Interlude
"Home is where one starts from."-T.S. Eliot
Skye and Leanne had left us again, due to an urgent message from someone (Nayru probably). Both took the nearest Goddess statue back up to Skyloft.
"Where to..."
Suddenly the ground beneanth our feet arose and a smaller version of the Statue of the Goddess in the sky arose. Smaller, but I'd stood on top of it literally just a month earlier.
"What the..." I said, stunned.
Fi appeared out of the sword.
"My Mistress, a memory from a Goddess has awoken from within my memory," she said. "You'll need your Harp."
My harp! I'd left it inside the Cistern. I began to panic...
"Zelda, it's right there," Karane said, giving it to me. "It was lying over there near where the remains of Kolo...whatever Fi called it, was. You really need to keep better track of it."
"Prepare to play my Mistress," Fi said.
I raised my hand over the harp and began to play. A chorus unlike any other rose and fell and Fi began to dance. She tiptoed up and down, along the side of the cliffs around us and swept into the water.
"My Sister, again from the edge of time I guide you. Your trials are not yet over; they've barely begun. Visit once again the Isle of the Songs in Skyloft. The next trial awaits you in the bright golden sunlight of Lanayru. Once
Fi stopped dancing and floated in front of us.
"My calculations indicate we must follow the voice and head back to the deseret of Lanayru."
She turned back in a blue ball of light and vanished into the Master Sword.
"Back to Skyloft," Karane said.
We didn't stop at Skyloft, instead we just went straight to the Isle of Songs. The bugs that had once bothered us were gone now, not a threat to us anymore. The Isle of Song was just a small platform, big enough for one, maybe two people. Karane and I dismounted from our faithful Loftwings, both of which waited on nearby islands.
"I was just thinking," I said to her. "How would this have worked out if Link was here?"
"I'm not sure," Karane said as we waited for something to happen. "I know one thing for sure; I wouldn't be along for this quest for one thing."
I couldn't agree more with that. The Goddess Sword glowed deep blue and Fi appeared and floated in front of us.
"My Mistress, a new song has awoken in my memory," Fi said, floating in front of us. "Be ready to play again."
I pulled the harp out of my rucksack and prepared to play. Fi began to dance just like she had done moments before at Lake Floria. I let the music consume me, let Fi dazzle me with her movements. It was somehow even more graceful than the tune I after I had obtained Farore's Flame.
Before I knew it, Fi and I were operating together as one. She'd dance to the note emanating from the Harp that had been passed through my mother's line as far back as I could remember. As she swung high above our head, a rainbow of colors began to flow off of her, enwrapping the entire spring in her wake. It was indescribable, to think we'd been gifted to witness this many times was beyond me.
It was sad when it was over and Fi came back to us.
"Her Grace, what you have just learned is called Nayru's Wisdom. You'll use it to unlock another trial..."
"Another trial?" escaped me before I could stop it.
"...in the deseret sands of Lanayru. In Nayru's Flame, you'll furthur purify and enhance the Goddess Blade to it's final form."
With that she disappeared back into the sword.
"Back to the desert again?" Karane asked, still dazzled by the display Fi just put on for us.
"Yes, back to the desert again," I sadly noted. Many painful memories awaited me there as it was the last place I'd seen Link and where the first inklings of who I was had started to surface.
"Let's go there tomorrow," Karane said, gripping my shoulder. "The Hylia Festival is tonight though. Let's enjoy a little home life."
"Yeah," I said, completely agreeing with her. If there was anything I'd learned so far, beyond anything even that I was Hylia, it was how important home was no matter who you were or how far you went. Skyloft was home, Karane, Link, even Groose was home. A home I had to protect, a home which could be destroyed at any moment.
"I'm tired, I want a nap."
On a platform underneath the Knight Academy, eight Shiekah were duking it out. Cartwheeling, tumbling, kicking, punching through air until the mass separated. Six of the eight formed a circle with two at the center. Leanne and Skye stood back to back, surrounded and badly outnumbered.
"So what do we do now?" Leanne asked, trying to keep her fear in check. She was fighting down the flush that was threatening to envelop her cheeks being in such close proximity.
"Fight dirty," Skye said, not showing the slightest glance of fear. "Stay focused Leanne and you'll know what to do."
Two attacked; Skye slammed them both in the groin with back-to-back magically enforced kicks. Both toppled to the ground before Leanne knocked them out.
"I've got this," she said, still outnumbered two to one.
They all attacked at once; Leanne knew what she had to do. She cartwheeled into the air; wrapping one of her arms around his neck and utilizing her weight, she threw him in the way of his compatriot, and both face planted into the ground. Skye leapt onto another's shoulder, using his weight to bring him down in front of his neighbor's legs and both tripped to the ground in a mass pile up. Leanne stood over all four of them, using a dark energy ball to knock them all out. To her astonishment, one by one they all burst into purple dust and faded away.
"What?" Leanne said, shocked.
"They have some sort of spell on them," Skye explained. "When they lose, they are transported to who knows where. I usually never see them again, or if I do, they look a lot more haggard than usual."
"Good by me," Leanne said, throwing Skye a flirtatious look that he completely missed. She rolled her eyes, but quickly corrected herself upon remembering Nayru's words. She still wasn't sure what the Goddess was capable of so she had to tread carefully. "So they went for the Knight Academy."
"More like Gaepora, he's the keeper of Skyloft's legends and leverage, for use on Zelda," Skye said, certain he was correct. "We must keep watch closely. That's why we can't help Zelda on the Surface right now."
"Good by me," Leanne said, skipping alongside him on the way back to the Bazaar, a spring in her step.
"Besides, we have to teach at the Knight Academy tomorrow in the morning," Skye said. "Gaepora liked my teaching so much he's invited me back. It's a good way to keep an eye on the Academy and it's students while Zelda's away."
