Chapter 2: An Old Map, A New Land

…

About one month ago…

…

"I still think this is a bad idea," Irleen said as she hovered over Leynne's head. "It's only a matter of time before you set our tree on fire."

"Ouch," Leynne hissed upon burning his finger with a match. He dropped it outside the lantern he had been trying to light and stomped on it to make sure it was out. He lowered the lantern's outer, metal cover once he determined that it was lit and placed his throbbing finger in his mouth for a moment. "That's why we'h using lantehns with metal casings ratheh than glass," he replied in a Hovela accent, an odd manner of speech more common to the surface world. He leaned over to inspect the dim contraption. "Not that this seems to be very effective."

"You have to open the slots on the sides," Link said from his position further down the stairs, adjusting the strap of the backpack he was carrying.

"Ah," Leynne uttered as he opened one of the slots on the side and nearly blinded himself. The light illuminated a slice of Leynne's blue dress shirt and black slacks before he picked it up. He shone the light on Link. "Is this wheh you finished last time?"

"No, it was further down," Irleen replied.

"Are you sure?" Link asked as he jabbed a finger at a marking on the bare, wooden wall in front of him. "I recognize this word."

"Link, that's the word 'water'," Irleen told him. "It's probably written about two hundred times on this side of the tree." Link took another look at the wall by the light of his own lantern. After he had determined that she was right, he began following Leynne down the stairs.

Irleen fluttered by in the lead, a small, winged ball of green light that shone on the wall as she passed by. It was only natural that she could remember where they had last looked at the carvings of this wall: this was her home. In particular, this was the inside of a massive tree that sat almost in the center of the island which had once been home to the Sorian people. Once lit by natural light, the interior had been left in the dark for the past two years since the Sorians disappeared. The hollowed interior had been decorated with spiral staircases that wound about the inner wall. These staircases had been grown out of the wall, leaving them with natural connections to the tree itself rather than be put together by hand. It was one of the features of Sorian architecture: everything was grown from its source, never built. This, some of Link's crew had decided, gave an otherworldly feel to the island. But then, that could also be expected due to the complete desertion of the island. Nothing had remained of the former residents. Books, furniture, eating utensils and dishware, stored foods… the island had been picked so clean that they had yet to find a crumb. All there was to be found was dust, and in those two years, even the air inside the great tree sported some as revealed by the afternoon light shining in from the outside. That light would probably have never found its way in if the branches outside had sported leaves. It was hard to believe that the tree was still alive, but it was something that Irleen had always seemed to reaffirm to her own relief.

In the past two years, Link and Irleen had turned the depicted history of these walls into a sort of archeological study. It was not easy; even as a native, Irleen still had some difficulty with the older forms of her language which occasionally appeared. Their progress had been further slowed by the timetable Link had worked out for his airship. Maybe they could get in a few hours, maybe they could afford a whole day. But that was between jobs which kept them busy for a month or so as they took every opportunity they could to make money and rebuild the Skyriders company's reputation. The company needed the help desperately, especially after it had been drafted into a navy two years ago by a lunatic creature posing as the Princess of Hyrule. Irleen needed help greatly as well, having been left behind after calamity caused by said fake princess's companions had forced the Sorians to flee. Oddly enough, though, the island itself had never been assaulted or touched. These days, royal decree and a pair of frigates kept all but Link's ship from ever docking at the island.

"Hold up a minute," Irleen said. Leynne and Link stopped and directed their lantern light on the wall near Irleen. She backed away to examine the wall for a moment. "Okay, I think this is it."

"Yeah, right there," Link said as he pointed to a large group of jagged, free-form shapes on the wall. "That cluster of… weird things."

Leynne squinted at the shapes. "What am I looking at?" he asked.

"Well, if we read this part of the wall right," Irleen said, "this is how the old Sorian lands looked before the islands drifted apart. Right after Cunimincus broke the land."

"Yes, I believe that I've undehstood the stohy behind the islands as they ah now," Leynne said. "How does this rate my attention?"

"Because not all the islands are here," Link said.

"We know every island within Hyrule," Irleen continued. "But those aren't all the islands of the original Sorian land. The land was much larger than this. The only reason that the islands we know are all together is that they just happened to be close enough when the Sky Lines were first put up."

"So the proposition is that the Sorians went to an island not in the kingdom," Leynne reasoned with a skeptical tone.

"You mentioned before that the Sorians might have found another island up here," Link said.

"Yes, I did," Leynne agreed. Then he pointed out, "Howeveh, I was undeh the assumption that any such island outside of the kingdom would be too fah away foh any ship to reach."

"More than likely," Link replied.

Leynne took a better look at the jagged map they had shown him. "Weh we to make such a jouhney," he spoke up, "how would we know which island? Foh that matteh, how would we know wheh to find it?"

"That's why we brought you along," Link said. "If you made a rough copy of this map, do you think you could figure out how the islands drifted apart?"

Leynne had to take a moment to consider Link's proposal. "You mean to study the trends behind how the island drifted? See what kind of pattehn appeahs and make an educated guess from theh?" Link nodded. Leynne let out a sigh and contemplated the map again. "I suppose I can try. But I'll need a copy of this map."

Link slid the backpack off his shoulder and offered it to Leynne. "We thought you'd say that," he said. "There's some paper and charcoal in there for you."

Leynne gave Link an annoyed look that was barely visible in the low light. "If you'd intended such, why didn't you just copy the map youhself?" he asked as he accepted the bag.

"It's a little hard to do when we're the only one's here," Link said. "Besides, I'd feel better if you did it; I'd worry about messing up the map somehow."

Leynne carefully set his lantern on a nearby step so he had a free hand to open the backpack. "Youh anxieties seem to be limitless," he commented as he pulled out a rolled sheet of paper.

"You'll find out when you have your own ship and have to handle a crew full of nuts," Link replied as he stepped out of Leynne's way.

"Thank you, my cuhrent employment already provides me with the experience," Leynne told him. He moved closer to the wall and dug further into the backpack until he found the bundle of charcoal sticks at the bottom. "Theh ah times when I wondeh if I wouldn't do betteh as a babysitteh."

"Or a father?" Irleen asked.

Leynne gave her an annoyed look. "Nice to know that the details of ouh private lives ah a secret to everyone."

"Well, you know how it is," Irleen said as she bobbed from side to side. "You and Dubbl talk about it, Dubbl tells Dholit, Dholit tells everybody."

"Nobody told me," Link spoke up, sounding a little irritated. "Is something wrong?"

"It isn't anything serious," Leynne said.

"Kids aren't serious enough for you?" Irleen asked.

Leynne shot her a glare. Then he told Link, "With the amount of time we've spent wohking, Dubbl has been troubled by the fact that she is not pregnant yet. We've had so little pehsonal time lately…" He took in a deep breath. "It isn't something I should buhden you with, Link."

"Leynne, if you guys need some time off," Link said with a sympathetic tone, "I can arrange some shore leave for you two. The crew knows the routine. Flower can fill in while you're gone."

Leynne sighed. "Pehhaps aftehwahds," he said as he used his thumb to scratch his brow. "You have me intrigued by this undehtaking, and I would like to see it through."

"Whatever works for you," Link told him. Leynne dropped the backpack and placed the paper over the wall. Then he rubbed one stick of charcoal over the paper while Link held up the lantern for him to see. Leynne paused to look over his work. Then he tilted his head at something toward the bottom of his new map. "What is it?" Link asked him.

"I cannot be cehtain," Leynne said as he twisted out of the way. With one hand holding the paper to the wall, he pointed with the charcoal and asked, "Ihleen, is this Sorian script?"

Irleen brought herself closer until she was almost touching the paper. "Yeah, that is," she replied. "I'm surprised you saw that; I completely missed it."

Leynne shifted the map aside and felt the wall. "It's shallow," he said. "It probably wasn't visible until I copied it."

"What's it say?" Link asked.

"'Lost Library'," Irleen read aloud.

"Lost Library…" Link repeated. Then he asked, "Haven't we seen that word before?"

"I think so. The past few times we've been here, in fact."

"Is theh some significance to that?" Leynne asked as he carefully rolled the map.

"You know, there may be," Irleen told him. "When my people left, they took everything, right?"

"Ostensibly," Leynne said while Link nodded in agreement.

"Well, with all the literature and manuals that went with them, they would need a place to put all that. Right?"

"You think they would've used this 'Lost Library'?" Link asked while Leynne unrolled the map to examine it again. Leynne had to turn so that light from Link's lantern illuminated the paper.

"Why not?" Irleen asked. "It would be easier to expand the Lost Library than to grow another one. You can't just leave valuable books out in the elements."

"If I may add," Leynne spoke up. He showed Link the map. "The island in question appeahs to be the lahgest on this map. If the Sorians felt that they had to move, and they knew wheh this 'Lost Library' was, even if we weh to exclude the need to relocate theih literatuh, the island itself would be an ideal place to resettle. No associated Sky Lines, no Hylian settlehs."

"So… did we just have a breakthrough?" Irleen asked with excitement tingeing the question.

"I think we did," Link replied.

"We need some fohm of confihmation, though," Leynne said. "We'h assuming that this island still exists. A visit to the technowohks could help us discoveh wheh it might be." He looked down at the map again. "Give me a few houhs, and I'll see what I can produce."

"Right," Link said. "In the meantime, we can start moving toward Sagacity Island; we can figure out where to go from there."