Chapter 14: World in the Sky

A/N: I am so sorry about the long wait time. I have no excuse. I have been very lazy when it comes to my writing. I've actually had this chapter half-done for a while now, I just never got the motivation to finish it until tonight. Again I am so sorry.

"Let me get this straight," Nasc stated. "You think that there is a world in the sky and that we'll find a way to fix your dingy sword up there all because she told you it was so?" He pointed to Fi.

"That about sums it up," Link responded.

Nasc huffed and said, "Whatever. The statue works, so that may or may not be true. Just don't kill me, will ya?"

"Are you sure about this Link?" Zelda asked, concerned. "I mean, what if we get into the sky and fall straight back down? That would be the end of us."

"Trust me," Link assured, "we'll find a place to land. The magical statue won't kill us."

"Are there any further inquiries before we proceed?" Fi asked the group.

"I have one!" Amai stated, shoving her hand into the air.

"Yes?"

"The wind you showed us wasn't very strong. How will we use it to get waaaaay up there?" She pointed dramatically to the sky.

Link slapped himself in the forehead. I really need to start paying attention to the obvious things. He walked over to the statue, which wasn't far from the group was meeting. Getting everyone up and telling them of the situation was a trying task, to be certain. Everyone looked at him skeptically as he explained what Fi had related to him. Then he took them all outside and showed them the statue's wind.

Link shook that thought off as he bent to examine the statue. He stretched out his magic-attuned senses, feeling for whatever spells made the statue work. The spells were unlike anything that Link had ever seen before. For one thing, they radiated divine power. Also, the structure and language was even older than the ancient Hylian that he used to guide his own magic.

However, weirdness aside, he could sense the function of the spell. It was definitely a wind spell, designed to shoot a strong updraft if it was triggered. Link had no idea where the spell got its power from, but the source seemed to be either self-regenerating or fully unlimited. Another interesting feature is that it was designed to activate when someone sent up a prayer to the goddess.

Wait a second, he thought with a start, there are three goddesses, not one. However, his prayer to the goddesses still triggered the spell, so he decided to shrug that little detail off. Now that he had the statue analyzed, he found the problem. The wind was only strong enough to carry someone if they had something to catch the wind. Since Link's crew had no such object, he needed to find a way to boost the statue's power.

"Earth to Link," Nasc called out. "Can you tell us what's going on? You kind of zoned out there."

Link stood and faced Nasc. "Amai was right," he stated. "The spell on this statue doesn't have the power to carry us up."

"Now what?"

"I understand the structure of the spell," Link continued. "With help," he looked purposefully at Zelda, "I think I can attach a spell to the statue's core and boost the wind's strength. That should get us into the sky."

"Let me say once again: Don't kill us."

"I'll do my best. Now, I'm going to want to eat before we try this. Zelda, you should eat, too."

Amai and Nasc parted to allow Zelda and Link to re-enter the ruin. They went into the room in the back where they had stored the leftover rabbit. They ate quickly, while Link mentally went over the kind of spell he would need to cast. He would have force an opening into the source spell and then fill it with the power boosting addition. The problem was that he had to be careful not to unravel the original spell or else they'd never make it to the sky. But his father had taught him some very fine pieces of magic, so he was sure he could handle this delicate procedure.

Once they'd downed all of the leftover meat, Link and Zelda went back to the statue. Link closed his eyes and began to focus his magic. He could feel the statue's alien power in addition to Zelda's magic. Zelda had a very different magical aura. Her aura wasn't that of intense magical prowess, but an aura of gentleness and wisdom. Link did know from experience that she was a strong spellcaster and that they'd have no problem with what they were attempting…maybe.

Link merged his magic with Zelda's, feeling their powers slide over each other and mix, preparing a spell to accomplish a common goal. Together, they felt out the statue's source spell, and found the area that governed the amount of power that the wind had. Then they began casting, chanting in ancient Hylian. Link could feel their spell worming its way into the statue. Ever so gently, they began to pry the source spell open, creating the hole that they needed. They immediately began casting spells to ensure that the whole thing didn't collapse.

Satisfied that the structure of the spell would hold, they began weaving a wind spell that would boost the power of the updraft. They carefully anchored the spell to their structure and made sure to word it so that it would continue to use the statue's power source.

Link opened his eyes, the casting finished. The statue looked the same as ever. Link took a deep breath, recovering from the mental strain of the spellcasting. He looked past the statue and saw that Zelda was doing the same thing.

She is a very talented spellcaster, Link observed casually. It was good thing that Zelda was talented. This never would have worked otherwise.

"Is it done?" Nasc asked.

Link nodded yes.

"Really?" Amai asked. "It doesn't look any different. Did anything even happen?"

Link silently nodded, not trusting his exhausted brain to form cohesive words.

"You're sure this thing won't kill us, right?" Nasc asked.

Again, Link nodded.

"We must place our trust in Link's judgment," Fi stated. "I am certain that we will be fine. Link, please trigger the spell."

Link bowed his head, preparing his prayer. Oh goddesses above, grant us your guidance. You revealed to us the path forward, now allow us to tread it safely. Keep us alive as we embark into the sky. Link finished his prayer and felt the spell trigger.

Wind gathered around the statue, and everyone tensed.

"If we wind up as a blood-stain in the desert," Nasc said to Link, "I'm gonna be your eternal punishment in Hell."

And then the spell took off. The editations that Link and Zelda had made took effect with immense strength. Everyone was rushed off of their feet and shot into the sky at blinding speed. Link blacked out.

Link's eyes shot open. His entire backside was bruised very badly. Well, he wasn't dead, so whatever he had hit had to have been in the sky. Which meant that they had reached the world of the sky safely. "Safely," here being defined as, "not dead."

He sat up, greatly hurting his back. However, he dared a look around. He was on an island, surrounded by nothing but empty air. The island itself was interesting to say the least. The area he'd landed on was raised above the surrounding island, and had stairs darting down in two directions. Link looked behind him and saw the remnants of a wooded staircase that must have led to an island that was long since detached. Down one of the other staircases was an ancient stone building. Link noticed that it had two floors and a smaller building not too far to the right. Down the other staircase was an open-aired stone building that looked like it might have been a market at one point in time. Whatever had served as the ceiling had long since crumbled away. Beyond that, the place sloped down into a small creek that flowed into oblivion. Beyond that was a set of houses built into the hill. To the left of that was a small lake who's source was in a separate island far above them.

It was certainly a lot to take in at once. Whatever this place had once been, Link was sure that it would have been a magnificent place to live in. However, it was now nothing more than an ancient ruin. Link scanned the island, searching for his friends. They had to have landed somewhere on the island. He saw a speck of blond in the market, and immediately darted down the stairs towards it.

He went in a side door, and walked to where he saw the bit of hair. Zelda lay collapsed behind what used to be a counter. She was passed out, like he had been just moments before. Link bent down and gently shook her awake.

"Owwwww," she moaned.

"Hey," Link called softly. "We made it."

Zelda sat up, still very groggy. She looked at Link, seeming to register what he had just said.

"We…did?" She said slowly.

"Yeah." Link stood. "Come on, we need to find where the others landed."

Finding everyone took some time. They had all landed on different parts of the island. Fi was found in the large two story building that Link had observed on waking up. She was in what looked like it was once a library, leafing through an ancient tome. Nasc was passed out near a cave on the far side of the island near the lake. Link let Zelda wake him. He was fairly certain that Nasc would punch him if Link tried to wake him up. Link felt his bruised backside with a grimace. Yep, Nasc would definitely try to punch him. Amai was near an ancient-looking windmill structure near the hill-houses. After they all had been found, they went to the large, two-story building near the top of the island to discuss what was going to happen next.

"We're here," Link started.

"Way to state the obvious," Nasc scoffed.

"Well we had to start somehow."

"Whatever. Just be glad I didn't punch you in the face for the bruise to my backside."

"Fi," Zelda called out, "why exactly did you bring us up here?"

Fi looked up from the ancient tome she had been reading. "I had a vague memory of the sky as my place of origin. I figured we may find a clue to re-forge the master sword here."

"I haven't seen anything that might give us a hint," Zelda stated, downcast.

"I wonder if it has anything to do with…" Link trailed off as he became lost in thought.

"Well don't keep it to yourself, man," Nasc boomed, "spit it out!"

"There was a broken set of stairs near where I landed. I wonder if that may be the clue we're looking for."

There was a loud thud as Fi placed her tome on one of the ancient tables.

"Show me," she ordered.

The whole group went upstairs and filed out of the building's upper exit, Link leading the way. The group went up the main set of stairs to the spot where Link had landed. He pointed to the broken wooden steps that looked like they had at one point continued up for some distance.

"This is it, I'm sure!" Fi burst out.

"Earth to Fi," Nasc called out, "wherever those stairs led to is now long gone. We've got nothing to go on."

Fi slumped down in defeat.

"Now what?" Amai asked. Link had almost forgotten that she was there, as she had been so quiet.

"Give me some time to think," Fi ordered. She then sat at the foot of the broken stairs and became still as a statue.

"Let's give her some room," Zelda suggested.

Link led the group, minus Fi, to the market.

"Think she'll find anything?" Link asked no one in particular.

"Not likely," Nasc responded. "If there was anything useful here, it rotted away ages ago."

Link slumped, hoping that this all-important trip to the sky hadn't been for nothing. If there was no way to re-forge the Master Sword, what would Link do? If they could make it back to the ground, they'd have nowhere to go. The dark powers would consume them.

They could stay on the island. Link had noticed pumpkins growing everywhere. It would be a monotonous diet, but they wouldn't starve. They could get water from whatever spring fed the small lake on the island's lower altitudes. It wouldn't be a very bad existence.

Link shoved that idea out of his head. He and his group were the only ones who could stop the evil that festered in Hyrule. To do anything less would be a sin worse than any evil Ganondorf could commit. No, he had to find what they had come here for.

"Heeeeeeeyyyyy!" broke the long silence that had come over the group. Everyone looked at each other. None of them had said anything, and that certainly wasn't Fi's voice. It came from the plaza area just outside the market.

The group got up and rushed outside, and were shocked to say the least. There was a boy there, ambling aimlessly. He looked no older than twelve. He had stark, golden-blond hair. His eyes were blue. He wore a green tunic, not unlike Link's, but let his short hair flow freely, with no cap or band. He had two short swords strapped to his back.

"Heeeeeeeyyyy!" the boy called again.

The group rushed into the square, their noise drawing the boy's attention. His eyes sparkled when he saw the people approaching him. A huge, silly smile went across his face as he rushed towards the group.

"Phew," he let out excitedly once he had reached them. "I was starting to think that I would be alone forever. I haven't seen any people since I woke up here."

"How long have you been here?" Zelda asked him, kneeling to meet him at eye level.

"I don't know," he said with a shrug. "After the first three days, everything started to blend together."

"Sounds like he came to this world at about the same time I did," Nasc commented.

"Who are you?" the boy asked.

"I could ask the same," Nasc replied casually.

The boy stood up very straight and puffed his chest out. "I am Lien, Royal Prince of New Hyrule!"

Now everyone looked confused. Nobody, not even Nasc with his alternate world, had ever heard of a place called New Hyrule. As far as they knew, Hyrule had stretched back to the time when the gods left the great Triforce in the kingdom.

"Weren't there three big lights when that evil guy cast the spell?" Amai asked.

"You're right," Link responded, "there were. There were also two alternate bodies of Ganondorf. Which must mean that Lien came from the third world."

Lien looked at him with a very confused face and let out a very loud, long "Huuuuuuuuhhh?"

"Get up here!" Fi's voice called out from where they had left her.

"We'll explain later, 'kay?" Amai promised.

Lien nodded his head as the entire group went up to the landing where Fi was waiting. When the group filed up the stairs, Fi only seemed moderately surprised when she saw their new addition. She merely raised a questioning eyebrow.

"We'll explain later," Link promised. "What did you find?"

Fi turned around to the broken stairs and began speaking. "I sat here, combing through my fractured memory, trying to piece together the mystery of what once stood here. Then it all came back to me quite suddenly. These stairs once led to an island with an enormous statue of the goddess, Hylia, where-"

"Who?" multiple voices cut in.

"Hylia was the successor to the three ancient goddesses and was tasked with the protection of the Triforce before the days of the Sacred Realm. Her spirit still remains within female Hylian royalty." Fi looked meaningfully at Zelda.

That explains my earlier question, Link thought, thinking about the structure of the bird-statue's spell.

"As I was saying," Fi continued. "The statue was where the Master Sword was held before the first hero took it up. This statue also guarded the Triforce. My theory is that if we present the pieces of the Triforce that we have here among us, then there will be a high chance that we may be able to open a path to the statue. Perhaps we will find the key we need there."

"Pathways to pathways," Nasc muttered. "This just keeps getting better."

"Well," Link started, "It's worth a shot."