UNITING THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH
Chapter 9: Those Who Fall
Ever since the existence of the Surface had been made known to the people of Skyloft and the other sky-islands, there had been one thing on the minds of its citizens: The fates of those who fell from their sky-suspended lands.
Some of the members of families who had lost people hoped that maybe, just maybe, their loved ones might have survived the fall through the cloud-barrier. As unlikely as it was, the Surface-settlers, especially the Surface Knights, kept their eyes and ears open any time they forged new paths through wild country. King Link said that he didn't think there were any survivors, for the Three Dragons spoke of no humans living in their lands when he'd sought audience with them.
Lanayru the Thunder Dragon was no help at all, as he was only to be found in a place of meeting in the deep past. He kept it a secret how deep into history his area was – Link suspected that it was a time before the city that would become Skyloft had been sent into the sky. Eldin the Fire Dragon doubted any fragile human would want to make camp in his blighted lands, even if they failed to drop right down into a pool of active lava. He claimed that the only sapient beings interested in the place were the Mogmas and the Gorons, for similar reasons. Both sought rocks and minerals – as treasure and artisan materials and as food, respectively. He was sure no lone human who was not the Chosen Hero could survive there for long. That left Faron, the Water Dragon. She'd told him, simply, that she had seen no humans between the War of Hylia and his appearance and had left it at that.
People had hope, but most knew that the sheer physical forces inherent in falling from as great a height as Skyloft would likely render someone unconscious by the time they hit the Cloud Sea – or that the Cloud Sea would knock them out, itself. A person who had blacked out would not be able to unfurl their sailcloth. The settlers came down to the Surface upon their Loftwings by gliding down through the open portals. Link had ridden down close to the portals, skimming just above the cloud-barrier when he'd been upon his quest – not to mention that he was under a certain degree of divine protection.
Just to test things, Link experimented on himself. People said that it went beyond bravery to just plain foolishness, but he really wanted to know if someone could, at least hypothetically, survive a fall from Skyloft-height. His queen and his guards stood by, both above and below the Cloud Sea. When he was near a portal, Link jumped from his Crimson Loftwing and fell a few degrees short of the portal, making sure he'd hit the cloud-barrier. Zelda, waiting just below, caught his unconscious body on the back of her bird as he fell through. When he came to, he talked of feeling like he was going out right as he hit the thick clouds.
He did this a few more times to solidify his hypothesis as a grounded theory, after which Zelda, having enough, smacked him and forced him to stop using himself as a test-subject. No amount of pleas "for science!" could change her mind about her husband's risk-taking for something that appeared obvious. She knew that his heart was in the right place, though. He was hoping to give the grieving some hope that it was possible to find some fallen Skylanders alive down in the Surface-Lands. If he could make it through the Cloud Sea just once without blacking out, there was hope that some fallen Skyloftians could have survived to live in secrecy.
As it stood, there was no reason for that hope. In fact, the grim fate of one fallen person was discovered in the Lanayru Desert. A group of people who were seeking gold and stray veins of Timeshift Stone-ore found the bones of a man in tattered Skyloft Knight Academy senior clothes atop the desert-mummified remains of a Loftwing with a few copper-colored feathers still attached to the bones of its wings.
This unfortunate person was someone in memory and in record – a young knight named Griffin who'd ridden a rare copper-feathered Loftwing. He had suffered an accident during his training in the spiral charge move. His bird had run headlong into one of the asteroids on the training course and had cracked its skull. Griffin could have been rescued by one of the knights on standby if he'd jumped off his bird, but his hand had gotten caught beneath the riding belt and he fell with it. His fate was known for sure now. He'd been blown by the winds into the desert and had no way to slow his descent. He'd likely succumbed to massive internal injuries due to an impact that a dead Loftwing ultimately made a poor cushion for. His desiccated corpse lay atop that of his Loftwing. His family was notified of the find and poor Griffin and his bird were given a Surface-burial together.
There were other fallen beings whose fates the settlers of Hyrule might have been better off not knowing.
Sometimes, a Loftwing fell without its rider. Wild Loftwings who never partnered with a rider likewise fell from the sky at times. There was the legend of the secret island where old and sick Loftwings went to die, as well as birds that were depressed from the loss of their riders (hence the Skyloft Knights' aerial funeral tradition), however, not all simply "vanished from sight." Some birds that were ill, or had been injured by the wildlife in the skies would simply fall down into the Cloud Sea. The usual fate of a Loftwing that had lost a rider to a fall, in fact, was falling itself after it had circled the area it had lost its partner in until exhaustion set in. Knights tried to save bereft birds from this fate, but steering a grieving bird back to an island was an almost impossible task.
The settlers of the Surface soon learned that various fates awaited fallen Loftwings, depending upon where they landed. In the desert, the dead were usually sucked up and concealed by the shifting sands. A few, like Griffin's bird with him on it, landed hard upon stone. Birds that landed in the forest were greeted by curiosity and some mourning by the Kikwis, who saw in such large birds similarities to themselves – as well as the fact that they were gentle creatures who generally loved all life (at least all life that was not predatory towards them) and found death to be a sad thing. In Faron Woods, fallen Loftwings were buried or left to the processes of the forest.
The fate they faced in Eldin's lands inspired some of the Hylians to wish for war.
While King Link and Queen Zelda had good relations with the Mogmas and some Hylian tradesmen found them to be powerful business partners, the welcome they'd once received at the Royal Wedding had worn thin and dwindled into non-existence over the years. Many of the settlers and the children that they had and were raising came to think of the Mogmas as savages. They were seen as dirty scavengers, untrustworthy sly types, and their shape inspired terms like "beast." Some even held them to be a form of monster, especially after a particular part of their diet was learned.
The Mogmas were ground-dwellers that subsisted on roots and tubers, but being opportunists, enjoyed meat when it came their way and there was no bigger source of pure animal protein than a great bird that fell from the sky into their lands. Roasting what they thought of as "big cuccoo," was no problem in a land of living rivers of lava. They were not the sort of creatures that passed up an easy meal, particularly when it landed upon their scorched earth.
When they learned that the birds were sacred to the new Hylian settlers, they did not quite understand. Why were these new people demanding that they perform rites over some dead wild bird? Why did they say that eating them was forbidden? If the gods provided them free meat, were they not to take such a golden opportunity? Who were these Hylians anyway to barge in from the sky and try to tell them what to do? Wasn't it their right to feed their wives and their warrens of children? Why did these weird people think it was "cannibalism" just because they rode on the backs of the things? Weren't a few of them eating horses now although some of them rode them?
Some of the artisans, craftsmen and people of industry that had come down from the sky otherwise found the Mogmas more of a problem than a people. While the Mogmas were expert diggers, the majority of them did not want to work for a parceled out salary offered to them, preferring to keep their mineral and treasure prospecting as personal free enterprise. Some partnered with Hylian tradesmen and purchased Hylian goods with their found treasures, but most of the Hylian prospectors found these creatures to be competitors and found them generally in the way when they wanted to build rail-cart systems and processing centers into the fiery mountains. The Mogmas, meanwhile, did not like the idea of having upstarts trying to uproot their centuries-old settlements.
Tensions mounted. The Mogmas went to their leaders over the question of whether or not they should try to drive the sky-folk back to the sky. The Hylians went to their leaders regarding whether or not "extermination of the moles in their new garden" was in order.
The king and queen of Hyrule were, of course, in favor of peace. Zelda favored negotiations to reach a reasonable solution, for, as always, she was guided by wisdom. Link counted many Mogmas as personal friends. Some Hylians questioned his loyalty to his own people, for he seemed to them to be "too much a lover of the other races," and "too sentimental in regards to the journey of his youth." They thought him too much of an idealist – a gallant Hero – but out of touch with the realities of a blossoming society.
There was another unpleasant reality of Hylian frontier-society, something that had been completely unforeseen by former Goddess and former Hero, as well as those that had fallen from the sky like stars. Having been isolated for so long in the sky, various diseases had become specific to the sky-islands and some of the diseases of the Surface had become specific to the Surface. Biological agents that would give the natives of one country a small case of the sniffles were devastating to natives of another country whose bodies were not accustomed to those particular strains.
After meeting with King Link and Queen Zelda and conducting some trade and knowledge-exchange with their people, the red-haired people who'd come from across the Sand Sea dealt with the first epidemic they'd had in decades. People skilled in medicine both among their people and among the Hylians did what they could to help. In the end, the tribe had only lost some of their very old and very young, but the Hylian royals felt every loss. The red-haired tribe chose to cut off trade and remain in isolation.
The shining-scaled upper river people from one of the remote regions near the water-sea - the Zora, as they called themselves, fared better. Like the Kikwis, their physiology rendered them immune from most Hylian ailments. Some of them got sick on Hylian food, and vice-versa. Some Hylians, however, grew to enjoy raw fish with just the right amount of rice and the right kind of sauce. There were arguments among Hylian biologists as to whether or not they were related to the Parella or to Faron. For the most part, they were seen as "friendly, but strange," and the marked lack of illness-exchange made relations with them go smoothly.
No one was really quite sure why Hylians who'd had extensive dealings in Eldin were getting sick with Mogma ailments when the Mogmas has such an animal-like physiology as opposed to humanoid, but it soon became apparent that something they carried that was minor to them was transferable – and deadly – to Hylians.
The Hylian war-drums began beating out a thunder when the king got sick.
Link was hot and dizzy as he held on tight to the riding belt of his Loftwing. He could feel his grip weakening and willed his fingers to keep curled around the strip of leather. He could hear his personal guard behind him. Captain Karane was on her bird. Others rode below on horses. They'd stayed three days in Eldin and met with Tubert – Lord Tubert now, chosen as High Chieftain sometime after Guld's retirement for the good head on his shoulders regarding business.
Link recalled with a bit of disgust how Pumm and Kina basically thought of old Guld as a slave. Guld, for his part, did not seem to mind it much just because he enjoyed the Sky and liked to impress people with his digging skills – it was almost as if he was unaware of the low status the people of the sky had given him. What had left the bitterest taste in Link's soul was the fact that he'd made the arrangements for this relationship himself only a few years and a lifetime ago.
He'd started feeling sick this morning, but thought nothing of it. Not everyone caught the Eldin Sickness. Karane was as healthy as a horse. The King of Hyrule thought that, perhaps, it was just the heat of the volcano getting to him, and then the temperature change between the Eldin area and the air around Faron. The painful itch in his throat? Perhaps that was just from the geothermal smoke and ash in the air in Eldin. He always felt a little off when he went to Eldin. It was as familiar as the sand that got in his hair whenever he visited Lanayru. Link was weak and tired even though he'd slept well – maybe it was just residue from a long journey or a side-effect of the psychological stress of trying to prevent a war?
He landed in the courtyard of the palace. Zelda ran to great him as his Loftwing landed and he slipped off him. He swayed and Zelda caught him.
"Link!" She exclaimed, "What's wrong? You're sweating and pale…"
"Something I ate?" Link offered before utterly collapsing into his wife's arms. He could hear the boots of his guards approaching them.
"Come on inside and rest," Zelda insisted. "I'll get you some water and maybe some soup. Link, you're so warm."
"So are you," Link joked.
"You're sweating."
He shivered.
"Oh, dear… Come on inside."
"Where are the kids? I… I don't want them catching what I've got if I have anything."
"They're out in the yard with Fledge and the horses."
"Good."
Link's accompaniment marched inside with him and Queen Zelda. She dismissed them, dispatching a messenger to go fetch a physician as she helped her husband to their bed. He stretched himself out and Zelda helped him strip out of his tunic and mail. She drew a blue-goat wool blanket and a quilt over him to help him with the chills. She brushed her hands over his face, his ears, his chest and his neck.
"It's probably just a cold," Link said. "Maybe just a reaction to the air in Eldin."
"Either way, I've sent for the apothecaries." Zelda said, "If all you need is a potion, you'll be okay, but you worry me. You practically fell off your bird."
"Remember that week when you got that really bad head cold and I practically camped out in your dorm?" Link reminisced. "Karane didn't like that I was spending so much time in a girl's room, but your father didn't mind because I was just bringing you soup and making you laugh with stupid jokes."
"And trying to sing to me off-key," Zelda laughed.
"You sing much better."
"This is more like right after you fought Demise," Zelda sighed. "I was taking care of you, remember?"
"Yeah."
"And I'll take care of you now. You usually get over colds quickly."
Link did not recover quickly. Over the following week and into a second week, his cough worsened and he grew progressively weaker. He shivered and lay in so much pain that he could not sleep until utterly exhausted, after which he slept for long stretches, his breathing so shallow that his queen feared it could stop at any time. Zelda put spells of protection over herself and the children. At the same time, the children were forbidden by their caretakers and the recently-formed Council to visit their father for fear that the spells would fail. The heirs, after all, were important. Zelda stayed by her husband's side during the day, although she slept in an adjoining room so as to give him the comfort of having the entire bed to roll and cough up phlegm in.
Luv paced about the room as Zelda rubbed a concoction of crushed leaves from a local plant on Link's chest in gentle circles. This stuff had a pungent, fresh smell and was meant to aid his respiratory functions. For his part, Link was half-asleep, aware of the presence of his wife and vaguely aware of the existence of Bertie and Luv. Bertie was busy sprinkling sparkling blue butterfly wing-dust and pouring rendered insect-venom into a jar of unfinished red fluid.
"Eldin Sickness," Luv said matter-of-factly.
"No…" Zelda said, shaking her head. "No… please…"
"I'm afraid so. It comes with a fifty-percent survival rate for our people. There's not much to be done but to keep him hydrated, try to get a little protein down him every once in a while, and wait it out. We can give him the breathing-salve and a bit of air-potion to open up his lungs, and we can give him red potion to ease the fever and body-pain, but there's no cure or sure remedy. He's at a threshold now."
"A threshold?"
"Yes," Bertie spoke up. "What my wife means is… he's either going to get better or he's going to get worse. We've seen some of our patients with this recover, and some die. Our dear Link is at a point where if he starts perking up pretty soon, he's on his way to recovery, but if he starts getting any worse than he is now, funeral plans are in order. I'm sorry, but that is the way it is. I've improved the red potion… it's normally used for injuries. I'm afraid it cannot really heal this, but it might help… a little. I don't want to get your expectations too high."
Link weakly reached out and took the bottle from his hand. Shaking, he brought it to his lips and drank, getting about half of it all over himself and the sheets. Zelda helped him to steady the bottle.
"Th-thank you," Link said after he'd finished the draught.
"You should try to survive," Luv said bluntly. "Not for your own sake or even for us. We do like you, kid, we always have, but… people are talking about war. Your death might be the tipping-point and I just don't want to have to deal with it."
"W-wouldn't it give you more…b-business?" Link darkly joked.
"Not the kind of business we want. Clearing out monsters is one thing, but wars among people? Pheh! People become monsters. People lose their minds. And guess who has to patch up the most horrible injuries?"
"So, you do see the Mogmas as a people, then?" Zelda asked.
"Eh- eh!" Bertie spoke up, "Why wouldn't we? Some of them have become loyal customers."
"Far be it from us to get involved in politics," Luv continued, "especially since we don't even live here full-time, but our daughter wants to move down here for good, so we care about what goes on here, just a little."
"It is good for us to know the feelings of our people – directly from their mouths. Thank you." Zelda nodded and stroked Link's hair.
"Folk…don't…d-don't treat us the same any-anymore," Link wheezed. "St-status…makes them sh-shy."
"Weeeell," Luv explained, "You may be the king down here, but my husband and I still think of you as that goofy kid who went on a quest and bought lots of wares from us."
"S-saved my life."
"I'm sure we did, just like you made us rich. We'll leave plenty of potions for you, but, really, it's just a matter of chance now. I am sorry."
"I put a little extra rendered hornet-venom in all of the red potions," Bertie added, "It should, eh… help you sleep. Don't take too much at a time, now, no more than one bottle twice a day."
After the apothecaries left, Zelda remained with Link, waiting for him to fall asleep before resuming castle business.
"D-disease like this…" Link began, "I know it's a p-part of the n-natural order, but…I-I can't help but wonder…about-about...the Goddess' role with it."
Zelda gulped down a wave of tears. "If you're wondering, no… Hylia did not invent such things. She did not understand the hardships of mortals, but this kind of thing was part of the order of the old gods. If Farore's life was left to flourish without checks and balances to keep the cycles going, the world would become static. Some dangers were always meant to keep the populations of certain beings in check… even Hylians."
"Always heard…the w-world was about b-balance."
"That's right," Zelda said giving his hair another long, soothing stroke. "Even if we do not like the outcome." She winced, remembering a deep dream of long ago, a pawn of a heroic soul and a promise of rebirth.
"C-could be the residue of Evil. A p-part of Demise's curse on us."
"I don't think so," Zelda whispered. "You aren't cursed. You're too much of a blessing to be under a curse."
"Wh-when did you get so corny?"
Zelda gave him a soft and cautious giggle. "Are you feeling sleepy yet? It's strange… You're my Sleepyhead but you can't sleep when you're sick."
"It's h-hard when you hurt."
"I know… I know, but it is the best way to heal."
"Zelda?"
"Yes, love?"
"If… if I don't survive… I think I want to be buried on the Surface. Somewhere near here. I am more a person of the Surface than of the Sky anymore. And s-see… Great, I'm shivering again… see if you can keep my bird from dying of grief. Just because I die doesn't mean that he should, too."
"Link, stop talking like that. You are going to make it. I know you. You're too strong not to. You've survived… much worse things."
"It would be the way it would happen, wouldn't it?" Link sighed. He then coughed and regained himself. "It would be the way it would happen… the Hero, the one who dodged the most clever of traps, felled the biggest and most fell of beasts… done in by a little bug he caught on a peace-mission."
"It's not going to happen that way. You are going to live and watch your children grow up and become very old with me." Zelda noticed his soft, ragged breathing. He'd fallen asleep. "Goodnight, or… good-afternoon… Sleepyhead. I'll be back in a couple of hours."
She kissed his warm forehead and left the room.
Karane was walking along the wall of the modest Hyrule Castle upon her night patrol. It was called a castle, but it was only had two floors at present as they were all that was needed. There were four floors counting the basement and the attic. The ground floor was where the Council met and where the king and queen met with their people and the upper floor was where the royal family lived. In the land areas around the palace was a stable and riding grounds, a combat-training ground, a courtyard and a garden, all of which were enveloped by the wall. The wall was open at the courtyard with no gate, allowing all of the people of the settlement to come in and enjoy the garden.
The starry fireflies danced about the garden in the early evening. It was a quiet night. Karane alternated her duties, but preferred night patrol when she could get it. It was nice to be alone with one's thoughts on a summer night. She stiffened when she saw a shadow deftly leap along the opposite end of the wall. She rushed along the walls' foot-path, keeping silent. It was probably some kind of night-bird or perhaps one of the children out of bed and doing something stupid.
Prince Pipit sometimes had nightmares and would come out along one of the balconies or out to the wall to clear his head. He was twelve-years old now, and so did without the closer supervision given to his younger sister and little brother. Sometimes, he came out to Karane when she was on patrol and talked with her. She assured him that she was there to protect him from any danger. He liked talking with her about swords and about Loftwings. He was one of the few Surface-born children who'd called and partnered with one. He'd told her once that he found her strangely comforting, that even before she started working full-time around the castle that she felt "very familiar" to him. He was a good kid and Karane had felt her heart break the other night when he'd come out to meet her and was talking about how he was afraid his father was going to die. He'd said that he would take up helping his mother and protecting everyone, but wasn't ready to say goodbye to his papa yet.
Karane followed the path of the skulking shadow. As she neared it, it became clear that it wasn't the young prince. Torchlight caught the glint of metal and then the shadow disappeared into the upper floor of the castle, leaping up into a specific window.
Karane pumped her legs. She dashed across the wall, jumped down, took the guards' entrance into the castle and ran up the stairs, taking several at a time. She drew her sword and ran to the master bedroom. She could hear Link's labored breathing even before she burst through the door. A shadow loomed over the sleeping king's bed. Moonlight caught the tip of a sword, poised over the sick man's form.
"Stop right there!" Karane roared. The sword came down just as a suddenly-awake Link startled, rolled and fell off the bed.
Karane charged forward. The intruder's sword clashed with her own. "Meddlesome wench!" the stranger hissed. She danced and parried. Her armor protected her from a blow aimed for her heart that she deflected into her shoulder. It scraped across metal harmlessly. As the assailant pulled it back, however, the blade grazed her cheek.
Link, meanwhile, spoke the spell to bring the torches up with his raspy voice and staggered to the wall beside his bed where he kept his sword. He managed to grab it, but he stumbled to his knees in dizziness. He stood, trembling. Zelda came in and he immediately staggered toward her, putting himself before her protectively, struggling to hold the sword up.
Meanwhile, Karane and the stranger fought and the rest of the castle knights came up behind Zelda. Before they could do anything, however, Karane grit her teeth and put her blade through the intruder's stomach. The tip protruded from his back. The Captain of the Guard wrenched her blade out of the body and panted as she watched it fall. The man breathed out a death-rattle and closed his eyes. Zelda yelped and buried her face in the shoulder of Link's pajamas.
Karane stared, sweating and bleeding from the cut on her cheek. She'd slain many monsters with a vengeance, but this was the first time she'd ever needed to take a human life.
"His name was Sakon," Karane said at the bedside of King Link, giving him her report when he was well and aware enough to hear it. Link was sitting up, propped up on pillows. "He was a petty thief."
"A thief?" Link asked hoarsely. "What would a petty criminal want with the throne?"
"He wasn't after the throne, Link," Karane sighed, "Or even particularly after power – at least not in our kingdom. You were more… like a trophy buck to him."
"A trophy buck?"
"Upon investigation, we traced him to a criminal gang made up of both men and monsters. To kill an important figure bestows a certain degree of status in the criminal underworld. Sakon did not want to become the king of Hyrule, but he did seek kingship among his gang. He didn't make it fair, though – with you so sick. The kingdom knows of your condition, so he took the opportunity to not have to fight you."
"Cowards don't play fair," Link coughed. "Was he working alone on this?"
"We think so. We managed to get most of his buddies into holding after ferreting them out."
"Zelda and I had the basement dug for storage, not dungeons. We'd hoped we wouldn't need anything more than a cool-down tank for the occasional rowdy drunk – like on Skyloft."
"Well, Lazybones, you did run a pretty peaceful kingdom for a good decade. That's more time spent in Paradise than most monarchs could hope for, especially with the blossoming population between births and settlers continuing to come down from the outer sky-islands."
"You don't look so good, Karane."
"Look who's talking."
"I'm feeling better. I think I'm on the mend."
"Link, you look like a corpse. You do seem a bit more comfortable, though, and you aren't coughing as badly."
"Like I said, I'm beatin' this. You… you just don't look good. You're pale. You don't look like you've gotten much sleep."
"I've heard that the first time you kill a man, you're supposed to feel sick. It means you still have a heart. Something like that. I know I'll be okay. I'm the Iron Lioness, after all. I've got Corvus with me and the ghost of a fallen knight in my memory telling me to keep it together. It's easy for men to become monsters, not so easy for monsters to become men."
"Thank you, Karane. If you hadn't come to my rescue, I would definitely be dead."
"Get your rest, Highness. Listen to Zelda. Keep mending. I didn't save your skinny butt just so you can turn on me and die."
"You take care of yourself, too. I want my captain sharp-minded."
"Understood."
END CHAPTER 9
