Hello my faithful readers. I've been struggling with this chapter for some time now, and it's not one of my best. I'm happy to say that better chapters are around the corner.
Thanks to Decaire, Maniell, The Legend of Zelda fangirl, YueHamachi, and RUHLSAR000 for following and faving my story, and everyone who has read Hylia's Mission at one point or another.
Edited 8/3/2015
Chapter 4-First Steps
"Things we cannot solve, we must survive."-Boyd K. Packer
"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the entire staircase."-Martin Luther King. Jr.
I landed on the hard on the ground, feeling pain shoot up across my body. My assailant, a flower from the depths of darkness, snapped again at me with it's nasty green fangs. With sheer desperation, I thrust the tip of the Goddess Sword into the mouth of the Deku Baba. It was too much for the plant; it shriveled up, turned black and turned into a purple cloud of smoke. I lay sprawled out on the ground for sometime, breathing deeply, recovering from the shock of what I'd just seen. I'd never expected a plant to become a monster, much less an innocent looking flower!
After awhile, I got up from the ground, and pulled a Heart Potion out of my pack. In one gulp, I downed half of one of them, just to make sure that none of the wounds that nasty-looking flower had given me would become infected. Once the Heart Potion had completed it's effect on me, I corked it and placed it back in my bag.
"Zelda."
I looked around to see Impa, standing behind me with a scowl on her face. She did not look pleased.
"Impa, what are you doing here?"
She began to walk toward me.
"First thing," she said. "Attacking opens yourself up to a counter-stroke. That's where you made your mistake. You attacked too forcefully, allowing the Deku to get in a good strike at you."
She stopped when she was standing right over me.
"It's Hylia's wish that I travel with you for at least the first portion of your journey. However, my job is to be your teacher, nothing more. Do I make myself clear?"
I didn't say anything; she had left me quite puzzled to be honest. What did she mean by being my teacher, and nothing more?
"No."
"I am going to mentor you during the first portion of your journey," she explained. "But I'm not going to fight your battles for you. Am I clear now?"
"Prefectly clear." Not even close.
"Good, let's get going."
She walked past me into the woods without giving me anymore of an introduction or instruction. I just watched her walk by me, even more conflicted than ever over this mystery Shiekah. I'd lied just to get her off my back, as she was one who clearly shouldn't be crossed. But who was she, truly? Why is she here? What exactly is her relationship with Hylia? And most importantly, what is her role in this mess that me and Link had been thrown into? I could tell she was hiding a lot from me. How much is she hiding?.
Impa hadn't gone far when the hilt of the Goddess Sword beamed blue and Fi appeared in front of us.
"My Mistress, and...Welcome Impa, it's an honor to speak with you in person after all these years."
Fi bowed to Impa, like she had done to me and my father.
"Wait? How do you know each other?" I asked, competely stunned. I'd never expected this.
"Long story," Impa said, locking eyes with Fi, and slightly shaking her head. "That will be told later, but not here."
Fi nodded in return. What is going on here? Why are there so few answers to my questions?
"Shiekah Impa and My Mistress," Fi said. "We have entered what is called the Faron Woods. A high amount of rainfall has allowed a wide variety of creatures to flourish here. I sense the presence of monsters in the vicinity, so I advise you to be on guard."
She turned back into a blue ball of light, and merged with the blade hanging at my waist.
"Well," I said with trepidation, drawing the Goddess Sword. "Let's go."
Her words quickly proved themselves to be true. Plants of every kind, most of which I'd seen only in miniature form on Skyloft, dotted the landscape wherever we looked. Giant mushrooms, dwarfing the ones on Skyloft by nearly a hundred times were quite common, and were colored blue, green, and red. But by far the most impressive (in my mind) were the trees, which were mind blowing in their size and scale, especailly now that I was seeing in person. Birds smaller than our Loftwings (is that even possible?) darted around us in the air, singing sweet songs. It was more than I ever imagined and dreamed the Surface would look like.
Execpt that it was marred by the fact that Link wasn't here. Every daydream involved the two of us, and now... I looked up at the sky, then back down to the ground, as we walked in silence deeper into the Faron Woods, as the map said, wishing only for more answers as to what my destiny was and why'd the two of us had been chosen in the first place. As my eyes scanned the foliage for any sign of monsters or ugly monster flowers, flames appeared right in front of me. I let out a small screech, causing Impa to jump.
"What is it Zelda?" she asked in a harsh voice, gripping my shoulder.
"N...n...nothing," I said, jittery after what had just happened. The green foliage was still in front of me, unharmed by any flames.
"I'm fine."
We resumed walking until it happened again, and again, and again, so rapidly I couldn't respond to them. Pain shot across my entire body, causing me to collapse to the ground. Impa dropped to my side.
"Zelda, what's wrong?"
"I do...don...'t...know..."
Another vision burst onto my mind. The woods were on fire; bright, blue and orange flames were rampaging, consuming the trees and the plants. They were like those that had claimed the lives of my mother and Link's parents so many years ago, a tragedy that had wielded the two of us together in a friendship that no one could break. What I saw next broke my heart; Creatures of many different descriptions fled the flames, purued by dark creatures, some of those resembling Ghirahim. I whimpered as they fled, crying out; I felt their pain, their sorrow at losing their homes. Many of them turned and started fighting with the demons; I felt their anger, I wanted to help. I need to do something...
"Zelda," Impa shouted, shaking me. The flames vanished just as quickly as they had appeared, leaving the foliage untouched.
"Did you see something? Tell me everything."
"Well," I said, a bit frightened, yet grateful that I could finally tell someone what was blockin me. "I saw flames, torching the woods and creatures fleeing from the onslaught. And dark creatures, that looked like Ghirahim, chasing them. It was awful. Who could do such a thing? I felt their pain; I wanted to help them, to fight for them."
"You are seeing scenes from the Great War of millennia ago," Impa informed me. "That happened often as Demise's forces ravaged the land."
"The Great War? Why do I have to see these things? Impa..."
"Enough," Impa said. "Spirit Maiden, remember Link."
All she needed to do was say his name to make me shut up. All I knew was that I wanted Link safe and sound, and this was the only way I could see would make that happen, despite these stupid visions. I took my next step forward; and watched my clumsiness kick in again. I tripped over a plant, or what I thought was a plant. As my foot made contact with it, it sprung up, and came alive, and I promptly tumbled to the ground.
"Kwee, monsters," it yelped, before running off deeper into the Faron Woods. It was the oddest looking plant I'd ever seen; it had a beak like a bird, grass growing out of it's head, and it could run and speak!
Impa had a disgusted look on her face as it fled (is she even capable of smiling?), while I was staring in amazement.
"Her Grace, I detected an aura on the Kiwki that closely matched one of the items in your bag," Fi said, speaking inside my head, like Vella had done earlier.
"Aura? Kiwki? Fi, what are you talking about?" I asked.
"This is Machi, a member of the herbivorous Kiwki race. He is a gentle creature, so I calculate a 0.01% chance he is a threat. On him, I detected the aura of the One called Link."
"Aura?" I repeated again.
"An Aura is like a scent, something unique each one of us has," Impa filled me in. Is she hearing this a well? Never mind.
"Wait," I said, the full impact of what Fi was implying hitting me. "You...you detected Link? Can you track him?"
"It closely corresponds to one of your items."
Fi appeared in front of me and indicated my Sailcloth. I examined it more closely and almost fell over when I realized who's it had been; it was the one I'd made for Link. How'd it get back to me?
"There is a technique I must teach you," Fi said. "It's called Dowsing."
"Dowsing?"
"It's a way by which I can detect and track the aura of certain objects."
My heart leapt into my chest; I could track Link! It sounded strange to be honest, but in light of all the things that had happened lately, it didn't bother me much.
"The technique is simple; look at the Goddess Sword."
"What?" I said, my mouth dropping. It was blinking a sky blue, but not the deep bluish-purple of the Skyward Strike the night Fi awoke.
"The brighter and more rapidly the sword blinks, the closer you are to the source of the aura," Fi said, floating in the air in front of us, watching while I experimented with the sword, pointing the blade in various directions. It seemed to glow and blink the fastest when I pointed it to the northwest. "I sense Link's aura is strongest in the northwest. I calculate an 85% chance we'll find him if we set off in that direction."
She became a ball of light again and vanished back into the sword again.
Without a moment's hesitation, I headed northwest, flushed with newfound optimism, with Impa hot on my heels. We followed the blinking sword until the woods opened up to an enormous meadow, occasionally cutting down Deku Babas along the way (with Fi and Impa's help, I became quite good at it). The meadow was completely clear of all trees, with only grass and mushrooms carpeting the floor. A lone tree stood right in the middle of the meadow. It dwarfed every other tree I'd ever seen, with it's branches and roots spreading out into the surrounding meadow and woods.
"Wow."
Impa huffed a little bit; she doesn't seemed thrilled at my fascination with everything. Even while Link is gone, I'm still mesmerized by the Surface: I've been daydreaming about it my entire life. What else would you expect?
"Zelda, the sword," Impa said.
"What?" I said again, confused, soon staring at the sword in disbelief. It had stopped blinking; my newfound opitism and our greatest chance to find Link had just evaporated in front of us, exactly like how Link was snatched away from me. I fought the painful memories threatening to erupt into my mind.
"My Mistress," said Fi's voice inside my head. "I cannot identify Link's aura in the surrounding area."
"Oh no," I muttered, fighting to keep hope alive. "Fi, are you sure?"
"Yes my Mistress."
I sighed in defeat as my world came crashing down; the search for Link was certainly being a lot harder than I imagined, and take more time. Moreover, I was trying to fight down the first signs of panic; Ghirahim was after Link, there was no doubt about that. The sooner we got to that Spring the better. The only other lead to Link I had remaining was Impa.
"I guess we go to the northwest," I said to her. "Unless you know where you teleported Link?"
Impa shook her head. I groaned in frustration at the search which had begun with so much promise, only to end in such a disastrous fashion.
"I don't know the location of the Spring," Impa clarified. "Like I said, I'm only serving Her Grace in guiding her Chosen to their destinies. Link needed to visit the Spring to be healed, I knew that much and I could teleport him there. But I don't know it's exact location."
"Wait," I said. "Did you just call Hylia Her Grace?"
"Yeah," Impa said. "It's an honorable title, given only to two persons since the history of this world; Hylia herself, and now you, as your are her Chosen."
Finally, some answers.
We heard screeching and yelping that sounded eerily like Machi, not far from us. Me and Impa traded worried looks before running off to investigate whatever was causing that racket. Sure enough, Machi was cornered against a giant light-blue mushroom, a weird red creature standing over him, and threatening the poor Kiwki with a club.
"Fi, please indentify."
"Red Bokoblin. They have plagued the land since ancient times. They prefer to attack as a group and carry a variety of weapons. They lack intelligence and seem to have a mysterious obsession with fashionable undergarments."
I snorted with suppressed laughter at 'lack intelligence' and 'fashionable undergarments'. Maybe I could use those features to my advantage.
"Hey," I shouted at it.
The Bokoblin immediately broke it's attention from the little creature writhing on the ground in front of it, and focused to me. It screeched, and then charged, wielding a club. Despite what Fi had told me, it looked a little intimidating at first. It clumsily swung it's club at me, which I easily dodged. Twirling to it's right, I thrust the blade of the Goddess Sword into it's stomach; and I was greeted by the sight of green blood flooding out of it's body before it toppled over, disappearing into a small purple cloud.
I became nauseated by the sight and turned away.
"Disgusting," I said, wiping the Goddess Sword on the grass to get rid of the blood and my churning stomach.
Machi continued to cower on the ground in front of us, even though the Bokolin was gone. Impa went over to the mysterious Kikwi, who, still cornered, didn't even try to run.
"Kikwee, please don't hurt me," he pleaded, in a voice that would melt the hardest heart.
"We mean you no harm," Impa reassured him, picking Machi up in her arms, and rocking him back and forth. Blue magic emitted from her hands, which had a soothing effect on poor Machi. The shuddering Kiwki soon stopped shivering, and began to breathe normally.
"Kwee," Machi said after a few minutes of this. "I must let Bucha, the Kiwki Elder know that I'm safe."
He jumped out of Impa's arms and ran off again.
"Wait," Impa said. "Why don't you let us escort you?"
Machi accepted Impa's suggestion immediately. But it quickly proved to be a bad idea; he talked to us for about his life in the woods, and bored us with everything you would ever need to know about his tribe. I zoned out, letting my mind drift back to Link and to the happy times we'd enjoyed together over the years.
"Kee-koo, a little while ago I ran into another funny animal like you," Machi said. I immediately snapped out of my thoughts.
"Another?" me and Impa said together.
"Kee-paleep, one was green and flew overhead, the other was black, running on the ground. Kwee, he slashed at me."
Impa and I looked at each other; we both knew who the second person was, and it wasn't good news.
"Do you know which way they went, Machi?" Impa prodded.
"Of course, kwee, this way," Machi said, running off in a northwesterly direction.
He turned out to be quite the energetic creature, sprinting along at a good pace: we had to jog to keep up with him. The little Kiwki lead us along for about five minutes until we came to a large plateau rising in the middle of the large clearing. On top of this was another Kikwi, execpt that this one was about ten times Machi's size. My heart sank again; another dead end.
"Kwee, koo, Bucha I'm safe."
"There you are Machi, kwee" said a giant Kiwki at least ten times Machi's size.
Probably due to his voice, or something else, I found myself trusting him explicitly, despite that I'd only just met him a few seconds ago.
"Kwee, I never thought I'd ever see Children of the Sky, as told in the ancient legends passed down by our elders," he said, surprising both me and Impa. "May I thank you for rescuing him with this, kwee."
He fell, face first, onto the ground, causing the ground to shake. A slingshot flew off from his tail and landed in my hands.
"Okay," I said, a little bewildered at the short conversation.
"Strange weapon," Impa commented. "I don't see what help it will be."
"Well," I said, shrugging my shoulders and bagging it. "It might help. So, now what?"
"We should continue heading to the northwest," Impa said. "That's the last direction that Link's aura was last detected."
With little else to go on, I couldn't argue with that.
We hadn't gone far when we ran into a pack of Bokoblins. Impa and I tried to sneak up on them, but one of them spotted us before we could get too close and soon a whole pack of them charged us. One by one I slashed them down, with the Bokoblins doing much of the work for me. Impa didn't lift a finger to help me, which irked me.
"Can't you give me a hand?" I prodded her.
"No," was her curt response. "My only job is to ensure that you succeed. You are doing quite well on your own."
I rolled my eyes at her; did she really have to be like this?
"So where is that spring..."
Impa grabbed the neck of my dress, stopping me.
"Impa, why'd you..."
I gasped at the sight in front of me. She had saved me; I was about to step into nothingness and plummet off a dark chasm. I backed up, shuddering what might have been. A single rope lead across the dark void, which was guarded by a Red Bokoblin on the other side.
"Always look where you are going," Impa said. "That seems to be the cause of much of your clumsiness."
"I'm clumsy even when I'm watching where I'm going," I conceded. It was true; the events of last night in the chamber illustrated that prefectly.
There was a brief moment of silence.
"Well, get going," Impa said, indicating the rope.
"Are you nuts? I'm too clumsy."
"Sorry, I didn't consider that," she commented.
"What?" I said, not offended at all. "What doo you want me to do, just walk out there? Float across?"
Fi appeared out of the sword in front of us, causing both of us to jump.
"Her Grace and Shiekah Impa, we have reached an area known as the Deep Woods. Similarly to the Faron Woods, a large amount of rainfall allowing the same variety of plant and animal life to flourish here." She turned and stared at the chasm currently blocking our route. "I sense that Link's aura isn't too far away (I had to contain myself from squealing with joy!), I suggest that you walk across the chasm."
Nobody said anything in response. Did she just suggest that we plunge to our deaths?
"Fi, are you serious?" I prodded.
"Spirit Maiden, I sense that your powers have an 100% chance of preventing you from falling to your death." I have powers?
With that, she turned into a small blue ball of light and vanished into the sword.
"Is she insane?" I prodded Impa. "I have powers? If so, like what, the power to trip over everything?"
"No, Fi is not insane. Althought I do think the Goddess put a little too much information into her though," she commented. "Look, you need to trust Fi implicitly on your quest. That's her mission; so give it a try."
"Okay."
I breathed in and out, in and out, combatting my nerves, which were screaming and yelling at me not do what I was about to do. I ignored them, constantly reminding myself that Link's fate depended on me. I raised one foot and stepped out into the chasm. But nothing happening, I was just floating in midair. Slowly I took another step, and another until I was halfway out. With each step, a golden hue would radiate from my foot and create a floating island or "stepping stone."
"Impa, am I really creating this?" I asked, amazed.
"Yes," she answered. "You'll find you've been gifted by the Goddess with the abilities nessecary to complete your destiny. This is one of them."
Elated, I even spun on my foot a couple of times in the middle of the chasm as I "walked" across. One good thing that this did was that the Bokoblin guard became irritated by my new mode of transport, and started screeching. It paced back and forth, clearly not believing what it was seeing. I giggled at it's display; to my astonishment, it went out on the rope over the chasm, trying to get close to me. Are they really that dumb?
I "walked" over to the rope and gave it a tug. The Bokoblin wobbled, threw up it's arms, dropped it's club, and plunged into the abyss.
"Good," Impa called. "Head on over to the other side."
Impa gracefully walked over the tightrope (and even did a few cartwheels) to the opposite side, while I "walked" the rest of the way. Now that we'd cleared the obstacle, we could see what had been obscured from our view. In front of us was another temple, the second one I'd seen today. We hadn't been able to see it from the other side of the chasm because it had been hidden by some steep cliffs. This was was similar to the one back in the Sealed Grounds, but it was much bigger, contructed of white marble, and overrun with vines and plants.
"Impressive," I muttered, feeling the cold, hard stone. "It must've been quite the sight to see."
"My Mistress, this is called the Skyview Temple. I sense Link's aura inside. I suggest you commence exploration at once," Fi's voice spoke inside my head.
All my anxiety and worries vanished; we had finally reached Link, and I was about to see him again. We walked up to the doors, which were encrusted with a unique symbol that looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place where I'd seen it before.
"Ready," Impa said, looking at me.
"Link here I come," I whispered.
We walked into the temple's depths.
(Out of Zelda's POV)
Impa walked behind Zelda, pondering over the events she had just witnessed. The first part of her plan had worked beyond her wildest dreams. But despite her initial success, Impa shuddered at the thought of what the White Goddess would think of what the rest of her plan would entail. She was glad that Hylia currently was slumbering inside the clumsy girl in front of her at the moment. Hylia's wrath was something to be avoided at all costs, yet she was about to do something that could provoke it. She could only hope that the Goddess would forgive her in time...