And you have the Wing Ceremony tomorrow," 'I know where this is heading...' I think to myself.
"So... Wake up! Lets get some early morning practice in for you! The more training the better!" She smiles.. I honestly can't say no to her. Rubbing my eyes, I sit up. "Good, your up! Now, get dressed and meet me in the cafeteria!" She says before gently closing my bedroom door. I do as told. I get dressed, but before leaving I place the drenched clothes in the landry bin, then exit my room.
Its gotta be sometime around 9:30 because breakfast in the cafeteria is still being served. Its a rare occasion for me to actually be awake to attend breakfast... and lunch... but I usually am always awake for dinner. Last time I showed up at breakfast I fell asleep at the table.
"Look who's here!" Says a certain someone with weird, gravity defying, red hair. "Hey Groose, did you break him last time you pounded in his face?" Says another guy, the blonde one of the three, Strich. "Maybe he thinks its 10 at night, not in the morning..." Questions the short, black haired one, Cawlin.
"Guys, guys. Get real. He's here to try and impress! Well I'll get one thing straight, boys, that Zelda will never be impressed with a wimp like Link until he can lift at LEAST 20 pounds... But me? The all mighty Groose can lift over 200!" Groose attempts to flatter himself. Him and his friends sit at their table giggling for awhile. 'I can lift 20 pounds...' I tell myself. My concentration is back on who matters, my best friend.
I sit with Zelda at another table and I listen to her talk while we wait for our food to be done. She loves to talk, and I guess its a good thing that im more of a listener than a speaker. She always has new things to tell me, and Skyloft isnt a very interesting place with exciting things happening all around. Zelda can make a simple thing like the plot of a book sound like the greatest thing you will ever hear about. Zelda is the reason why I took an interest in reading.
We eat our food and she talks while it settles for a few minuites. Out of all the topics there is she keeps bringing up one, the surface.
"Havent you ever woundered about it, Link?" She asks me. Of course I wounder about what could be under the clouds but I'd never actually take it up to go check it out for myself. That would be far too dangerous.
"Imagine what could be there... Maybe there is a whole new world just waiting to be discovered..." She pauses. Her eyes go into a mode where you can only imagine what she could possibly be thinking.
"Link... Maybe we could...?" She looks into my eyes. 'Yeah right, see what there is beyond the berrier? Shes funny.' I laugh at the thought.
"No, I'm being serious! We don't have to go all the way down, just see if we can look past the clouds!" Her expression stays stricted. 'Oh goddess... She is being serious...'
I feel an unwanted hand lean on my shoulder. "Zelda and Link are thinking of going past the berrier, eh?" Groose questions. "Groose..." Zelda angerly wines.
"Oh please, just ignore me, I'm just trying to wrap my head around the situation... So, who's idea was it to run away together? Zelda's? or Link's?" He asks, smirking because he knows it bothers us when he's like that. He speaks like we 'like' each other, and no, Zelda and I are just friends.
"We never said we were going to run away!" Zelda stands up, slamming her hands on the table. "I just said I wanted to see beyond the clouds!" She shouts.
The cafeteria goes silent. Nobody has ever been this serious about what lies below the clouds. And nobody has dared to even suggest finding out. Old legends tell tales about hidious monsters that crawl on a surface, suggest hylians being split into multiple pieces, injuries beyond repair, curses being placed apon beings and far worst things. Skyloft is such a peacefull spot that we are lucky to be living on, I don't see why anyone would want to leave.
"Link... Lets go train now."
The moment after sprinting and before calling my loftwing has always been my favorite. The feeling of falling towards the unknown but know of the absaloute safty of the situation, the scared but adventurous feeling, the greatest feeling ever.
One simple whistle and almost instantly I get a ride on one of the most beautiful creatures known to man. A Loftwing, but not just any loftwing, a crimson loftwing.
I see a red blur as the bird swoops under me and takes me high into the skies. With Zelda not far behind, we begin to go threw and dodge some of the floating rocks in the sky. With all the obsicles and the addictional speed, at this point in time I have enough trust in my Loftwing to know that he would never allow me to fall off or hit a boulder.
For once it seems like I'm actually really focased on my training. We have a steady speed to fly at and we arn't even wobbling from side to side because of loss of balance. I actually feel pretty confident in our skills, maybe we could actually win!
After quite a bit of training on our own I get my loftwing to fly towards Zelda. 'Hm... Usually I'm the one lazily gliding around, lost in thought...'
Zelda jumps at our sudden arrival. "Link! Don't startle me like that!" She shouts at me, then begins smiling. "I know, stop daydreaming, right? I guess your right, sometimes a person just can't help getting caught in the clouds..."
'Somethings going threw her mind right now... Is it bothering her?' I silently ask myself. She becomes silent again, it's very unlike her.
"Zelda!" I shout out her name, definatly getting her attenchion. "Race?" I suggest to her.
"Hmm..." She pauses. "Head start!" She yells, then suddenly gains a ton of speed while flying. Thats not fair! 'We havent even agreed on a finish destination.' I shrug and follow her lead, not knowing where else to go.
We are both flying at high speed, very dangerous if your not a trained flyer. Zelda and I arnt exactly Knights yet but we are close so I guess its okay to fly fast sometimes.
The destination seems to be Fun Fun Island, the big colourful island, a little bit aways from skyloft. I push my Loftwing a bit faster and take lead. "Hey!" I hear her yell from behind.
Shortly after I took lead I see Zelda and her loftwing swoop down below me and go downward to gain more speed. 'Smart.'
I figure I'd be nice and give her a chance at winning so i slow down but I guess Zelda doesnt see and still flies downward. 'Maybe Fun Fun Island wasent her destination after all?'
No, that island wasent her destination. She already is so low that she cant possibly fly up fast enough to get there first. I speed up to get close to her. "Zelda?" I call out to her.
Zelda looks back over her shoulder, "Yeah?" She yells out loudly because the wind makes it difficult to hear anything.
"Where are you going?!" I ask. We are getting dangerouly low to the clouds. The clouds. "Zelda?!"
Suddenly she and her loftwing fly upwards, spiral around and make it up to Fun Fun Island. I follow her up and land on the island like she had.
"Gottcha!" She giggles as she runs up the the spot I landed at. "You thought I was going below the clouds, didnt you?" She smiles. I stare at her definatly not with a happy look.
"Link, it was a joke. I just wanted to confuse you. This was the destination the whole time, I promise." She looks me in the eye with a serious look also on her face.
I'll admit, that wasnt a very funny joke. With all her talk about below the clouds earlier I didnt know what she was doing just then. Its not that im mad at Zelda, its just that I was scared for her because she doesnt understand why everyone is afraid of knowing what lies under there.
"Can we just go back home?" I ask, facing the edge of the island. "Yeah..." She answers. She sounds upset, not like when shes upset at someone but that sort of upset tone someone gets after they know they have disapointed someone else.
We glide beside eachother, not speaking. Typically she would have covered about ten diffrent topics right now but I can tell shes upset.
A few big gusts of wind blow and they seem stronger than before. 'After storm winds, maybe?'
Suddenly, I hear Zelda gasp and I turn to her. Shes facing away from me and both of our minds get focased on the giant black tornado heading directly this way.
We both get caught in it, she gets tossed towards the top of it and im ripped away from my loftwing. Scared and unknowing of what to do, I whistle in hopes that he can find me in this mess. I stop after a large rock flies and hits my chest, knocking the wind outta me.
Scared, confused and can't breath, I panick and search for Zelda in this thing but its hard to make out anything when being tossed around in a tornado.
The last moment of my life might just be being spit out of the tornado and thrown at high speed towards the clouds below.