Chapter 3

Ian

I freakin' love this sword.

I mean seriously, this sword is f***ing awesome. It's lightweight, it's powerful, it can shoot these totally epic sword beams, and it has a really epic color. It's lime green in the hilt, and the blade guards have a wing design on them with a Cosmic Triforce in the middle.

On a related topic, after my little episode of sleepwalking, I've noticed the Cosmic Triforce on my hand start to glow. Not too much, but enough for me to know that it's there. To be honest, sometimes I stay up all night, just looking at it, trying to find out if it'll send me some kind of message, maybe something to give me some clue about everything that's been happening to me. All my life, I've been having nightmares. Not too often, but enough to give me insomnia on a lot of nights. When I have nightmares, I see images of two soldiers riding away on horseback, then I hear a loud scream.

That's when I wake up and try to cram it out of my mind, but the images still linger, and I can still hear that horrible scream.

"Hey Ian, it seemed like you blacked out there for a moment." I hear Link's voice next to me.

"Oh, sorry. I just get... Distracted."

"Okay, but come on, we need to get to Arbiter's grounds before that maniac destroys everything."

It was swelteringly hot, so I decided to take a swig of water.

That's when I felt a shot of pain across my stomach, and everything became all blurry. I tried to fight it, but it was too strong. My vision was blurring, and I could feel my life slipping away. Then, I felt the warm feeling of red potion touching my lips, and my vision cleared up.

Then Link slapped me.

I reeled, then shouted, "I was already awake!"

"Sorry, I didn't know." Link said sarcastically.

"You know that I'm going to get back at you for that!"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

Someday I'll wipe that smug smile off his face.

Then I realized something. If Zant is only living as a projection in this world, then how was the water poisoned? I sifted through the options. Moblins? Nah, too stupid. The Interlopers? Nah. If they weren't restrained in some way, then they would have fought us themselves. That means that Zant has some kind of agent on the inside. Someone who could do all the dirty work for him. I wanted to convey this information to Link, but I wasn't in the mood to talk to him right then.

After about 15 minutes of walking, we finally got to the bird statue. It lit up after we got within two feet of it, then it projected a huge beam of light, with a tornado of wind circling up from it that swept us up in the air. When we got past the cloud layer, we whistled at the top of our lungs, and our loftwings swept us out of the air. We flew for a few minutes, then I heard a sound. Before my brain could register what I was seeing, I noticed Link's loftwing was empty. He had fallen off and was dropping into the cloud layer.

I dove as fast as I could to save him, but I then almost crashed into a semi-transparent wall that had blue patterns all over it. Then I heard a strange voice shouting at me saying, "STAY AWAY! THIS IS BETWEEN ME AND HIM!"

I observed my surroundings and saw that Link and a hooded figure were standing in an arena made of the same transparent substance floating in the sky. All I could do was sit and watch.

The hooded figure started the banter. "I've been waiting for this for months. The chance to go up against the Great Link. You're not going to make it out of this alive!"

"Says who!" Link retorted. "I've gone up against people way more threatening than you!"

"But…" the figure said, rearing back to attack, "There. Is. More. Then. Meets. The. Eye!" He said in between powerful strikes that pushed Link into the wall. I noticed that he was attacking in just the same way as Link does, in the way that he handled his blade and made swift, successive strikes. Thing is, the hooded man had more power in his form.

Link swiftly struck back, of course while sticking in a witty comment, but his attacks weren't doing anything, like this man, I'll call him Blargaphlarg, was a clone who had been enhanced. Blargaphlarg seemed like he knew every single attack that was coming at him.

Link threw a diagonal strike that was quickly parried and followed up by a leg sweep. Blargaphlarg managed to use a stab as a bluff and hit Link's head with the hilt of his blade, disorientating him for enough time so as Blargaphlarg could cripple Link's knee with the point of his sword.

Link realized that this battle could not be won and decided to do what any sane person would. He spit in Blargaphlarg's face.

"What are you going to do now? Are you going to kill me? Would you kill a cripple who can't walk!? What fun is there in that?"

"Now that I think of it, killing you right here wouldn't be satisfactory enough. I'll have to think of something else."

"What have you got against me anyway?"

"Oh, you're so curious! I'm sorry, but that's a question for another day. Or, perhaps, another life."

"What, are you just going to let me fall?"

"You know, that's a pretty good idea. Thanks!" Then Blargaphlarg waved his hand and the floor disappeared. "Sayonara, Goddess boy! Hope you had fun being Hylia's whore!"

I shouted, "You're crazy!"

"Oh, who's to say that I am mad. BTdubs, you should probably focus on your friend who's falling to his death right now. You're so forgetful! You know that?"

I snapped out of my rage, then dove as fast as I could. I could feel the wind rushing past my ears and through every part of my body. My eyes stared to water, and I could swear that I swallowed a fly or two on my way down. I could see Link falling and realized that he couldn't whistle for his loftwing. He'd gone into shock! He was falling too fast for me to catch him, so I decided to do something drastic. I tried whistling for his loftwing. I knew it probably wouldn't work, since each loftwing answered only to a certain call, but I decided to take my chances. I kept diving hopelessly, knowing that it wouldn't work, obsessing that Link was going to die and dying inside at the fact that I couldn't do anything about it. We were past the cloud layer now, falling into the center of the Eldin province.

Then a flash of red shot past my eyes, snatching Link out of the air and slowing his descent to a safe speed. His loftwing had come to the rescue! My hunch had been correct! Obviously, Link would be safe for the meantime, but he was unconscious, so that meant no flying back to Skyloft. I would have to get him to a settlement in Eldin and hope that he heals.

When we landed on the surface, both of our loftwings immediately flew back above the clouds. I would have to carry Link to the nearest village, which, by my calculations, was a small trading post near Death Mountain called Kakariko Village. Meanwhile, I had to stop the bleeding in Link's leg. I ripped a strip of fabric off of his tunic an knotted it as tight as I could around his wound. From the looks of it, Blargaphlarg had cut Link's knee pretty bad through a couple of ligaments. I uncorked a bottle of red potion and poured it into Link's mouth, forcing him to swallow it. The potion would help end his shock and heal his wound, but he probably wouldn't walk for a couple of days.

Now on to the task of carrying him to Kakariko. I picked him up by the waist, hoisting him into a fireman's carry, then I started walking. It was agonizing. Over the years, he had obviously gained a lot of muscle weight, especially from his little adventure. After walking for what seemed like hours, I set him down and took a break.

I noticed the soft sound of footsteps, then unsheathed my sword, ready for anything. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by a circle of bokoblins. I stood perfectly still in a ready position, waiting for one of them to make a move.

I saw one of the bokoblins rear back to make a horizontal strike. I immediately blocked and countered with a right slash to the chest, then performed a spin attack to take out two other bokoblins next to me.

Worst idea ever. The spin attack wore me out so much that I could hardly walk, which gave me an idea. I keeled over and fell to the ground, pretending I had fainted from exhaustion.

The group bought my act, but then the leader called them back in some sort of bokoblin speech. He apparently had suspected something and decided to make sure I was dead. I knew that I had practically fainted anyway and that there was no way I could even get up, so I just relaxed and got ready for the end.

After waiting for my imminent death for what seemed like a minute, I heard a man shouting in my ear for me to wake up.

I snapped out of my relaxed state and opened my eyes to see a slightly bulky man with a large beard staring at me.

"Thanks a lot. I was about to die there."

"Oh, it ain't no problem young lad, we get them all the time around the settl'ment." He said in a strong accent. "Would ya like some help gettn' up?"

"Yeah, sometimes when you're about to faint you need some help."

"Oh, yer a funny lad. Here, have some stamina potion. It'll get ya back up an' runnin' in no time at all. By the way, my name's Angus, Angus Copperfield."

I took the potion and gulped it up, feeling revitalized in seconds. "My name's Ian. And the lifeless body back there is Link."

"Ohh, ya mean the Hero of Skies? I heard of 'im."

"Yeah, he's badly injured in his knee and went into shock. I need a place where I can stay until he recovers."

"Well, there's a tavern up in Kakariko where both ya lads can rest for a while. I'll take ya there."

"Thanks a lot. You've been very nice."

"Well, enough yaddlin', let's get going."

-ooooooo-

Hey guys! I'm so happy to say that after months of writer's block, I've finally uploaded Chapter three! I'm so sorry for the delay, it's just that my interest was waning because I've never had time to write in the afternoon. Now I've realized that writing in the evening is much more productive. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

P.S. I've never specified what Ian actually looks like, so I want to say that his appearance is up to you.

P.P.S. I have no idea what yaddlin' means.