She had to leave it to the Sky Knights. It was their job, she just had to. She didn't want to, no, she tried to beg but even she knew that was a dumbass decision since she had no experience flying in the dark. All she could do was point them in the direction she had seen Link come from and that was it.
They'd offered help with Link himself, but still unconscious and on his defensive Loftwing, she shook her head. The creature seemed to understand that she was checking him over for injuries and he seemed clean of anything too drastic. She would probably do a more thorough check later, but knowing he wasn't detrimentally wounded was enough for her to coax him into following.
Again, she gripped the harness, this time from the side now that she could reach over a folded wing. He was stable in his movements, and for that, she was thankful because in truth, she should have allowed help. Had link begun to slip, she wouldn't have been able to pick him back up. But to have help in a situation she should be able to do, would be taking away from efforts to find Zelda which was far more important. At least Link had made it home…
As she reached the door to the academy's upper floor, she had to force herself to draw in a deep breath. It did little to ease the tension throughout her body, but she just needed to do something instead of imploding with the knowledge that Zelda very likely could have fallen to her demise in whatever lay beneath the clouds.
It was a terrifying thought, and the fact that it was so, so possible had her on the verge of tears as she had moved for the doorknob.
Night had fallen on the walk down to the main section of the city, and she knew well that she shouldn't be out. What she hadn't taken into account was the fact that, at this time, the academy doors were locked. She didn't know the layout of the place like Zelda did, but either way she guessed that it wouldn't matter a whole lot if she was to knock. What else could she do though, if not that? She had no other options than to hope that someone would hear her and take Link off her hands, and to her surprise, someone did.
It wasn't from inside, and there was a very brief spark of worry, both metaphorical and literal in her palms, that the sounds of shuffling she'd heard were that of one of the beasts that lurked Skyloft at night. Fortunately though, she was allowed to ease the fire threatening to leap to her defense as a voice called from over the railing, coming from below the broad walkway she stood on.
Vague familiarity put her at ease as she hurried over to the edge and leaned. It was a thick stone rail that kept her from falling, but it also stopped her from properly seeing over, and as such, she hoisted herself up and beached herself across on her stomach to peer down at the yellow clad senior knight below.
"Pipit," she greeted, a touch breathless with the rather ridiculous position she'd taken.
"Tya," he seemed to ease some as well, and she could understand that. To her knowledge- knowledge formed entirely off an assumption- he was generally on night watch nowadays. She'd seen him on occasion, patrolling as well as leaving his mother's home just before nightfall, fully clad in the uniform he currently wore.
"Could you help me, please?" She asked, glancing back over her own shoulder to peer at the patiently waiting Loftwing. "I need to get inside- i-it's an emergency, actually."
Breathlessness had failed to portray whatever urgency may have been left in her voice at that point. Much of it had been numbed by fear in all honesty, so there may not have really been any.
Pipit nodded his head and darted toward the lower entrance. Absently, Tya mimicked his action, swaying the cascade of golden hair that kept her from watching him enter the large wooden doors. But she heard them close with a rather hefty thud, and slid herself back to her feet.
She'd just begun the process of shoving her hair out of her face and working through a few tangles that had formed in her brief foray out on her own Loftwing, when the door's she waited at were pulled open. Pipit stood there with two others. Tya knew one of them- Karane. The young girl spoke to Zelda often since they were neighbors, and she'd seen her a few times here and there. And she knew the same could have been said for the boy that followed, but in such a skewed state, she couldn't rummage the depths of her mind to remember the somewhat thick-set, meek brunette's name.
"Please-" she started, her voice breaking under the pressure of their concern ridden gazes. She really had no idea where else to go with that statement. It was all she could muster, but her company spoke for itself. Everyone would know the Loftwing most definitely wasn't hers, as a Crimson Loftwing was a rarity and only one was known. It's owner, Link, was also known, even if he couldn't currently be seen in the comfortable cradle of his mount's grasp.
Fortunately, it was all she really needed to say it seemed, because it clicked in each of them a second after. Pipit took control quick, rushing toward the bird to start getting his classmate down, and Karane, after a very brief second of freezing, turned to order their third to fetch the Headmaster.
While Pipit coaxed Link's unconscious form down, careful not to hurt him or drop him, Karane looked at Tya, practically demanding answers she didn't have.
"I don't know," Tya confessed under the hard stare. "I don't- I'm sorry."
Karane said nothing, only waved for her to come in as Pipit secured Link on his back. He had to wiggle a bit to get him in a place comfortable enough to carry, but it worked out, and he kept him stable with a grip on his thighs.
Tya complied with Karane's ushering and didn't fight the fact that, as she neared, there was an arm set around her shoulders either as a means to guide her or comfort her or both.
The long painted nails of one hand raked the back of the other as she was guided down a curved flight of stairs and to a room currently empty. The nameplate next to the door had indicated that it was Link's, and this entire train of thought was a completely useless one. It was, however, better than the alternative, which was thinking about the situation.
She clung to that realization and, in her panic and attempt to run away from the problem, she completely ignored Pipit as he entered and gently eased Link onto the bed with Karane's help. Instead, she busied herself with the very first thing she noticed- textbooks. Wildly interesting. Absolutely riveting. She was thrilled.
...She wasn't thrilled.
She couldn't even concentrate on the words.
Karane headed for the door, to do what, Tya didn't know. But Pipit turned and pulled the chair from Link's desk out to offer to her. Somewhat hesitantly, she nodded and lowered into it, smoothing her dress once, then twice, then three times because it was the only thing she could think to do with her hands as she'd left the textbook laying just out of arm's reach.
"What happened?" Pipit asked her.
She knew he was going to but that didn't mean she was happy about the development because it had been less than five minutes and, to no one's surprise, she still did not know the answer. All she did know, was that Zelda was gone, Link was knocked the fuck out, and she was regretting having left the house that morning.
She relayed most of this information, excluding the regret and the words that might just get her mouth washed out with soap even despite the situation. Pipit, unsure of what to do about being given nothing, stood and headed to the door as well. Unlike both Karane and the other boy, he did not leave. Instead, he just leaned out and was comforted by the fact that someone else was just arriving to take over.
Once again, she was asked what happened, this time by Gaepora. And once again, Tya answered with honesty, taking care not to express how aggravated she was getting with the fact that everyone was asking her instead of… Well there was no 'instead of'. It was a perfectly logical thing to do, but she was overwhelmed and anger was far more comfortable to her than fear and worry for someone else.
What happened next, she tuned out of. She was of no help in it. She possibly could have been but no one asked it of her, and she elected to instead just lay her head on the desk and focus solely on breathing since it was currently something she was doing terribly at.
They went about their business, rushing here and there to take care of Link and get him comfortable. And she relaxed, wishing she'd be able to fall asleep then and there and possibly wake up to realizing this was a prank, a nightmare, or a whole overreaction and Zelda was currently up in her room just having forgotten about Link.
She wouldn't have done that, Tya knew. Wishful thinking, she guessed, even if it was a bit cruel in Link's direction.
It honestly felt like forever before Gaepora turned to her. He set a hand on her shoulder to get her attention, and she popped up with a little bit of surprise. She was eased by his presence, and he patted her on the back. "We will handle things from here, Miss Maraise," he assured her, voice soft and gentle. She knew it was a ploy to make her feel better. She could see it in his eyes, the concern for Zelda. She wasn't stupid, no, she was too observant for her own good. It was all she did when she'd go out, people watching. She'd picked up on so many things like that that he couldn't hide it from her even though she desperately wished he could and that she could just believe that and go home.
"Pipit," he said to the boy. "Would you escort her home, please?"
He nodded his head, stepping forward and extending an arm out for her. It was embarrassing in a way, to be treated like a Lady, but she didn't make a fuss. She rose and set her hand on his arm to allow herself to be led.
They moved in a tense silence. She had questions about what they'd do and when they'd do it and how she could help, but she didn't ask them. In part, this was because she was just too damn tired to carry out the conversation required for it. It felt like her mind was fried by all the horribly frayed ends of this situation she couldn't fix. The other part was a much more simple one: she didn't want to wake any of the creatures that would get aggressive at their presence.
"Do you need me to stay with you?" Pipit asked as they got within a short distance of her little cottage home.
"No," she replied. She wondered if it was a lie, because she did want to be alone, or at the very least, she didn't want to be spoken to. But what was she going to do all alone? "Thank you."
The answer to that thought was 'sit and worry'. She closed the door behind her and darted to her bedroom, pulling her hair back and twisting it just to keep it out of her way while she sat on the edge of the bed and doubled over. Her arms crossed between her chest and her knees and she let out a small frustrated whine over her own uselessness.
For a good twenty minutes, Tya couldn't bring herself to move from that position. Somehow it was helping her breathe though logically it seemed like it shouldn't have. She only moved when she had worked herself into a list of things to do- a list of things to focus on aside from that.
She needed to wash her face first. She'd been outside all day and she was wearing make-up. She'd slept in eyeliner numerous times, but she knew it wasn't good for her, so she needed to wash her face.
She rose and headed to the bathroom to do just that.
Second, she needed to brush her teeth.
Well. Second was actually that she should get something to eat as she hadn't done it all day, but she elected to opt out of that one. She wasn't confident in her ability to keep it down, so she moved teeth brushing up the list. It was unfortunate because without cooking anything, it bumped out a whole section of the schedule.
Worrying about the end of what she needed to do wouldn't help, so she backtracked to get to number three: Change clothes.
She returned to her bedroom and her determination dwindled to almost nothing as she looked down at her dress. She'd unpinned the sailcloth at some point, leaving it to lay sprawled on the edge of the bed, and now all she could do was think about the fact that Zelda had helped her with this dress.
Red was not her color. She should have dressed in something with a cool tone. Zelda had always said that she looked best in cool tones. Blues in particular as they brought out the ice of her eyes and were beautifully offset by the gold of her hair. But Tya liked red and this dress, and Zelda was thrilled that she liked something.
Goddess, she was never going to see her again, was she?
She'd fallen through the clouds, hadn't she?
Again, Tya lowered herself to the edge of the bed, staring idly at the adjoined bathroom she'd just left as she thought over that sentiment.
She had one friend. Just the one.
She had never thought herself unfortunate over that fact- it was what she preferred. What she was used to, she supposed.
But perhaps she was unfortunate. She'd never had a lot of people in her life.
First her father, then her mother, and now Zelda.
Perhaps it was her?
She shifted some.
She wasn't a bad person.
She wasn't a good person either, though.
Was that the problem?
It wasn't as if she just stood by and allowed bad things to happen, of course. Truly, there wasn't a lot of bad things to go around here in Skyloft.
No... It wasn't a question of her morality, it was a matter of her birth, and she knew it… Her mother had never outright stated they were monstrous, but she had said that they were strange and that this thing that they held was something to be controlled and kept quiet. Something to ignore and dismiss- it was all in the implication, that they were freaks. Was that the problem, then?
Her blood having been tainted by Goddess knew what?
She'd read many times, of Skyloft's origin. Of the fact that they were saved from the surface, from a horrible war of monsters by the goddess Hylia. She'd read that those monsters often held magics similar to her own. Magic seeped from whatever lay far below Skyloft, magic stolen from the golden goddesses that granted Hylia her right to hold the triforce, magic from so many other sources that were either fiction or not. But on the side of the Goddess…?
Only she held the power… Only Hylia herself held any power the Golden Goddesses left behind, and hers was one far unlike that which Tya held in her palms.
This was not a new thought to her. It had occurred to her from time to time, that perhaps she was a monster. That perhaps the reason this fire pooled in her blood and ached to be set free, was because she was born of something horrible that was never meant to find its way onto Skyloft. Perhaps the reason that she was meant to keep it all inside and bleed herself dry just to escape having to use it, was because the Hylians around her all knew that only those touched by the Goddesses themselves should ever be allowed to hold what she held.
And perhaps that was why Zelda was gone.
Perhaps that was why her father was gone.
Hm…
Tya laid back on her bed, curling and pulling her blankets to her chest, clutching them there and nuzzling into them.
She wanted to sleep.