Chapter 25: Little Voices

…

~~Day 6.

~~I haven't been able to move all day. My body is stiff from last night. In addition to the wounds I received when I came down with the Island Sonata, I have bruises on both shoulders, the skin on my hands are raw, and Doctor Beld had to wrap up a large cut on my upper arm. I have barely had the energy to get out of bed to relieve myself. This morning, I tried to walk down the stairs, but I tripped on the first step and nearly fell the whole way down. Talein hauled me back up and dropped me in bed again. Even now, the pen in my hand feels like it's made of iron.

~~I gave Gwait his sword back when Dissal brought him by. I can't seem to recall much after the Bulblins ran off yesterday, but someone must have cleaned it for me. I'm still not sure how I feel about having to kill last night. Everything just went by in a blur, and I can't be sure it was even me doing all that. No, I know it was me. I'm not proud of it, but I find that I can only satisfy myself with the knowledge that I prevented a massacre which would have deprived me of another home. Talein keeps commending me on what I did. He told me that, when the Bulblins left, they did not take any of the Bullbos which they rode in on. Apparently, I missed a feast tonight. At first, I thought he meant that they roasted all of them, but he explained that they only ate the dead ones; the rest are being fitted with proper saddles so that they can be used to draw lumber carts.

~~So far, it looks like the Bulblins have given up on attacking the village again. I've speculated on why they attacked in the first place. Considering what's been happening with Whittleton and what Talein has told me about them, I think it's possible that they may have attacked for the supplies that Old Seventeen brings. If the situation is bad with the town, I imagine that the Bulblins may not be any better off. I suppose no one will ever know without asking one.

…

~~Day 7.

~~I felt a lot better today, so I decided to survey the damage done to the town. A lot of houses were damaged, and the one being used in conjunction with the wall burned completely to the ground. Part of the train platform collapsed; when I saw it, the men were still removing the damaged boards. The Bulblin bodies had already been burned in the field south of town. It amazes me, though, that everyone seems to keep going as if nothing had happened. There were plenty of injuries, but no one appears to have been killed. I guess we stumbled on that tunnel just in time.

~~I haven't had that dream in the past two days. It's left me curious, because it feels like there was something important in that dream, but I just can't remember what. I think—

Puh.

Link's face formed a frown at the sound that had interrupted his thoughts. Looking around the borrowed bedroom with the lantern on his desk as his only light, he attempted to find the source. It sounded like something small bouncing off a larger object, but the only movement in the room was Link's shadow as he glanced around. He set down his quill and slowly stood up, eyes searching for what could have caused the sound.

The window showed him a black sheet of sky, broken only by the faint tree line in the distance. Meilont was downstairs, tidying up the kitchen after they shared a quiet dinner. Even now, he could hear her humming loudly to herself (unable to hold a tune for long) with the clatter of dishes framing her voice. Talein, he knew, was standing watch with some of the other men of the town, keeping an eye out for another Bulblin raid. The house should have been quiet; it was the type of environment he found he could write out his thoughts.

But just that one sound nagged at him. Nothing appeared to be stirring around the bed or the chest of drawers. He checked under the table he used as a desk only to find bare floor and some dirt.

There! Movement next to the window almost did not catch his eye. His head jerked in that direction when he saw light in the window duck just under the frame. He climbed onto the bed in his stocking feet and pulled himself up a bit to see outside. However, only the torches of the wandering night guard lit the town, and none of them appeared to be close enough to have thrown anything at the glass.

Link's mouth twisted with irritation as he stepped off the mattress. Surely he had heard something hit the window, now that he thought about it. Whatever it was did not appear to have left a mark. Indeed, replaying the sound in his head, he thought it sounded more like a small pillow had impacted the window. He could only speculate a reason; anyone who wanted to see him, despite being in the later hours of the evening (he assumed; he still had not gotten used to telling time), would simply have to walk through the door downstairs. Just in case, he listened for a moment. Meilont still hummed, her faint voice unbroken by anything unusual. No movement on the lower floor meant that no one had entered.

Deciding he was hearing things, he sat down and continued writing.

~~— it might have something to do with Irleen, maybe why Talein did not find her with me. My memory of the fall is still vague. I wish I knew what had happened to her; I'd hate to feel responsible for her death. This whole situa—

"Līnca!" The voice carried a high pitch that startled a scribble out of Link's writing hand. His gaze immediately darted over his left shoulder, expecting to see someone at the doorway. It was empty.

Whatever it was had already moved inside the room. It hovered over the doorway, a small, green ball of light supported by what appeared to be insect wings. At first, Link thought it might've been a ghost and jumped to his feet with his heart beating.

Then it spoke. "Káwūt ahà ō kákihūt!"

Link stood next to his chair, completely at a loss for what he had heard. To his ears, it sounded like someone trying to make many different bird sounds as fast as possible. He could only stare at the diminutive creature.

Until it charged at him.

Link did not have any time to react. When the creature nearly had him blinded, it latched to his face. The feel of small legs grabbing onto his skin sent an uncomfortable shiver up his spine. He used a hand to wipe the creature, some kind of insect he assumed, away from his cheek.

"Con kapòhu!" the creature called out in protest. Or, at least it sounded like protest. Link's attention only acknowledged where the creature floated as he looked around the room. Then, as it approached him again, he ducked out of the way and slid towards the doorway. That was when he spotted what was sitting next to the room's entrance.

His left hand wrapped around the top of one of his borrowed, leather boots.

"Con ka—daaaaah!" the creature cried out as Link swung, attempting to smack it with the old boot. But the creature was fast, its wings jingling gleefully as Link attempted to strike it in midair. Link swung and missed again, clipping the edge of his desk with the thick sole. Another miss caused the footwear to rebound off the foot of the bed.

It sailed higher to get away, and Link jumped at it while swinging the boot in an arc over his head. Again, he missed, and the boot slipped from his fingers and collided with the wall above the chest of drawers near the head of his bed. The boot landed on the edge of the wash basin sitting atop the chest, spilling water across the bare wood floor. Link scrambled for his other boot and took a swing of opportunity when the creature dared to see what he was reaching for.

"Līnca, cápa!" it shouted at him as it floated back out of Link's reach. "Ħìrlīna táwa!"

"I'll get you yet!" Link declared as he ran for the bed. He jumped on it, feeling his feet sink into the mattress. Readying for a jump, he started bouncing against the mattress until it squeaked.

"Wha' are yeh doin'?!"

The cry turned Link's focus away from the insect just as he was about to spring at it. He only had a split second to recognize an irate Meilont standing in the doorway before he was looking at the floor.

BAM! Link landed on the floor with the refinement of a sack of potatoes. The hard wood surface coaxed out the older soreness he thought he had finally rid himself of. He moaned both his pain and his defeat, and he chose to lay with his arms and legs spread across the floor, feeling much like the splat bug he had intended to create.

Meilont's glare melted into a grin which she hid under one hand. Never before had she seen such a display. What worse, of all the people to create such a problem, it wound up being poor Link. She squat next to him and ran her fingers through his hair. "No' much ta do, so yeh thought yeh'd make yer own game, eh?" she asked the back of his head.

"I… don't feel like commenting right now," Link replied through the floor, pressing his nose against the wood in the desperate attempt to hide his red face.

"I jus' hope yeh remember tha' the bed yeh've been usin' is ma bed."

She giggled at him, and he could feel his face grow hot enough that it must have burned the surface of the floor. "S-sorry…"

"Now, jus' wha' have yeh been doin' to ma room?" As her eyes wandered about, she found the small ball of light pressed against the ceiling. "Ooh, wha' is this now?"

"Līnca huk ħakù kácīh," the creature answered.

Meilont rose and held out a hand. "C'mon now. I won' hur' yeh." The creature, timid at first, fluttered down and settled into her palm. "There, there. Is Link bein' mean to yeh, li'l one?"

Link rolled so that he could sit up. He looked over his shoulder as Meilont appeared to play with the ball of light. "What is that thing?"

Meilont gave him a confused look. "Yeh don' know? I's a fairy."

"Is it a kind of bug?"

She gave an irritated huff. "No, Link! I's a fairy! I's a bein' o' magic!" Both hands cupped around the fairy, she raised it above her head. "Da-da-da-daaaah!"

"Does it hurt?"

Releasing a sigh, Meilont appeared to release the fairy, who decided to float near her shoulder. "Only people who try ta kill 'em with old boots," she explained. "These cri'ers're harmless. The smaller ones like ta do nice thin's, like healin' wounds or lightin' the way for los' travelers. Stories say tha' if yeh find a Great Fairy, they'll give yeh some kind o' treasure. Bu' if someone tries ta harm a fairy, there'll be a curse upon yeh." At this, she gave him a smile. "Jus' so yeh know."

Link's expression switched to a concerned frown. "W-well, I-I didn't really hurt it, though. So… I'm safe, right?"

Meilont crossed her arms. "If yeh apologize, she migh' no' say anythin' to the Great Fairies."

Link glanced down at the floor and used a finger to trace the dark wood grains for a moment. "Sorry…"

"Kaħác!" the fairy cawed at him in a fiery tone.

Meilont shrugged. "Looks like yer doomed."

"Oh, come on!" Link whined.

"Well, yer jus' gonna have ta be nice ta her," she replied as she turned around. "I'll fetch yeh a towel so yeh can clean up."

Link glanced over at the chest of drawers, finally realizing where his first boot had flown. After a sigh, followed by a forehead slap and a groan of "oh, no…", he stood up, collected his weaponized footwear, and dropped them next to the doorway.

"Līnca." Link stopped short of having the fairy smack into his face as he was about to survey the mess. "Kīt hì kanāh tā. Ħìrlīna táwa."

Link waved a hand in front of his face, certain to not hit the fairy. "Go away. You're making my evening miserable."

Although he passed it on the way to fix the position of the wash basin, it continued, "Kákirōl ahà ō. Àt kakòrōl ahà ō na." This was followed by a sigh from the creature. "Hòt káwū."

Link turned back to it with an irritated look on his face. "Look, I don't know what you're saying. Would you just go?"

A folded towel smothered his face from one side. "Yeh don' have ta be so snippy with her, Link," Meilont told him from the doorway. "If she wants ta, she'll go away on her own."

Link, after ripping the towel off his face, turned to reply to Meilont. But she had already disappeared down the stairs, so he got onto his knees and started mopping up the water on the floor.

"Con kápà ahà…" the fairy droned. It hovered close to the puddle slowly crawling along the floor.

Link ignored it as he spread the towel over the majority of the puddle. He pressed it against the floor, trying to soak up the water. The fairy moved in the corner of his eye, slowly at first. When he realized that it was doing something, he turned his head. The fairy appeared to dance about the edge of the puddle, dragging lines of water across the floor.

"No," he told it in a sharp tone, trying to shoo it with a hand. "Stop that."

The fairy back out of his reach, abandoning its game. "Kacápa!" it spat at him, its movements jerky. "Karōl tā! Kakònùl tā!"

"You're making it worse," he answered. "Just go away."

"Paħ." After a motion similar to a person kicking the ground, it floated away from Link. He shook his head and continued to mop up the water.

Meilont returned a few moments later. "I brough' yeh another towel."

"Thanks." Link accepted the towel and replaced the soaked one he had been using. He stood up and dropped the soaked one into the wash basin.

"I hope yeh weren' writin' anythin' important," she commented. Link looked up to question her, but decided to follow the direction her eyes.

"Oh. No!" Link's voice betrayed exhaustion as he stood and crossed the room back to his desk. Instead of doing anything, though, he watched with a tired expression as the fairy dragged his quill across the open pages of his logbook. "Now what's it doing?"

Meilont giggled at him. "I think she's imitatin' yeh." She used a finger to draw her eyebrows into a frown. "Mister serious-an'-a'ways-writin'-in-a-book Link."

Link's head drooped. "A lot of help you are."

The fairy suddenly dropped the quill. "Tàlpa," it said as it moved to the top of the page.

Both glanced at the page. "She's good a' makin' straight lines," Meilont remarked with a grin.

But Link reached forward. Then he sat down with his eyes close to the book. After a moment, he started shaking his head. "This… this…" he stammered.

Meilont leaned forward to look at his face. "Wha' is it, Link?"

Link slid the book for her to see. "These aren't just lines," he told her as his finger traced the fairy's marks. "I-I know this. This is… this is Sorian writing."

Meilont, however, could not share in Link's shock. "Wha' does tha' mean?"

Link brought his face close to the fairy. His breath ceased for a moment as he tried to work out the logic. But his mind gave; he could not be sure if he was right or not. So he said only one thing.

"… Irleen?"

The fairy jumped up from the page. "Līnca!" It jumped at him and latched to his face. Link jerked backwards in response, but withheld the urge to push away the affectionate Sorian.

Meilont gave them a confused look. "I don' ge' it. Who is she?"

Link stood up. "She's Irleen!" he told her. "It's, uh… Remember when I first woke up? That first day?"

"Yeah?"

"And-and I asked your dad if he found anyone with me?"

Meilont nodded, "I think so."

"That's because she was supposed to be with me," he pointed to the green light on his cheek. "I-I don't know why, but… I think Irleen changed into a fairy."

Meilont blinked. "Uh… how?"

Link opened his mouth to speak, but the question left him stumped. "I'm not sure, actually."

Irleen pulled away from his face. "Līnca, klákù tā," she told him. "Līntána hūta?"

Meilont's eyes passed between Link and the fairy. "Do yeh know wha' she's sayin'?"

Link bared his teeth in nervousness. "No. Up until we came here, she was speaking perfect Hylian. I have no idea what she's saying."

"Hālpa ō," Irleen mumbled more to herself. "Tùħa kákirōl ahà ō. Līntána kláħál tā."

"Does… she understan' yeh?" Meilont asked.

Link offered a weak shrug. "I don't know." He glanced back down at his book. Then an idea came to him, and he sat back down. "Irleen," he said, patting the desk. With a swish, she landed next to the logbook. He turned to a blank page and pushed his quill towards her. "We can't talk, but I bet you can draw."

Irleen appeared to hesitate before picking up the quill. She took a longer pause with the quill poised to write. When she finally started, Link saw that she had to drag the quill behind her in order to make anything appear straight. His eyes traced the line she made until she closed it into a short oval. Then she pulled away and tapped the quill against the page. "Līntána," she told them.

Link frowned at the oval, one hand scratching the back of his blond mane. "This might be harder than I thought," he admitted to Meilont.

"I'll put on something warm," she answered, patting his shoulder before disappearing out the door.

Link scrunched his face. "You might have to help me a little more, Irleen. I… I just don't get it."

"Līn. Tá. Na." She tapped the quill against the page. "Kūl hì káwáh. Līntána hūta?"

Hands betraying hesitation, he gestured and asked, "R-round? Big?"

Irleen did not reply. Instead, she stepped to one side of the page and jotted something in Sorian script. When she finished, she drew an arrow from it to the oval. Then she pointed at the Sorian script with the quill. "Ħìrlīna. Ħìr. Lī. Na."

Link's face scrunched as he tried to follow her words. "I-ir?"

"Ħìr."

"Ir."

"Lī."

"L-lee?"

"Na."

"Nah."

"Ħìrlīna."

"Ir… Irleenah?" Link pointed at her. "You… you mean… you, Irleen?"

Irleen jumped. "Karōl, Līnca!" she shouted in excitement. Then she stepped to the other side of the oval and wrote more Sorian characters. After drawing another arrow, pointing from the oval to the new script, she pointed and said, "Līnca."

"Leenka," he repeated. He pointed to himself. "Me, right?"

"Karōl!" she said, jumping again.

Link nodded as he examined the page. "Okay, so… an arrow pointing from you to this oval, and then the oval to me. Uh… something left you?" He gestured, his hands sweeping to one side. But Irleen did not respond. Wrinkling his nose, he continued, "And then… that oval coming to me?" His hands swept back, touching his fingertips to his chest. Still, Irleen did not answer. So he shrugged, "I still don't get it."

Irleen rose and approached him, still holding the quill. "Tālpa," she said.

Link just shook his head. "I-I don't understand."

"Tālpa!" she said in a harsher tone, jumping closer to his face.

Link's neck recoiled. "W-what, you want me to write something?" he asked, holding up one hand.

She placed the quill in the palm of his hand. But before his fingers could close around it, she took it up again. "Wá."

"Wah?" Link repeated as she fell back to the page.

She drew another oval under the first, but this one was thinner and had been drawn with a slant. She continued with a single line starting near the top of the oval and ending outside the oval near the bottom. Then she drew two more arrows, one leading from her name to the new drawing, one leading from the new drawing to his name. After depositing the quill to the side of the book, she hovered over it and said, "Nàncīhūl."

Link pointed at the quill and said, "Nan-kee-khool."

She bounded towards the book and hovered over the second oval drawing. "Nàncīhūl," she repeated.

His eyes jumped between the quill and the page a few times before he pieced it together. "Quill," he reasoned, pointing at both of them. "They're both quills."

Irleen returned to the quill, picked it up, and approached Link again. "Kūl hì nàncīhūl káwá."

When Link held out his hand again, she dropped the quill. "You… you're giving it to me." His eyes examined the page, and he realized what she was trying to tell him. "From you to me. You gave me the quill." He used the quill to gesture between himself and her. "You gave the quill to me."

"Karōl!" she answered.

Link looked down at the book again. "So, whatever this oval thing is, it was something else you gave me!"

"Karōl! Hūta?"

Link found that he had to think back for a moment. If she gave him something, when had it been? It had not been while they were at the library; they had both been absorbed in the books she had found. His face scrunched as he remembered her hitting him on the head with a mallet. But that gem had gone to Captain Koroul…

Gem… He remembered that he had been given a gem. An oval-shaped amethyst. Irleen had given it to him just before the Island Sonata went down. His last recall of seeing it was examining it before stuffing it into the pocket of his trousers.

He needed his old clothes.

Irleen had to take a moment to process what had happened before following Link out of the room. At the top of the stairs, he looked down and called, "Meilont!"

Meilont stepped into view at the bottom, a cup in her hand. "Wha' is it, Link?"

"Are my old clothes still around? The ones I was wearing when your father found me?"

She nodded. "They're down here."

Link scrambled down the stairs into a kitchen lit with a single lantern sitting on the table. Meilont had stepped to the space under the stairs and was rummaging through the chest when he approached her. "We didn' know if yeh wanted ta keep 'em or no', so Dad had me pu' 'em in here." Shifting aside a number of sharp objects, she put her hands on a green bundle. She passed it into Link's hands, and he set it on the table to unfold it. He found his trousers wrapped in his undersuit, so he dug a hand into the pocket.

"Got it," he said, pulling out the gem.

"I understood that!"

Link found the fairy hovering next to his head. "Irleen, is it really you?" he asked in an excited tone.

"Yes," she answered. "You can understand me, too, right?" Link gave a sharp nod. "Good." Link glanced down at the gem, marveling at how this little thing could suddenly changed Sorian into Hylian for him.

Puh!

"Ow!" Link complained, rubbing the top of his head. He looked up as Irleen pulled away from him. "What was that for?!"

"You tried to kill me!" Irleen shouted back. "With a boot!"

"I thought you were a bug!"

Meilont giggled at them. "This is quite a surprise. I never though' I'd meet a talkin' fairy."

"I'm not exactly a fairy," Irleen replied.

"I s'pose tha's true," Meilont nodded. "I imagine the question now is how yeh turned into one." Link nodded his agreement.

"You two might want to sit down then," Irleen told them. She waited as Meilont pulled a chair closer while Link took the chair behind him. "First, the fairy thing. I… actually don't know quite how I turned into this. There were a lot of magic stones in my bag, so one of them might have triggered."

"Which one?" Link asked.

"I've been thinking about that for the past few days. But that's not important. I think I might know what has happened to me, and I'm sure I can reverse the process. We just need to get back to the library at Kuruuk Nehai."

Link could already tell that the conversation was steering in an uneasy direction. He put his elbow on the table and placed a hand on his brow. "We have a small problem in that area," he confessed.

"What?"

He pointed a finger down. "We crashed. We're on the surface now."

Irleen jumped into his face. "Well, I already know that, Link. I'm not dense."

"Yeh have a plan ta ge' back ta the sky?" Meilont asked.

"Well," Irleen answered, pulling away from Link's face, "I figured that, if Hylians started out on the surface, then there must still be some airships around for us to use. Right?"

"No' likely, actually," Meilont admitted. "I's been some time since the las' airships were pu' tagether. Those se' sail fer the skies decades before I was born. Since then, no one really travels on airships 'round here."

"This is a big place, though," Irleen said. "Surely, someone must have left an airship or two behind in those decades. Or maybe just a ship hull we can convert into an airship."

"We would have to find an airship that's been serviced in those decades," Link answered her. "The ballast would need to be replaced with fresh Loft Steam or else it would never get off the ground. Even finding a ship we could overhaul, we would still need to find a good supply."

"Lof' Steam?" Meilont asked.

"It's a kind of gas that is much lighter than the air we breathe," Link explained. "They tend to come from vents in the earth, if not made by mechanical production plants up in the skies. We use it in what we call a 'ballast tank'. We can make a ship lighter or heavier by changing the temperature of the gas inside the tank using the same heat source that powers the ship's steam engine."

Meilont's lips pursed. "Wow. I didn' think yeh knew so much about airships."

"Part of my job."

"Well, how hard could it be?" Irleen asked.

"We can't just take a ship, Irleen," Link said. "We'd have to buy one. And I don't have any money."

"Then we build one," Irleen suggested, her tone telling Link that she had already solved the problem.

"We still don't have the money," Link said. "And we would need months to put one together. I know how an airship works, but there's no way I can put one together by myself."

"Yeh migh' no' have ta." Irleen and Link glanced at Meilont. She responded by shrugging. "I don' know how much i'll help, bu' there migh' still be some Architects here on the surface."

"Architects?" Irleen asked.

"Some of the original craftsmen," Link said. "They were the first of the surface-dwellers to put airships together, but they never ventured far from the ground. Even now, none of the original builders have ever set foot on any of Hyrule's sky kingdom."

"That's… ridiculous! Why would you build something that flies but never take it up yourself?"

Link shrugged. "I don't know. Even if they were still alive, it's not like we can just walk up to their house and ask them to build a ship for us."

"I migh' have a solution if yeh wan' ta hear it." Again, Link and Irleen turned to Meilont. "I told yeh 'bout ma mother, right? Tha' she wen' ta Library Town?"

Link nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"She works at the main library there. She migh' be able ta help yeh two find some Architects."

Irleen started shaking. "Oooh, I like this idea!" She turned to Link. "Come on, Link, how bad can it be? We have to at least try, right?"

Link opened his mouth to state his hopelessness further, but his brain told him to wait up before he let his mouth run. If there was a chance that he could return to the sky kingdom, was it not worth it to try? What did he have to lose now? He had a home here in Whittleton; the past few days had made that all the clearer to him. Failure meant that he just might come back and see if he could make it as a lumberjack with people who already knew him. And if he succeeded…

"We still need money," he pointed out. "But… if we can get to Library Town, it might be worth it."

"I'll send to ma mother," Meilont said. Then she stood up. "In the mornin'. Fer now, yeh migh' wan' ta ge' some sleep."

Link nodded in agreement. In a few minutes after downing some tea Meilont had made, he returned to the room upstairs. Irleen chose to relax in the window while Link sat at his desk.

~~I finally found Irleen today! She's trapped in a fairy body, but she thinks she can reverse it. We have to get back to Forelight Island, though.

~~I've had my misgivings. I guess I was just ready to give up on going home and make a new one here on the surface. But it seems that the sky won't let me go that easily. I've had an interesting time here in Whittleton, and I want to come back some day. Whether that day is soon or later, I can't say which I would prefer. Soon means that we failed to get an airship. Later means—I guess I don't know quite what it means. I want to go home. I want to stay here. I know I have a place here now, but I can't leave Irleen like she is now. She's in trouble, and she needs help before something decides to eat her. I'm her only friend.

~~Meilont says that her mother might be able to sponsor our train ride out to Library Town. I have to make this work. If not for the sake of returning home, then at least for Irleen.

With that final thought, he stripped down to a pair of shorts (calling to Irleen to determine whether she was awake or not) and climbed into bed. Sleep evaded him for a while, although Meilont said that the tea was supposed to knock him out in a matter of minutes. His mind continued to buzz with the worry that he would eventually disappoint Irleen.

It turned out to be a very long night of worry for him.