Chapter 26: Embarkation

…

~~Day 8.

~~Meilont sent out a letter to her mother this morning. She said that the postman was just arriving when she got to the mailbox, so it should get to Library Town by the afternoon. Whenever that will be. I still haven't quite caught on to how they tell time without a clock nearby. The only clock that I've found around here is a broken one near the train platform.

~~Talein told us that the Bulblins have been circling the grasslands to the south of the town in tanks. He suspects that they might try something again, so he asked the town elders to send for help from Library Town. Until the Bulblins settle down, he told Meilont that he'll remain in Whittleton instead of searching for more healthy trees to harvest. His bringing that up just reminds me of the haze in the air above. I wish I knew some way to help out.

~~I've recently discovered how impatient Irleen can be. I can't tell whether it's because of her new form or if she's always been like that. It makes me glad that she can't read Hylian; she won't stop hovering over my shoulder and badgering me about writing when we should be doing something more constructive. Even now she won't leave me alone. I just hope she'll allow me to sleep.

…

~~Day 9.

~~For the first time in days, I woke up feeling great! I don't feel sore at all, and the cut on my arm is almost healed. Doctor Beld still hit me on the head, though. He doesn't like the fact that it took me so long to heal in the first place because of all the "trouble" I've caused. In hindsight, he's probably right. Between getting beat up by Gwait and his friends and the battle with the Bulblins, I suppose that I've taken more punishment than—well, I was going to say "more than necessary", but I think the Bublin attack should be excused. I—

~~Meilont kidnapped me. She barged into my room excited, saying that her mother's response was here. She sent a package filled with rupees, totaling 1500. Meilont took me to buy a ticket at the small kiosk next to the train platform, which cost 1465 rupees, so I only have 35 rupees left for—I'm not sure. If money down here works like it does in the clouds, that's barely enough for a few hot meals. She sent along a wallet as well, which Meilont told me to use. But it's pink! I think Meilont's mom might've sent it for her.

~~The ticket we got is a morning train, the Twenty-Seven. I was hoping to get a ride on the Seventeen, but I guess it doesn't arrive that early in the morning. I'm really excited about riding on a train, so much that it's late at night and I can't sleep. At least, I think it's late; I still can't tell time. Irleen passed out on the desk not long ago. She probably wore herself out with all the worrying. It seems like I have to reassure her every five minutes!

~~I hope I know what I'm doing.

…

The air broke across the platform with the thick blast of a steam whistle. Link gave a start, having been thrown from his admiration of the emerald steam engine before him. A bearded engineer leaned out of the cabin, chuckling at him. Trying (and failing) to grin in the engineer's direction, Link straightened his posture and tugged down on the front of his green tunic in an attempt to reclaim a little dignity.

"He did that on purpose!" Irleen griped, jumping in front of Link's face as if to charge at the engineer.

"Just take it easy, Irleen," Link told her, using one cupped hand to pull her back.

She replied with a huff, slowly turning to look down the length of the train. "Well, it's here," she said. "Let's get on."

"Wait a moment." Link cast his eyes down the platform, towards the group of people gathered near the cargo car at the rear of the train. "I thought she'd be here…"

"Who, Meilont?" Irleen circled his head. "She probably doesn't want to see you off. A girl can only take so much heartbreak."

"W-what?!"

Irleen fluttered closer to his face. "Come on, Link, can't you figure it out? An exotic boy like yourself—"

"We're the same age," Link interjected, his face showing annoyance.

"—falling from the sky, lost and alone, helpless through his foolish inexperience on the ground." Irleen suddenly jerked to the other side of Link's vision. "And enter! An attractive, conniving village girl with a thirst for the alien, the foreign flesh and soul of not just any boy, but the captain of an airship! She takes the boy into her lonely home—"

"She lives with her father."

"—But! The boy is too young for the cravings her older heart wishes to fulfill."

"We're the same age!"

"Then!" Irleen looped in the air. "Down comes the frightened girl of the sky, lost in her own ways and only capable of relating through the experiences of the boy. And thus, the sky girl, using the vast experience she's gained through the ages—"

"WE'RE THE SAME AGE!"

"Link, how do you expect to understand if you're going to interrupt me?"

A giggle sounded from nearby, and Link felt someone place their elbow on his shoulder. "Don' mind 'em, Irleen. Jus' keep goin'."

"I don't think I will," Irleen pouted, her form jerking as if she was turning away from them. "I can't remember where I was."

"Well!" Link received a playful shove. "Tha's no fun, Link. I wanted ta hear more. I like a good story."

Link glanced down at his boots. "It was meant to be an explanation…"

Irleen bounced against Link's forehead. "Don't pay any attention to him, Meilont," she said. "He was just worried you wouldn't see him off."

"Well, between havin' ta wake yeh two up an' makin' sure yeh didn' forge' anythin', I didn' have enough time ta do wha' I wanted," Meilont explained. "I though' I might've missed yeh."

"What were you doing?" Link asked, finally turning to her.

He immediately found something thrust into his chest, prompting a confused "ghuf". "Askin' fer some favors," she explained. "If it hadn' been fer yeh, Link, the town'd jus' be a dot on some old map. So I talked ta a few people."

Link realized that he was holding a sword and pulled it out of its sheath to examine it. The thick blade had a double edge, bearing the sheen of steel which had never seen combat before. The base of the blade curved outward and blended into the bronze piece forming a triangular guard. The grip felt like leather, and the pommel was capped by a disk of steel. The locket of the sheath was made of bronze, and Link saw that when the sword was sheathed, both bronze pieces formed a diamond. The rest of the sheath appeared to be leather with a steel cap on the bottom end.

"This… this is for me?" Link asked.

Meilont nodded. "Yer good with a sword. An' yeh never know wha' kinda dangers're ou' there."

"Is it all right for me to carry it around?"

She shrugged. "Everyone has ta protec' themselves somehow." She offered him something else. "This, too."

Link replaced the sword and tucked it under one arm so that he could accept the green bundle she offered. He let it unroll, revealing it to be a triangular cloth. "What is this? Underwear?"

"Oh, don' be stupid," Meilont replied in an irritated tone, snagging the item from him. She put a hand into it and turned out the opening, revealing a lime-green interior. "I's more fer Irleen, actually. No one travels with fairies, so yeh migh' wanna hide in this cap I go' from the seamstress."

"Is it dangerous for a fairy?" Irleen asked, watching Meilont stretch her arms past Link's head.

"I think no'," Meilont answered, pulling the hat as tight around Link's unkempt hair as she could. "Bu' it doesn' hur' ta be on the safe side."

"Ow…"

"Don' be makin' a fuss now," Meilont told Link as she stepped back. She gave him a wide grin, crossing her arms. "Yeh look like a hero now. Yeh jus' need ta do somethin' 'bout tha' silly look on yer face."

Link's confounded stare turned into an irate scowl. "For a moment, I thought that was a compliment." He fumbled with the belt on the sword for a moment before he put it on over his tunic belt. It felt strange to wear a sword. The belt would not hold level like his tunic belt, instead choosing to sag on his right hip where the sword hung. So he pulled up on the left side, hoping that it would remain in place. Then he tightened it until it almost hurt. "How's that?"

Irleen hovered next to Meilont. "Better," they both said.

The train gave another loud bellow. "All aboard for Library Town!" someone behind Link shouted.

"Yeh migh' wanna hide now, Irleen," Meilont said. "Link's the only one with a ticket."

"Right." Irleen approached Link and disappeared over his brow. He could barely feel her pressing against his hair inside the hat.

Meilont gave a sigh, placing her hands behind her back. "Well, Link. I hope yeh find somethin' ta help yeh."

Link scratched the back of his head. "Yeah. Me too."

"An' if yeh don', yeh'll always have someplace ta come back ta."

Link felt his face grow hot. "Th-thanks."

"Be careful ou' there."

"We will," Irleen said from under the hat. "Let's get going, Link!"

Link began to turn, but Meilont's movement caught his eye. He stopped for a moment, but she only met his eyes in the kind of stare that makes one forget the rest of the world.

Then she waved a hand at him. "Ge' on now." Link gave her a sharp nod.

"Ow," Irleen grunted from under the hat.

"S-sorry, Irleen," Link said to his brow. Then he turned and walked across the platform.

Behind the coal car was a coach sporting a green coat a few shades lighter than the rest of the train. As Link approached, he found that the coach had taken some serious beatings, dents and scratches deforming the exterior. It had been painted over numerous times, evident by the patches of mismatched green on the outside. Link remembered Luggard saying that the Bulblins attacked trains, and he began to wonder if walking would be any safer.

But he sighed, reaching into his trouser pocket as he approached. A large man stood by the coach, dressed in a blue uniform which looked to be a size too small for him. Link presented his ticket, and the man tore off one end before returning it. Feeling a little intimidated by the man's size, Link sidled into the car.

The exterior repairs to the coach hid the eloquence of the interior quite well. Treated wood paneling covered the walls as well as the ceiling, which sported two iron-black lanterns suspended from many small chains. A thin carpet of burgundy, worn from the possibly thousands of passengers the car had seen in its lifetime, filled every visible bit of floor. Link found his seat at about the middle of the car among the two dozen benches lining either side. He sat and took a moment to admire the lime textile used in the seat's construction. The feel of it led him to the conclusion that it was some kind of animal hair, as it had a similar feel to a pair of woolen trousers he often wore to bed when he overnighted at Skyrider Port.

He leaned into the walkway upon hearing a metallic slam from the door. The man who had taken his ticket allowed his eyes to wander over the seats. This action prompted Link to sit up and poke his head over the bench in front of him. After scanning the cabin, Link realized that, unless someone as short as him rode along, he was the only passenger at the moment. His eyes returned to the front of the car just in time to see the large man open an outer door and close it again as he left.

After leaning into the walkway again to double-check that he was alone, he said, "I guess you can come out, Irleen."

He felt Irleen squirm out of the hat above his left ear. "Good," she expelled in a relieved breath, her ball-like form hovering next to Link's head. "It's a little crazy in there. I had to float around just to keep from bashing into your skull. Do you realize how often you move your head?"

Link's face formed a concentrating frown. "No, I guess I don't."

"I'd ask for a chair in there, but…"

"But what?"

"Well… I don't know that I have a butt to sit on!" Link bit down on his lips to keep from laughing aloud, her tone of voice telling him that it was a very serious concern. She rose towards the ceiling of the car. "Wow… there's no one else here."

"Luggard said that not many people travel since the Bulblins like to attack trains."

"Luggard?"

"He's an engineer for the Number Seventeen train. I met him a few days ago."

The steam whistle blew, and a moment later, the car gave a gentle quake as the train began moving. Link slid next to the window and glanced out.

He soon began waving as he recognized faces in the passing crowd. Dissal and Lura stood at the front of the group, flanked by Gwait and his crew. Doctor Beld mouthed something at him before waving, but Link had missed part of it due to a woman's head being in his way. A few more faces, some of the men around town who had been impressed with Link's performance during the Bulblin attack, called out to him only to be mixed with the rest of the noise on the platform. Talein stood outside of the crowd, doubled over as if he had just run upon the platform. He managed to straighten up just in time to give Link a quick gesture. Link turned in the seat to follow Talein for a moment, then he turned his attention in the direction of travel to see if Meilont was still on the platform.

The image of her on the platform branded itself in Link's mind and would resurface for a while before he ever saw her again. Every detail etched into his memory almost perfectly, likely because the train's speed as it left had picked up enough to only allow him to see her for just a heartbeat. Almost perfectly, save one detail.

The details he was sure about were the way she stood. In a simple, off-white shirt and deep green, knee-length skirt characteristic of her usual wardrobe, she kept her posture straight and strong. She had to keep that posture because the wind had chosen that moment to blow. Her fiery mane, left untied that particular morning, blocked out the sight of the town behind her with the added service of emphasizing her face at that time. That was when Link saw something in her eyes he never thought Meilont was capable of expressing: loneliness. For once, those dark eyes of hers seemed to gloss over in expectation of tears, her brow drawn into an expression of longing. Her hands lay clasped over her chest as if to hold her heart back.

Link was sure that what she mouthed revealed more about her state of emotion at the time. Unfortunately, this was the detail which he would never be sure about. The scene before him did not last long enough for him to be sure he got the whole message, and, if she made any sound, the clacking of train wheels over the tracks drowned it out. He was poor at reading lips, too. His initial thought was that she said something which would make his leaving Whittleton so much harder if he had heard the words.

"Come back."

Whenever the sight of her on that platform would replay in Link's mind, he would always wonder if she might have said "good luck", "be safe", or perhaps a blatant "I love you". He was not sure which he would have wanted to hear. In times to come, he would wish that she had told him before he left.

Immediately after the event, however, he had another concern.

"Me—"

PONK! "Dagh!"

"What is it, Link?!" Irleen cried, watching her companion fall into his seat with his hands covering his forehead. He had made to lean through the window to see Meilont as she fell out of sight, for no discernible reason forgetting that there was a pane of glass directly in his way. The speed which he achieved in the breath's distance between his forehead and the window provided enough impact to send a dull pain throughout his skull.

"Link!" Irleen shouted at him again, hovering close to his face.

"I'm all right," he replied half-groaning. "Thought I saw something, that's all."

Irleen floated towards the window to glance outside. "If you're worried about not coming back to Whittleton, it's not like we won't be a train ride away. Right now, we should probably focus on what we need to do. How much do you know about these Architects?"

Link sighed, relaxing against the seat behind him as he racked his brain. Finding it difficult to sit comfortably, he released the sword belt. "Well, they were engineering geniuses who first conceptualized airships," he answered, setting the sword on the seat across from him. Now comfortable, he leaned back and continued, "I know they discovered Loft Steam venting up from the ground, which, as I said before, we use to keep the ships floating."

"I think Sorian airships used something different," Irleen interrupted him. "Magic, most likely. But go on."

Link nodded. "They decided to base airships off of ocean vessels because they were designed to move with the wind. The problem they ran into was what to do when the wind wasn't strong enough to propel the ship. They looked at steam engines like the ones this train uses and eventually came up with the steam engines we use on airships. Since then, though, people living in the sky had to make a few adjustments to the way ships were built."

"How come?"

"The Sky Lines. There've been many improvements on Hylian vessels. Uh… stronger building techniques… mm, sails which could withstand heavy winds… lighter engines, too, those helped decrease the overall weight of an airship so that they could change altitude more effectively. So if we manage to find any Architects and they're willing to build us a ship, we might have to have them compensate for the use of the Sky Lines. Otherwise, the first time it enters a Sky Line, most of the rigging will be torn apart, and we'll just fall to the ground again."

Irleen gave a shiver. "Wasn't really fun the first time."

Link nodded in agreement. "I think our main problem will be finding any Architects who still might be alive. We've been in the sky for almost a hundred years. It may be a bit of a stretch to think that the original Architects are still alive. Most of them spent a long time working on the first airships, and they probably spent even more time working out the engineering for those."

"Ain't it the truth, boy."

Both Link and Irleen nearly jumped into the ceiling at the sound of a grating male drone from close by. Irleen dove into Link's cap. Link dove for his new sword. He drew it in an instant and pointed it in his line of sight as he looked for the source of the voice.

The voice gave a raspy chuckle in response. "Put away the sword, boy. I ain't gonna harm ya."

Link located the man behind the seat he had just been sitting in. He was an elderly man, long-faced, wrinkled, and bald. He wore gray rags simply draped over his scrawny frame, sitting cross-legged on the seat facing the rear of the train. The most striking feature of this man was the thin, black-iron plate fitted across his face, covering his eyes like a pair of glasses. To confirm what he thought, Link held his sword aside so he could wave a hand in front of the man's face.

The man chuckled in response. "That's right, boy. I'm completely blind."

"I-I'm sorry," Link said, sheathing the sword.

"Ain't no need t' apologize; I been blind for a while now."

"How did it happen?"

"Age. The years like t' get their money's worth."

Link took the seat across from him. "Do you know anything about the Architects?"

"One or two things."

"Do you know where to find them?"

"Hah!" the man laughed in a loud voice. "Can't much find anythin' these days."

"Blind, Link," Irleen said as she emerged from his hat.

"The gal gets a grin fer payin' attention," the man replied, revealing a mouth full of yellow, crooked teeth. Of course, this only applied to the teeth he still had left; half of his smile sported large gaps.

"So, what do you know then?" Link asked.

"Well, yer right 'bout them spendin' even more time workin' out the engineerin' behind airships. What ya don't realize is they didn't just sit 'round thinkin' 'bout it all."

"They had jobs?" Irleen asked.

"I should say they did. They were Royal Engineers."

Link tilted his head. "Royal Engineers?"

The old man nodded, using a skeleton hand to push his metal spectacles back up his nose. "Engineers what served the rulers of Hyrule personally. Ran trains mostly, but they also ran errands fer the royal family. At least, they used to."

"What happened?" Link asked. The old man gave a stupefied look. Then, with amazing speed, he laid a bony hand into the side of Link's head. "Ow!"

"The royal family left! Whaddya think?!"

"Oh," was Link's only response, rubbing the spot where the man had struck him.

The old man shook his head. "When the royal family went up, wasn't much call fer Royal Engineers anymore. Packed up their best doodles 'n left. Engineerin' companies took over."

"Is there any indication of where they went?" Irleen pleaded. "We have to get back to the sky."

"Yer that determined t' find 'em, eh?" Link gave a sharp nod, and Irleen bobbed in the air. "Wish I could help ya. But if they were any smart, they'd left somethin' behind. Them airships were modern marvels. Hate t' think we'll never see 'em on the surface again." He paused to chuckle to himself. "Not like I got much choice."

"Where would we find them?" Irleen asked. "I mean, if they left anything."

"Heh. Nowhere obvious, I'd think. The Architects didn't much like people. Just their trains. But that in herself might help ya, d'ya think?"

"Maybe," Link agreed. "If they liked trains, they might live somewhere along the tracks around here. We'd still have to look around the library, though; we don't have the money to take every train to every station."

"It sounds like a good start, though," Irleen said.

The old man gave a rough cough. "If ya 'scuse me, I gotta get some sleep."

Link watched, but the old man did not move.

Then he started snoring.

"How the hell does someone fall asleep sitting up?!"

"Shhh," Link hissed at Irleen. He stood, steadying himself against the train's movement, and motioned Irleen to follow him. He led her towards the front of the car and took a seat with his back to the old man. "Well, we know a few more things about the Architects. It might take a while, but we can at least try to find some of them through whatever records may be in Library Town."

Irleen gave a sigh. "This is definitely going to take a while."

Link grinned to himself, reaching into the large pocket of his trousers. He took out his leather journal, leaned back, and looked through the pages. First was yesterday, then the couple days before that. Back further and further, each paragraph reminded him of what his journey so far had led up to. The beginning read hopelessness and misery, but it ironed itself out halfway through. Link resolved not to put down any more depressing passages in the journal; after all, what would be the point in reading it later, remembering these days, if all he wrote down was his melancholy? Someone might even want to read this, like those ocean journals the old sailor Niko wrote which he enjoyed reading back at port.

His eyes wandered out the window to his left. They met a thick growth of forest, a sickly green color which Link had seen in parts around Whittleton. He wondered if that was the "Lost Woods" Luggard had mentioned. As the train continued, Link caught sight of a set of tracks leading into a dark opening in the forest.

So the tracks actually went inside that forest. Link frowned, wondering if one of the Architects might've left a clue in such a dismal place.