The next chapter is here!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 18: Restoring Ilia's Memories
The heroes exited the Temple of Time and went back to their own time by using the same door they used to get in here. Now that they were back to the now ruined temple in the present day, they proceeded to leave the woods.
"It was so nice meeting with the Hero of Time, wasn't it?" Peach smiled.
"It sure was." Mario nodded. "Seeing him again sure brought back memories."
"I'm still mind blown by the fact that you four actually ventured alongside him once." Link addressed Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi. "But most importantly, I had fun with this amazing ancient rod!" he pulled the Dominion Rod out… buuut its power was now completely gone. "Huh?! What happened to it?!" he asked.
"I believe it doesn't work anymore due to being brought out of its time period." Rosalina hypothesized.
"What?! Oh great, now I have a useless rod!" Link complained.
"Well, I suppose a useless rod is really just more baggage, but…what are you going to do?" Midna shrugged. "Anyways, the last piece of the mirror is somewhere in the heavens… If we can restore magic to the Dominion Rod, maybe it'll come in handy!"
"How did you know that we might need the Dominion Rod in order to grant access to the heavens?" Toon Link asked.
"Eh, I dunno. Just a thought, really."
"So… I guess we need to head back to Telma's Bar as usual now?" Yoshi guessed.
"Actually…" Link mused. "We're going to Kakariko Village instead."
"Why's that?" Luigi asked.
"Because I want to see if Ilia's memories are back. Since we can't access the heavens right now, I supposed now's the perfect time to check on her."
"Sounds fine to us." Daisy said, and then Midna warped everyone to Kakariko Village.
Once there, they shifted back to normal before heading into Renado's house, where they saw Renado, Ilia, Gor Coron, and Darbus inside. They all, except for Ilia who remained crestfallen, turned their attention to the heroes as soon as they went in.
"Ah! You all!" Renado greeted. "What brings you here?"
"We came to check on Ilia." Link replied.
"Then you've arrived just in time." Renado smiled. "Fortune has smiled upon us! If things go well, we should be able to help Ilia recover her memory!"
The heroes' eyes perked up. "Really?!"
"Indeed." Renado nodded. "Do you know Telma's friend, Shad? Well, it seems he is researching the heavens, and he has come here to see the statue in the basement of the sanctuary. And, as I have learned, when Ilia was saved, she overheard someone talking about the rod of the heavens, or something like that…"
"Rod of the heavens… It must be the Dominion Rod!" the heroes thought. "So we do have to restore its power somehow…"
"The Goron elder believes that to help her regain her lost memories, we must piece together the fragments of her past… Which means… If we work our way backward from the very place where she lost her memory, we may find something that will restore it."
"That might work out." Rosalina said.
"Now we must retrace Ilia's path… I am certain it was Telma who cared for her before she arrived in this village, was it not?" the heroes nodded in response. "It would be best to speak with her first. Please take this to Telma!" he hands them a letter.
Link took the letter and put it away, but before he and his friends left, Link decided to approach Ilia to see if she was fine.
"Hey, Ilia…" he began. "How's your memory, so far?"
"…Link." Ilia looked at him. "Well, I remember being saved from a dangerous situation by someone… Someone who told me all about the rod of the heavens. But now I can't remember the who, why, where, or what it all means… Do you really think I'll recover my memory?" she crestfalls again. "I regret that a complete stranger like yourself got caught up in all of this because of me. I'm so sorry."
"You don't have to apologize, Ilia." Link smiled. "If all of this didn't happen, I wouldn't have come this far. I am sure that you'll get your memory back, so don't worry."
Ilia smiled back. "Thank you… Good luck out there."
With that, Link and his friends left Renado's house as Ilia watched them leave.
"Oh, I wish I could remember them…" she thought saddened.
Later, at Telma's Bar…
"Hello! Back so soon?" Telma greeted. "Did you check out anything interesting?"
"Well, we have something to deliver to you." Link said as he showed her Renado's Letter.
"Oooh! Well, if it isn't from Renado, the shaman!" Telma took the letter and read it. "All this writing, and he doesn't bother to mention a thing about little ol' me? Honey, that is what I call RUDE!"
"Oh boy, she has a thing for him…" the heroes thought while sweatdropping.
"Well, there's no accounting for the foolishness of a man. And at least I understand Ilia's situation now. Of course I can lend a hand for that adorable little girl!" she began to ponder. "Hmmm, what else do I know… The first one to bring Ilia to this shop was that doctor… Maybe he knows something, but he's a crusty old bat, that's for sure…"
"Oh, yeah…" the heroes thought, remembering the last time they saw that doctor, he just stormed out of the bar.
"Ah… I've got it! You all go ahead and take this to him. This magic little paper will get that codger talking!" she hands them an Invoice.
"Thanks, Telma!" Peach thanked.
"Don't mention it, dear. Good luck with helping Ilia!"
The group waved, and left the bar to head to Doctor Borville's house that was just beside the town's western exit. They immediately spotted Borville standing there as soon as they entered.
"Eh? What're those?" he spoke. "Just as I wondered who it might be, I see they're the young lads who were willing to help the Zora boy for nary a single Rupee… Just what is it you want, lads? A physical? You've some money, don't you?"
"Actually, we came to hand you this…" Luigi replied as Link shows the Invoice.
"AIIIGH!" Borville suddenly yelled, making the group jump. "L-Look! I can't pay this off right now! I can see Telma's hired you as some sorts of heavy to strong-arm me, but she'll have to wait! Look, lads, if I'd been able to sell the wooden statue that young lady had, I would've been able to get the money…"
"Wooden statue…?" the group thought.
"But see, I accidentally spilled medicine all over that little carving, which made it stink awfully. I put it outside to dry…but then… Well, it was stolen."
"Stolen?" Rosalina asked.
"Who goes around stealing people's stuff like that? What a world! You always have to be on guard, eh?" Borville went silent for a bit before replying, "…Uh, look, Heavies, at any rate, neither the money nor the carving is here, so I can't repay you. Now, to work, to work…" he then walks away into his working room.
"So… What now?" Yoshi asked.
"Didn't he mention about spilling medicine over the statue which made it stink?" Mario recalled. "This means that you two…" he addressed the Links, as their eyes widened, knowing exactly what he meant.
"Oh, lovely… We'll have to smell that stinky medicine, right?" Toon Link groaned.
"Yup."
"Figured as much…"
"Hey, that's coming from two people who were brave enough to sniff a similarly stinky fish!" Midna reminded. "If you two managed to handle that smell, then surely you can handle a stinky medicine smell too!"
"You know, she has a point." Link said as they walked over to the alley at the far wall, where Link pushed a create to reveal some icky green stuff spilt all over the floor and the wall.
"Ew…" Daisy cringed at both the medicine's texture and smell as the Links changed into wolves and proceeded to sniff the medicine to gain the Medicine Scent. A trail of green smoke showed up in the Links' point of view with their senses on, and then the Mario cast decided to change into ravens as well before they all left the doctor's house through the upper floor.
Unfortunately, due to the Links being in wolf forms, their presence scared the crap out of the townsfolk they passed by, which made them along with Midna and the Mario cast sweatdrop.
"Wow… and I thought Link's home village was full of idiots, but this town definitely takes the cake…" Midna facepalmed.
Trying their best to ignore the panicked screams of the townsfolk, the group followed the scent, which led them back down at the entrance to Telma's Bar, where it stopped at Louise.
"Louise?" Link asked.
"Oh, it's you all again." Louise said. "What do you need?"
"Well, we're looking for a wooden statue that Ilia possibly had since it got stolen." Peach replied. "You know about that, don't you?"
"Hm! Think it's a coincidence that I happen to know it got stolen from the doctor's place? No…"
"Wait, so it was you who…?" Toon Link blinked in realization.
"Yes, I'll admit it…I took it. But then I was attacked by some sort of skeletal dog beasts who took it from me."
"S-Skeletal dog beasts?!" Luigi stuttered.
"I don't know why those beasts were after her statue… I thought it likely that she was in a dangerous spot, though. Those fiends lurk just outside the southern gate… Unfortunately, they only come out at night."
"Well, lucky for us, it's already sunset." the heroes thought.
"…And another thing… They always move around as a pack. You won't get that statue back unless you give them all a trashing… That statue sounds like a key to getting Ilia's memory back… You must get it back!"
"Will do!" Daisy grinned before leaving the town through the southern gate.
Then, they just had to wait until the sun sets completely so it was nighttime. As soon as nighttime came, a large pack of Stalhounds emerged out of the ground in front of the heroes.
"There they are!" Midna exclaimed as they all glared (though Luigi was mostly scared) at the snarling Stalhounds. "Attack!"
The heroes proceeded to go to town to fighting those beasts, with the Links biting down on some while the Mario cast divebombed at the rest. As soon as the last Stalhound fell, a small wooden statue suddenly came out and landed on the ground.
"This must be it!" Yoshi exclaimed as they all turned back to normal before Link picked up the Wooden Statue.
"Nice." he smirked. "Let's give it to Ilia right away!"
A trip to Kakariko later…
"What…is this?!" Ilia asked as she looked at the statue in her hands… and then she suddenly grasped her head with her hands, dropping the statue in the process. "Nnngh…!"
"Ilia?!" Link exclaimed alarmed.
"I… I remember something… I was confined somewhere… Yes, and I was saved by whoever was confined with me… And when that person set me free, they gave me this statue…" she then jolts up. "Yes, yes, I remember that much! But that means…that person is still in trouble! Oh, what is WRONG with me?! I can't remember where that place was!"
"I REMEMBER!" Gor Coron suddenly blurted out loud, startling almost everyone inside. "I thought I had seen that before somewhere… That belonged to the tribe that protected the Hylian royal family long ago."
"The Sheikah…?!" Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi thought. "Of course! No wonder that statue's symbol looked familiar to me!"
"They worked in secret, so they lived in a lonely, forgotten place. But I heard that the tribe dwindled in the prolonged wars…" he then addressed the heroes, "If you want to find that hidden village, look for a path leading to the Lanayru province on the far side of the Bridge of Eldin."
"We'll do it." Link replied.
"But…a rockslide blocked the way to the village long ago, so you can't get there anymore."
"What?!" Ilia gasped. "Oh, what should we do?" she whimpered.
"What? Oh, I do not mean to worry you, little human. Problems like these are not problems to Gorons." Gor Coron said before turning to Darbus and nodding at him as he nodded back and went out.
"Well, that problem is solved." Mario stated. "Let's head back to the Bridge of Eldin."
Everyone nodded and left Renado's house, and then they mounted on the three horses and took off all the way north of the Bridge of Eldin. On the way, several Bulblin Archers tried to shoot at them, only for Peach to reflect all their arrows with Nayru's Love, and when the group got to a certain opening on the rocky wall to the left, they dismounted off of the horses and went into the opening.
Further inside, they saw Darbus breaking the wall of rocks by throwing several punches at it, until eventually, he manages to destroy it to reveal the rest of the passage up ahead.
"There is a hidden village up ahead, little humans and creature. The elders call it a forgotten place." Darbus said and then sniffed the air around him. "This scent that has been burning my nostrils…it is the scent of evil. There is one powerful creature I have seen about…but under that beast are many minions who attack and plunder like a pack of hyenas. There are 30… No… At most, 20 of them ahead… They are probably just a small band of survivors… Ragged remnants who have settled, leaderless, into this village."
"20 of them? That's nothing for us." the heroes thought.
"If that is all there is, little humans and creature, then you all alone are more than enough for them. But you will have to defeat them ALL to save that girl's benefactor. Before you go, I will tell you the secret to besting them: destroy them all before they spot you! Got it?" with that, Darbus curls himself up and rolled away.
"You all heard him, right?" Midna asked. "We've got a bunch of minions to deal with in the village up ahead."
"If we're going to defeat them all without having them spot us, then we'll have to attack them from a distance." Rosalina stated, and by hearing this, the Links took their bows and arrows out.
"Well, we both have a solution for this." Toon Link said.
"And we can rely on some of our abilities too." Luigi added.
"Alright, then we're all set to go." Link settled and they all went ahead.
The Hidden Village beyond was very small, with only a few deserted houses, but like with Kakariko, it had a western-style flair to it. The entire place was filled with Bulblins, 20 in total as Darbus mentioned.
The heroes silently and slowly stepped into the village's entrance as if they were in an old-west movie, their hairs and clothing fluttering in the village's dry breeze. The hunt for the 20 Bulblins had begun.
With their bows ready, the Links took out the first two Bulblins at the top of the rightmost house by firing an arrow at them, while Yoshi directed three eggs, with two of them hitting the two Bulblins standing in the middle of the road and the third hitting the one on top of the leftmost house.
As the heroes advanced slowly, Rosalina spotted a Bulblin through the window of the leftmost house, so she fired a beam of magic that destroyed the window and the Bulblin inside. Meanwhile, Link sniped a faraway Bulblin, and then Mario shot a fireball at the explosive boxes to blow them up, killing two Bulblins as a result.
Luigi defeated three Bulblins standing at the very top of a house on the right by raining a lightning bolt at each of them, and Toon Link shot one on top of a house to the left. Then, Daisy broke through the window of this house by punching it with her crystallized fist and made use of it to punch a Bulblin inside, which caught the attention of two Bulblin above as they attempted to shoot her, but Peach quickly came in and reflected the arrows back at them with Nayru's Love and Daisy thanked her for the help.
By now, there were only five Bulblins remaining. Rosalina took out another one through the window in the same way, Mario shot a fireball at one hiding in an alley to the right, Luigi rained a lightning bolt at the one standing on top of a wooden watchtower, Yoshi sent an egg at the one inside the house on the right, and finally, Link shot the last one that was standing on the same house's second floor.
With that, the village was clear of Bulblins as the group reunited.
"Heh, that went smoothly!" Daisy grinned.
"Indeed." Link nodded as he and his counterpart put away their bows.
"By the way, Link, I and Daisy just spotted another one of those stones you need to howl." Peach informed as Link's eyes perked up. "It's right over there." she pointed to the location as Link went there to investigate, going through the window frame to find said Howling Stone, which was the last one, and proceeded to howl to its tune, and then the Golden Wolf told him to meet him anytime at the front of Hyrule Castle.
As soon as Link returned to the others, the door of the village's only undamaged house opened up, and out came an old lady.
"The howls of the beasts… They've faded into silence…" she remarked, and then the heroes approached her. "Wait, are you… The saviors! It's you, the saviors!"
"Uh…sure, I guess." Toon Link shrugged.
"Please, please forgive me…for not opening up the door."
"No need to apologize." Rosalina replied. "Who are you?"
"My name is Impaz. I'm the last resident of this poor village. My name comes from the great one who built this village so long ago…"
"…Could it be Impa?" Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi thought. "So this village used to be the original Kakariko Village from the era of the Hero of Time?"
"This village was once the secret home of a proud tribe who served the royal family… But it fell into decline, and became infested with dangerous beasts. It's become an awful place…"
"How horrible…"
"Excuse me for asking, but are your names…Link, Toon, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Daisy, and Rosalina?"
Everyone blinked in surprise. "Y-Yes!" Luigi stuttered. "How did she know us in the first place?" he thought.
"Ah! I knew it… So then, you saved that nice girl?"
"We have!" Yoshi replied.
Impaz smiled. "…How lovely. When she was here, she would often cheer me up by saying that you would come to help." she cresfalled in sadness. "That sweet girl… She worried about this old woman even as I helped her to escape from here… By royal order, I can't leave this place until certain people arrive… No matter what terrible fate is visited upon it…" she paused for a second and then something came to her, "Oh, but listen to me blather on! I have a favor to ask: would you help me return this to her?" she took out what appears to be a horseshoe tied with a string. "I think she always kept it close to her heart, but even so, she didn't hesitate to part with it in order to protect me…"
Link took the charm with him and put it away.
"I believe in my heart that it's kept me safe all this time…" Impaz said. "So please… I ask that you return it to that girl."
"Sure thing." Link nodded and turned to his friends. "Come on, let's go." they all nodded and proceeded to leave, but then Impaz noticed something sticking out of Link's pocket as her eyes widened.
"Hey! Wait just a moment!" she called out, making the group stop in their tracks and turn around. "That rod on your back… Is that the Dominion Rod?"
"…You mean this?" Link took out the Dominion Rod. "Yeah… You know about it?"
"Ahh… Could it really be? Are you the messenger to the heavens?!"
"Messenger of the heavens?"
"Among the legends of my clan, there is a story from the time when the Oocca still maintained contact with the royal family. Yes, it said that a mysterious rod was handed down from the people of the sky, and it was called the Dominion Rod… The rod was only to be carried by the messenger to the heavens when the royal family needed to communicate with the Oocca. From generation to generation, my ancestors have guarded the book that, by royal decree, was to be given to the messenger to the heavens. Excuse me for a moment so I can get it from my house." she turned around and went into her house before coming back out holding an ancient book in her hands. "This is that book. Please, take it."
Link accepted the Ancient Sky Book, and decided to take a look inside it, but all he found were words he couldn't understand.
"Uhh… What kinds of words are these?" he questioned.
"This book is written in the ancient language of Sky Writing. Maybe you might know someone who can decipher these words for you?"
The heroes thought for a moment, and then they remembered that Shad, being a scholar studying about the people of the sky and their city, could be the one that could translate these words for them. They just had to give him this book, but decided to give the charm to Ilia first so that her memory could be restored.
"I am so glad I stayed in this village… If I had not met that young girl, what would have become of me?" Impaz wondered. "Meeting that girl must have been ordained by the gods, so that I could be here today to pass on this knowledge…"
Everyone thanked Impaz for the items she gave them and they left the village, where outside, they rode all the way back to Kakariko Village and entered Renado's house once more.
"Ah, welcome back." Renado said. "Did you get something from that village that might restore Ilia's memory?"
"Yes, we did." Link nodded before walking up to Ilia and showing her the charm.
Ilia let out a gasp as soon as she saw the object, and then she closed her eyes. "I… I knew you once… Yes… This feels so familiar… The scent of hay…" suddenly, everything around her went white, memories starting to flow back into her mind. "Long ago… When we were young, you and I… You were always there… You were always beside me…" she shed a tear, opening her eyes and looking up. "Link."
In her vision, Link showed up in front of her with his Ordonian clothing on and both were standing at the Ordon Spring as they happily locked eyes with each other, sharing a heartwarming moment together.
In reality, everyone inside was watching this sweet moment between the two with soft smiles, including the Ordon children who were watching from outside of the window. Then, Renado and Gor Coron left, as well as the children… well, except for Talo, who was soon pulled away from the window by Beth.
"Ilia…" Link smiled. "I'm so glad you remember me again. You remember my friends too, right?"
"Of course I do." Ilia smiled back before glancing at the charm Link held. "This gift was meant for you. It was something I wanted to give you before you and your friends left on your journey. With this, you're able to call out Epona, and maybe even Debbie and Ocean, to you anywhere you want. Please, Link, take it."
"Yes." Link gladly accepted the charm, which turned out to be a Horse Call. "But Ilia, what about you?" he asked with a tone of worry.
"You don't need to worry about me any longer. Whenever you return… I'll be waiting for you."
"Alright."
Renado then came up to the group. "This should be a perfect time for you to go see Shad. He's down in the cellar."
Everyone nodded and went down the hole, walking forward into the tunnel until they spotted Shad trying to decipher a certain statue in front of him.
"Hmm… There's got to be a way to remove this statue…" he mused before he turned around and saw the group standing there. "Oh my… Color me surprised… If it isn't you guys! What a coincidence, meeting you in a place like this. How very odd…"
"Not really…" the heroes thought while internally sweatdropping.
"Say, old friends, do you remember what I told you before about the legend of the sky beings known as the Oocca? Yes, well, there's something about it that's been bothering me, so I came here to snoop about… To think that you would appear here with such perfect timing! You really are rather extraordinary fellows, aren't you?"
"Maybe so." Luigi replied sheepishly.
"I've found it at long last…" Shad directed them to the statue behind him. "Observe this statue! It's the same as the one in the manuscripts my dear father left me. Here, look at the belly… There's something written there, you see? This, too, was in my father's notes… It is called Sky Writing, I believe."
"What does the message say?" Peach asked.
"'Awaken me with the word that breaks the seal.' …Yes, indeed, that is what it says."
"So you do understand Sky Writing!" Daisy exclaimed. "You see, we happen to have something that might help!" she said and glanced at Link, as he nodded in understanding and showed Shad the Ancient Sky Book.
"What's this?" Shad asked as he took the book and opened it. "Where in blazes did you get this?"
"Let's just say… a friend of ours."
"Huh… You don't suppose this could be the word that breaks the seal…" he then faced the statue. "R-Right! Let's try it out!" he said and chanted some words from the book… buuut nothing happened to the seal. "…No reaction." he whispered.
"Aw…" Yoshi frowned.
"Wait, hang on a second…" Shad looked through the book closely, while everyone else noticed something shining out of Link's pocket as he pulled it out and saw that the Dominion Rod had its power returned.
"Awesome!" Link smirked.
"…Oh! I didn't notice these words over there!" Shad said and then chanted again, this time with the extra words added.
Eventually, the seal on the statue shone brightly and it disappeared. However, the statue still remained in place.
"Ah! Eureka!" Shad exclaimed. "But… only the seal was uncovered. And I thought we had solved the last of the riddles… Blast! How confounding!" he facepalmed.
"You okay there?" Mario asked.
"…I must apologize, guys. I need to cool off a tad before I mull the problem further…" he replied and left.
Taking the advantage of this, Link used the Dominion Rod to bring the statue out of the doorway. After deactivating it, he and his friends walked down the stairs to find a large broken ancient cannon.
"Whoa…" Toon Link awed. "That's the largest cannon I've ever seen…"
"Guys?!" Shad's voice came as he came in down. "How in blazes did you move that statue?! And…what's this…" he eyed at the cannon. "Amazing! Spectacular! This must be the Sky Cannon I read about in my father's notes! I knew that my intuition was onto something when it led me here! …But how can one use this to get to the City in the Sky?"
"City in the Sky… That must be where the last mirror shard is!" the heroes thought, knowing for sure that this has to be the next place they had to go.
"Stunning… I feel almost…nervous! Just think, if we could get this to work, we could actually reach the City in the Sky…"
As Shad kept pondering, the group approached the cannon and began to whisper to themselves:
"We can clearly see that this cannon is broken, so we have to get it fixed somehow…" Rosalina stated.
"Hmm… Hey! Do you think Fyer can fix it?" Yoshi suggested. "He is fond of cannons, after all!"
"Great! So we should be able to take it to Lake Hylia through Midna's warping!" Daisy exclaimed.
"Yeah, I can do that… Except that guy's still watching us…" Midna muttered, glancing at Shad.
"Oh, yeah…" Luigi blinked in realization.
"Looks like we have no choice but to get him to leave." Mario said. "And I feel bad about doing this…"
"We know, but we can't let him see this!" Peach ushered.
"She's right." Link said and then they all walked back to Shad and Link began, "Hey, excuse us, Shad… But you are… you know?"
"Hm? …Ahh! Perhaps…I am in your way?" Shad guessed.
"Um, yeah." Toon Link replied.
"Well, forgive me for not realizing! I should just disappear at times like this, really. So… Let me know the results another time, guys. Farewell!" he turns around and leaves the place.
"…I wonder if I put him off?" Midna wondered, before the heroes shifted into animals as she flew over to the cannon and used her warping magic to teleport it out of this place along with everyone.
Shad, who was still halfway out of the basement, just so happened to hear the warping noises from behind and stopped running.
"Huh? What was that noise?" he wondered, but decided to just forget about it. "Nah, it's probably nothing." he dismissed and left the basement entirely, completely unaware of what was going on back there.
To be continued…
There's NO WAY I'd be including that part where you had to hunt for the missing sky letters in my story. In fact, I thought that part in the game was kind of unnecessary in my opinion.
But that aside, wasn't that moment where Ilia finally remembers Link quite sweet? :)
City in the Sky is up next!