The actual ceremony itself was fairly simple – we both landed on the statue of the Goddess, up on top of her upturned hands, where Zelda took the statuette from me and set it into a niche, offering it up to the Goddess with a brief melody played on a harp.
It didn't end there though. I'm not really one for ceremony, but if nothing else for Zelda I went with it. She offered me her hand, gesturing for me to kneel as I took it, and in a more formal dialect spoke. "Great Goddess, guiding light and protector of our people, grant us your blessing and mercy as I act in your stead during this ceremony."
I listened patiently, though a movement caught my eye. There had been something perching on one of the great wings of the statue, and had moved away as soon as I'd looked. I didn't say anything though as Zelda now took on an even more formal tone, one that suggested to me that if the Goddess were to speak to us, this would be her voice – foreshadowing what was yet to be discovered.
"Valiant one who grasped victory at the celebration of the bird folk," she began, and I assumed she reverted to 'one' since I wasn't human. "In accordance with the old ways, I now bestow my blessings upon you."
Again I spotted a movement – now on the other wing, once again darting quickly out of sight. There was definitely something there. I still didn't react openly though, primarily because Zelda was removing something – for a startled moment I thought she was about to take off her clothes, but it turned out to be a large sailcloth, intricately embroidered with the designs I'd seen throughout Skyloft and are seen on the Hylian shield in the future. She'd tied it around her shoulders for safekeeping, and now handed it neatly folded to me.
"The blessings of the Goddess drift down from the heavens aloft a sail, which is now bequeathed upon you," she informed me, still in that formal tone – and again I noticed that movement! Just above the head this time. Every time I noticed it, it managed to vanish!
I took the cloth from her with a questioning look, and she smiled. "Don't worry," she told me, normal voice again. "You don't have to say anything. Most new Knights don't. But you do have to do just one thing," she said with a mischievous smile. "And no cheating either!"
"Me? Cheat?" I protested.
"Yes – you, cheat. I've seen you when you land, Knuckles. You can glide on your own. And to properly complete the ceremony, you're not allowed to do that." She walked past me and pointed down to the courtyard below, where our two Loftwings were waiting expectantly around an ornate ring of stones. "They know what's next, of course," she told me.
"The ring? I don't-" I broke off. "If Link has something to do with this, I'm going to thump him. You want me to land there – using this as a parachute."
"Is that really such a problem?" Zelda asked innocently. "We'll see how brave you are. The closer to the ground you are before you open it, the more fearless you are. And don't tell me you don't do that sort of thing – I saw you when you first got your Loftwing, showing off."
She had me there. Even I sometimes get the urge to show off.
"That's all I have to do. Land there, not end up being scraped off the ground, and then I'm a Knight."
"Well, you won't really be a Knight until you've got your tunic. Just think of what Link's been wearing, only tailored for you. But you have to do this too."
I didn't really have much of a choice, not least because she took me by the shoulders and made sure I was right at the edge – and then, just for good measure, I was once again pushed off the edge.
You can't help but panic at least briefly when you're unexpectedly falling. I did manage to sort myself out well enough and, although reluctantly, avoid the urge to glide on my own power as usual. I did however leave it as late as I dared, just to show off – although I'm fairly sure the sailcloth hadn't even fully opened by the time I touched down.
Technically, Gaepora should have been there to see it, or at least one of the instructors. As it was they were still rather busy handling Groose, Stritch and Cawlin, but I still had an audience. Pipit, Karane and Fledge were all in attendance, though they kept their distance, knowing something I didn't.
That 'something' was Zelda, of course. Having given me the sailcloth, she had to call her Loftwing to come down and join me, but she didn't get off. My own Loftwing, never one to pass up flying, nuzzled at my hand to get my attention. Like him, I love to fly, just nothing at all compares.
In retrospect that might have been a mistake for quite a number of reasons. We went out flying, always keeping in sight of Skyloft, and had I been any other resident of the island... well, there'd have been more said, to say the least. There were plenty of people who'd envy me for the chance to fly alone with Zelda.
The real reason it was a mistake came just as we made a long, lazy turn to head back to Skyloft. There was a thunderous boom and a sudden blast of wind that shot up from below, creating a vicious, dirty brown vortex of air. We both nudged our Loftwings to bank hard, veering off to try to avoid it, but the massive storm wind only grew larger, even following us.
"Link you little green brat, if you really need me here do something about this!" I yelled over the sound of the howling winds. I barely caught a few snatches of his disembodied response.
"Not something I can..." his voice started, then was drowned out, then, "...interfering with my..." and then I got nothing else. So much for him.
The winds grew more vicious, not tracking me I realized but Zelda – and her Loftwing was bearing them far worse than my own. We dived to reach the already plummeting blue Loftwing and her passenger, but the winds had other ideas – the storm seemed to be somehow aware, moving to blast us off course.
Zelda was blown off her Loftwing by the same winds, and though the storm drowned her out, I still saw her reaching imploringly up to me.
"Dive!" I snapped to my Loftwing, not something I usually did – normally I never needed to say anything, let alone command it. He folded his wings back, bearing almost straight down, very nearly plummeting ourselves, but the storm again proved its strange awareness, moving to obscure her from view and then swiping us both away. I lost my grip and was sent flying, as was my Loftwing, only just barely managing to recover to retrieve me before I too fell below the clouds.
We paused in the air, hovering as we regarded the storm – only to find it was already fading, sinking beneath the clouds. Neither Zelda or her Loftwing were anywhere in sight.
The residents of Skyloft were besides themselves with concern of course, Gaepora more so than any other as Zelda was his daughter. Even Groose seemed subdued, though he absolutely refused to see me at all.
I give them due credit – despite their initial concerns about me, they did not hold me responsible in the slightest. It could have happened to anyone, though how the unnatural winds had occurred and once I'd explained what I'd seen, why it had clearly been after Zelda all remained unclear.
Despite the not inconsiderable damper this had on the general mood of the island I was nevertheless required to submit to a few oddly awkward moments with the academy's resident tailor, who took measurements I wouldn't have thought necessary in preparation for the clothing appropriate for a Knight of Skyloft – complete with a few alterations that were sort of necessary due to my not being Skyloftian. He went away umming and ahhing, trying to figure out how best to handle the gauntlets.
Then since it was already late when the storm had shown itself and getting later by the time I was finally done with the tailor, I headed to bed. It was late, and it had been an active day – retrieving my Loftwing, getting one up on Groose and all the rest, more had happened in that one day than had happened in all the rest of the time I'd been here.
I don't normally have a problem sleeping, and normally I don't remember much of my dreams, but this night was different. Not only did I have trouble actually getting to sleep, and staying asleep without something waking me, but tonight someone or something had other plans.
Finally I just gave up and even though it was the middle of the night, I got up and headed out into the Academy. At least this late at night I didn't have to worry about anyone encountering a sleepless, irritable me.
Only when I paused outside my room, a movement caught my eye. Not as furtive as it had been before, and now when I looked I saw at last the source of these annoyingly evasive movements – a strange blue creature, almost but not quite translucent. In place of arms she appeared to have a wide cloak draped around her, indigo on her right side instead of the blue of her left. A small stone held it together just below her neck, attached to golden lined blue clothing that concealed anything revealing – not that I was interested in that, though the Skyloftians might have.
I say her now because I know who and what she is, but then of course I had no idea. All I knew was that this strange creature was floating above the stairs at one end of the Academy, and she was watching me. I approached and with a phantom wind that made no sound or movement, she moved back up and away as if leading me.
She floated up to and through the main doors in a shimmer of light, then waited for me outside since I naturally had to open the doors myself – and though plenty of people will find room for improvement, I knew those doors and took care to open them quietly, so as not to disturb anyone. If I'd been paying more attention, I'd have noticed that I'd already caught someone's attention, and I don't mean her.
I continued to follow her through night-time Skyloft, taking a rather rough route around Skyloft, frequently having to resort to my own abilities to cross gaps that led straight down to the clouds below, and several times leaping said gaps because there was simply nothing close enough to use.
Her route led me to the rear of the base of the Goddess statue, where again she floated right through, only this time it appeared to be solid stone. An archway of stone with the same symbol etched into it as was on the sailcloth Zelda had given me.
A moment after she'd gone through the symbol lit up, then the stone with it, fading to leave an empty archway to a room concealed within the statue's base. A large, clearly artificial cavern beyond awaited, lit by four large torches arranged in a square around an area raised up slightly, centred around an impressive blade in a pedestal – the place and pedestal that would later be visited regularly by another Hero.
"Alright, how did you figure that out?" Link asked. "I know you didn't know at the time, so when did you figure it out too?"
"When Silver was talking about his tale," Knuckles shrugged. "He described the Temple of Time to us, and the place the Master Sword was waiting for him. You might have moved it from Skyloft to Hyrule below, but I recognised it all the same."
"And it's probably the same place I saw too," Tails added. "Though that stands to reason, since the ruins I was in led to Silver's Temple of Time."
"And y'know, it kinda reminds me of that place below Hyrule Castle too," Sonic put in. "You kinda re-use places a lot, Link."
"It's easier on me that way. You have no idea how taxing it is to handle all the dungeons, especially trying to accommodate you Heroes. Some of you have had it far easier because I felt a bit lazy. I get shouted at a bit by the others, but as long as I do my job..." he trailed off.