Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda series or Skyward Sword; it belongs to Nintendo.
Note 1: some dialogue might be taken directly from the game, particularly the dialogue I used for Goselle; this is because I want the scene to fit with how these moments went down within the game itself.
Note 2: This fic is based on the Wii version of Skyward Sword, not the HD version. They removed the Sheikah Stone in the HD version, so if you're reading the part with the Sheikah Stone like "...? What's this?" that might be why.
Also, I'm not sure whether the Sheikah Stone reacts in the same way as a Gossip Stone when you throw a bomb at it or not... but since they're the same basic type of thing, and since they look pretty similar just with different coloration, I'm going with the idea that it does, for the sake of the fic. :P
Note 3: ...This started out as a silly fic idea about Skyloft residents thinking Link is clumsy when he's actually breaking stuff on purpose. Then, when I got around to writing the thing, it somehow turned into an outsider's pov introspective on Link's actions and potential emotional state throughout his journey through the events of Skyward Sword instead.
I'm not quite sure how this happened, but I like the scenes I've written here, so I'm not gonna worry about it LOL
Five Times Link's Actions Confused People On Skyloft, And One Time Someone Understood
1: The training posts
Eagus gaped at the log he had just assigned Link to swing at. That kid's a lot stronger than he looks. He chopped that thing in half with a dulled practice blade!
He watched, intrigued, as Link continued to make his way through the training course...and absolutely demolishing all the training posts in the process. If he's this intense when he does everything, it's no surprise he's known for being someone you don't want to let around the eggs, so-to-speak.
But considering the grace of his movements when he's holding that sword...I wonder what he could accomplish with a real blade in his hands.
An image of Link running around Skyloft chopping down trees for firewood with a single strike sprang into his mind, and Eagus found himself snickering.
The denizens of Skyloft, letting Link of all people run around hacking at things with a sword? That'll be the day.
A few minutes later, and Link had completed the course, dashing out the door the moment he finished. Well he's certainly in a hurry today...
As Link disappeared around the corner, Pippit waltzed into the sparring hall. "Everything's almost ready for the cere-mo...ny..." he trailed off as he caught sight of the bisected posts littering the floor. "What in the four great-winds happened here?!"
Eagus shrugged, and gestured out the doorway. "Link came by. Wanted to take a sword out with him so he could go through the cave safely to find his bird."
"Link did all this? Gah, what am I saying?! Knowing him? Of course he did." Pippit shook his head and sighed. "Well, I suppose we needed some new posts, anyway."
2. Kitchen pots
Henya was minding her own business, washing the dishes from breakfast, when suddenly there was a dark blur of flurried green dashing through the kitchen, followed by a loud CRASH from the corner where her kitchen pots were kept. Whirling around, she saw Link surrounded by fragments of one of the pots. Not again...
(This sort of thing happened way too often. So much so that it had gotten to the point where she honestly didn't care that much about the pots themselves. However, the part of her that just got done sweeping the floor...)
"What do you think you're doing?! You'd better clean that up!"
Link straightened from his crouch beside the now-broken pot, looking over to where Henya stood with her hands on her hips. There was a wild look in his eyes, combined with a frantic exhaustion that spoke of deep worry.
Henya frowned. Even on his worst days, this wasn't like him. Did something happen? She wondered. The two of them stared at each other, and for a moment, it seemed that Link might be about to kick the other pots and smash them too, just to have done with it. A beat passed, and Link groaned and put his face in his hands, dropping wearily into a chair. "Sorry. About the pot. I- where's the broom? I'll...I'll clean it."
She studied him as he sat slumped over the table and rubbing his eyes, noting that the green blur she'd seen earlier was, in fact, a brand-new Skyloft Knight's uniform. He had a brand-new shield as well, along with several new pouches, and...sweet Hylia, was that a sword?! Ah, well. If Eagus thought the boy was ready to handle a weapon like that, then she supposed that was that. It's not like she knew much of anything about handling weaponry.
The point was, fancy new clothes aside, Link looked rather the worse for wear.
Henya turned back to her dishes. However, she couldn't help wondering- if Link had done well in the ceremony and graduated to Knighthood, why did he look like he'd just lost his best friend?
"You doing alright, young man?"
Link took a deep breath, sighed, and lifted his head to look past the wall. "Not really." Without clarifying that statement, he stood and went to the closet, found a broom, and started rummaging around for a dustpan. Henya stepped over to the shelf where it was kept, and brought it over to him, dangling it in front of his face where he was leaning over the supplies bin. He blinked at it, rolled his eyes, and grabbed it. Shutting the closet behind him, he moved over to where the broken pot lay and began to gather the pieces.
A minute later, he spoke again, a visible tension in his shoulders. "Zelda's gone missing."
The plate Henya was washing fell into the water with a plop. "Zelda's what?!"
Link swallowed. "Missing. I- There was a- Some sort of dark whirlwind took her through the clouds. She's fallen to the Surface." He looked up at Henya from where he knelt on the floor with the dustpan, eyes burning with both determination and fear. "And I'm going to go find her."
Henya stared at him, wide-eyed. Zelda's missing?
...
Zelda's missing, and Link is going to go rescue her. Yes. I see now. Henya cast a more discerning eye over Link's attire, taking note that the pouches she had noticed earlier were the special ones used to hold potions for people going on long exploration missions and trips to distant islands.
Well, then. I suppose I can forgive his absentminded clumsiness just this once. If my Rusta went missing, I might accidentally smash a pot, too.
She frowned. I don't see much in the way of food on him, however. What if he gets down to the Surface and everything is poisonous? All the stories I ever heard of the Surface say there are things of great evil down there- he may not be able to forage for what he needs...
She took the broom and dustpan from his hands, setting them to the side and shoving him into a chair. "Sit."
"Huh?"
"Sit."
Stepping into the pantry, she took stock of what was likely to keep that she could do without for now. Hmm...there's pumpkin soup, fried zucchini, boiled smallbird eggs, mixed berries stamina fruit, stamina juice... Packing a food-storage pouch full of various dried berries, vegetables, a boiled egg or two, and a large parcel of fried kale, she looked around for something a bit more filling to send...Aha! There was a nice baked potato she'd made that morning to eat as a little tide-me-over before it came time for her to make lunch...
This was more important.
Link startled from his reverie as a food pouch was plunked down in front of him, immediately followed by a large plate of squash and potato. Henya was standing by the table, arms crossed. "Eat."
He blinked. "Eat?"
She shot him a glare. "Eat."
"But you've never let us eat in-between mealtimes before!" He sputtered.
"Well, you've never gone on a dangerous quest to save the headmaster's daughter from an uncertain fate immediately after being knighted, either. I'm not letting you go a-questing on an empty stomach. Eat."
Link opened his mouth to say something, then closed it as he thought better of it. Hesitantly, he speared some potato on a fork and popped it in his mouth, watching as Henya took the dustpan and broom and finished cleaning the remnants of the pot, which he had nearly forgotten in his confusion about the food.
He ate the food that was offered to him as quickly as he safely could, then gathered his things, taking the pouch of food and placing in on his belt. He stood, and headed for the door, but paused as he reached the entry to the cafeteria. "Henya?" he called.
"Hm?" She turned her head towards him from where she stood with her dishes. "You done?"
"I- yeah. I'm done."
"Good. Just put your plate in the sink, and I'll make sure to wash it with the others."
"Alright. And Henya-"
"Yes?"
"I, um. Thank you."
"Ah, don't mention it, boy. Off you go, now. No sense wasting time here when you've got a girl to save."
"Right." He turned and made for the front entrance. placing his hand on the handle. He cleared his throat. "Right. Here I go."
And there he went.
3: The broken chandelier
Pumm stared in outraged disbelief at the shattered remains of his precious chandelier littering the floor. He'd heard of that Link boy's clumsiness before, had come to expect new stories every week or two coming from the Knights of Skyloft talking about him- apparently, the trainee managed to fall off of Skyloft often, and had to be caught because he wasn't at one of the designated platforms from which Skyloftians could safely call their birds- so yes, he had come to expect those stories about the Link boy, who was constantly running into things, falling off islands, chopping down plants in his attempts at waving his shiny new sword around (and where the heck had that come from, anyway? Who had thought that it was a good idea for Link of all people to have a sword?)...
While Pumm had known Link would probably one day break something of his, what he hadn't expected was for the broken something to be such a rare, beautiful, special piece of furniture-one of the things his establishment had become known for, as a holder of one of the ancient relics from the Time Before. (Before what, people weren't sure)
But there it was, staring him in the face. Link had somehow managed to trip off the railing on the upper floor, hard enough to knock his rare chandelier right down to the floor! Frankly, he was lucky nobody had been injured in the aftermath.
Link rose shakily to his hands and knees and reached into the crystal shards of the ruined artifact, plucking something from the wreckage and stuffing it in his shirt, but right at that moment Pumm couldn't have cared less about whatever small shiny trinket Link had found- he had more important things to worry about. Like how he was going to get reimbursed for such a priceless piece of decor when it was likely Link barely had the rupees to support himself, let alone pay for something so expensive.
Let it never be said that Pumm was an unfair man. Link was at fault for breaking the chandelier...but the poor boy couldn't help being a klutz.
He'll just have to work off the debt, I suppose. What should I have him do? Cleaning tables? Washing dishes? If Kina has her way, he'll probably be out helping her stack pumpkins, and that...
He shuddered at the thought of the sheer number of pumpkins he was likely to lose if that ever happened.
I'll have him deliver soup for now... that should be a safe enough chore for someone like him.
4: Goselle's antiques
Goselle had turned her back on Skyloft's walking disaster for all of two seconds! Honestly, what was the boy even doing in her house in the first place?
To be sure, everyone got bored on Skyloft every now and then, and it wasn't as though very many people kept a closed-door policy on Skyloft. Goselle's antique collection was a prime attraction for people to come and see, even if they had already seen it a dozen times before...But Link was a new graduate, wasn't he? Didn't he have knightly things to be doing?
Speaking of her antiques, there was a little something she was going to have to clear up. She snapped her antique fan towards Link.
"You broke my antique! Next time that happens, we're going to have words!"
(Of course, most people wouldn't even get that much of a warning before she started demanding compensation...but everyone knew Link couldn't help crashing around into everything. But then, that's what comes of rolling everywhere instead of taking the time to stop and smell the heart flowers. You miss important details, such as the wall of precious artifacts standing right in front of you)
Link at least had the grace to look sheepish. Unfortunately, this did not prevent him from crashing into the shelf again only moments later.
Sweet Hylia, this boy...
"You broke my antique! That's it! You break it, you buy it! Let me see now... That was a very expensive antique, so about 20 rupees should suffice!" Really, 20 rupees only covered the physical cost of that item...Perhaps she should charge extra for the emotional cost if this happened again.
Link raised an eyebrow at her.
"What's that look for?"
He gestured to the pieces of her once-beautiful antique vase, and shot her a questioning look. Suddenly, she remembered that one of Link's parents had been a potter.
Great. He thinks he knows how much that vase was worth. He's probably right, whatever he's thinking...My son bought that vase for me, after all. But what if the actual price is below what I think it should be? Hmph!...
"Oh, you think I'm just making that number up? That's ridiculous! I know the value of every item in my possession, and I intend to be compensated in full!"
Link handed over the full 20 rupees, but Goselle could practically feel the disapproval and irritation radiating off of him as he did so. Then he turned around and dashed back out the door.
Poor boy. She hoped she hadn't accidentally cheated him out of pride.
Interlude~Link's POV
What Goselle didn't know was that the vase, being of a very high quality indeed, was actually worth more than she had asked for.
Not that Link was about to tell her that, just now... He needed his rupees for potions and shields and other necessary items if he was going to continue his quest on the Surface. Frankly, if he hadn't been so frustrated about everything, he wouldn't have even gone in there.
A part of him felt bad about breaking Goselle's antiques, but there had been such a string of stressful events, each one immediately following the other...
Zelda's sudden trip through time, fighting the Imprisoned again, making nice with that stupid robot, and then having to fight that damn parasite that had been affecting Levias...by the time he'd gotten done with all of that, he'd needed to break something, and the usual throwing pots and hacking at grass just weren't cutting it. So, he'd seen Goselle's door, and recalled that she had a lot of valuable, fragile antique ceramics...
It was just so much more satisfying breaking something that, while expensive, wasn't really important in the grand scheme of things. That didn't make it okay for him to cheat her like this, though. 20 rupees, indeed!
He'd have to pay her the true amount later. Once his quest was completed, and he had Zelda back.
5: The Skyloft Sheikah Stone
Fledge watched as Link ran up to the funny-looking bobbly statue for the seventh time that day. As always, he stood in front of it, seeming to be asking it something, waving his hands in the air like he did when he was getting really into whatever he was saying.
The statue wobbled back and forth in a manner unlike what one would expect from an object made of stone. However, considering the sheer number of crazy things Link had been telling him could be found on the Surface, Fledge supposed a wobbly-bobbly stone statue wasn't too hard to accept. (Seriously, time-travelling stones that sent you to the distant past when you hit them? He'd have to see it to believe it.)
It was still pretty bizarre, though. He wondered what the statue was supposed to be for, since Link visited it so often. Some way of learning about things on the Surface, perhaps? A statue for communicating with the gods?
Ah, well. It was no matter. Time for Fledge to get back to his brand-new workout routine! Time waits for no man, and Fledge had a lot of training to make up for if he ever wanted to make it to knighthood. He made his way back to his quarters and started doing stretches.
Ten minutes later, he was in the middle of his first round of push-ups when he heard a loud, irritated, familiar yell coming from outside.
Deciding his workout routine could wait a bit, Fledge slipped back out to see what Link was up to. As he went around the corner towards the courtyard, he could hear Link shouting at the statue. "I've tried to use that tip you gave me! I've been looking everywhere in that whole area and I still haven't found it! I need you to show me something else! Something...Something more helpful!"
The statue wobbled a bit more. Was it... somehow talking to Link? Huh. Weird.
As the statue seemed to finish speaking, Link closed his eyes and clenched his hands in his hair. "I told you I tried that already! This is- I- that's- you...Ugh!" He growled in frustration and started digging through his adventurer's bag. "Y'know what?! I've had it with you, you- you- annoying, unhelpful, repetitive-" He found the pouch he was looking for, and reached inside, pulling out a strangely-shaped blue bulbous flower.
Fledge startled backward. He'd seen some of those in Rupin's shop! Weren't those...bomb flowers?! Those things were dangerous if you didn't know how to handle them! And there Link was, just casually lobbing one towards the funny statue! "Link! Wait, you might-"
BOOM!
After the ground stopped shaking from the force of the explosion, the air began to clear, and Fledge peered hesitantly into the remaining smoke from the blast, expecting to see the poor wobbly-bobbly statue cracked and broken. But to his surprise, the statue was still there, plain as day!
Or, well...it had been there, he thought, as suddenly the statue began to rise into the air, seeming to be propelled by...was that fire?! How in the four winds was the statue making fire?
Fledge stood there in awe as the statue continued rising further, up- up- up...and then, boom! It exploded!
He turned to Link, hoping he was seeing this too and it wasn't just his imagination going haywire from one too many sleepless nights doing push-ups, only to find Link standing there seething, breathing heavily with his hands curled into fists.
"So there!" Link yelled. "Stupid chunk of wobbly rock..." He grumbled to himself.
Fledge cleared his throat. "Uh, Link?"
"...doesn't give me hints that make sense..."
"Link?"
"...except when it does, which is why I keep coming back to the stupid thing..."
"LINK!"
Link whirled around. "Fledge! Hey! I- uh. Did you see that?"
"See that? I think you mean did I hear that! I'm pretty sure everybody on Skyloft heard that explosion!"
"Oh..."
"Yeah, 'oh'. And what's with you, anyway, exploding that ancient statue? You said yourself that it's helping you on your quest somehow, and now you've gone and blown it up! Who knows how old that thing was? And now you've destroyed it."
Link cleared his throat. "Um. It...those things always come back. I'm pretty sure they can't be destroyed."
"Can't be destroyed?" Fledge frowned. "Link, are you sure you're alright? You saw it explode. I saw it explode. The remlits saw it explode. The statue is gone, flew up into the sky and-" Link tapped his arm. He stopped talking. "What?"
Link pointed behind him. Fledge turned around and froze in shock.
The statue was sitting there behind him, whole and clean, as if it had never been destroyed in the first place.
Fledge blinked. "Huh."
He turned to Link, tilting his head. "...you got any more of those bomb flowers?"
+1: Skyview Temple
"Hyah!" CRASH-
...Groose wasn't really sure what to do in this situation.
"Hyah!" CRASH-
He'd seen Link go through a lot of different emotional states over the last few weeks—worry, relief, frustration, awe, intrigue, excitement... He'd seen him terrified out of his mind yet still manage to stand his ground. During his time on the Surface, watching Link go through many different trials, Groose felt as though he was seeing a side of Link he'd never known existed. Then again, he never gave himself the chance to know it existed, considering how he'd treated Link all these years...
But this? This was yet another new side to Link. One Groose wasn't sure how to deal with.
This was a Link that was absolutely furious.
"Hyah!" CRASH-
Though, to be completely honest, Groose wasn't particularly pleased at the moment, either. Zelda had been right there. She'd been so close...but neither Groose nor Link had been able to stop that creepy diamond dude from taking her right out from under their noses.
"Hyah!" CRASH-
So, it wasn't so much that he didn't understand how Link was feeling, or why he felt that way...
No, what he didn't understand was the reason why Link was running around the temple smashing pots, instead of going after Zelda, or at least going back to Skyloft to gather supplies.
As Link reached for yet another pot and raised it above his head, Groose finally decided that enough was enough.
"Hya-" Link's cry cut off short as Groose snatched the pot from him. They stared at one another, a pensive silence filling the space between them as the air grew tense with emotional friction. Then, Groose broke the moment by lifting the pot over his own head and throwing it at the wall himself.
CRASH
Link gazed blankly at the pottery shards littering the floor where Groose had smashed the pot, feeling numb and worn-out. All that time...all that work...and for what? Zelda was gone...again.
Groose turned to Link, arms crossed over his chest and a glint in his eye. "Are you done wasting time? Or are you planning to hunt down every piece of crockery on the Surface?"
Link stared at him with a weary, pained expression. "How many times?"
Groose frowned, confused. "Huh?"
"How many times is this going to happen? I come to the Surface to search for Zelda, I'm just...just barely too late. I finally catch up with her, and she goes back to the past. I manage to complete everything so I can go to the past to meet her, and she goes into a thousand-year sleep. I go through trial after trial to prove myself so that I can get the Triforce and awaken her...and then she's kidnapped by that stupid, overbearing, tongue-wagging jerk-"
Link cut himself off, shaking his head and burying his hands in his hair. He sank down onto a nearby stool, an exhaustion borne from long hours and days and weeks of fighting and fighting and fighting painting his features. "How much more is this going to take? Am I doomed to be forever chasing after Zelda, only to have her snatched away again?"
"How much longer is this going to go on, Groose? I don't...I'll go as long as I can. For her sake. For Skyloft's sake. I'll fight as much as I have to, as long as I can, but... I just...I don't know how long I can keep this up."
Groose settled onto the ground beside him. He looked across the temple to the murals depicted on the wall. After a few moments sitting in contemplative silence, he spoke. "Link... Do you know why I hid your bird?"
Link blinked at him in confusion. "What?"
"Your loftwing. On the day of the graduation ceremony. I hid him away so you wouldn't be able to find him in time to participate."
"Of course I remember. I figured you hid my bird because you were jealous of...well...my friendship with- with Zelda. But that's old history at this point... Why bring it up now?"
"...I didn't hide your bird because of your friendship with Zelda."
"...Huh?"
"I- okay, look. I was jealous of your friendship with Zelda. She's the most beautiful girl in Skyloft, and smart, and talented. Who wouldn't want her to like them? So sure, I was jealous. But..that wasn't all of it."
Link tilted his head.
Groose sighed, and shifted to lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. "Ever since we were little, there's just been...something different about you. Whether it was the way you picked up new skills, or how people looked to you when they needed help- even the way you acted when you messed something up. I never knew what it was...but I could see that you had something special that I didn't, a sense of inner purpose and a natural ability to act that drew people to you, and I treated you the way I did because I was jealous of that." He hesitated, then added, "And for what it's worth...I'm sorry about all that. It was- wrong of me, being mean to you like that."
Link shrugged. "It's...Well, it is what it is. Like I said, that's the past now."
"Good." Groose rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm...glad that we can be friends, now." He cleared his throat. "But that's not what I'm trying to say."
He sat up, and looked towards the giant, ancient tree that had been planted both a few days and a millennia ago. "Link. That special thing you have, that inner strength which inspires others to do their best...it's the reason I know you can save Zelda from that creepy guy. You had the audacity to stand up to a giant purple monster a hundred times your size three different times, with nothing but a sword and shield and your own wits."
"You've been exploring the Surface, and fighting creatures we of Skyloft had only heard about from legends, and you not only survived to tell about it- you defeated them. Every single challenge that's been set before you in this crazy place, you've met it head-on, and won! And that's how I know that this Demise fellow that's trying to use Zelda for...for whatever he wants? He doesn't stand a chance against you, so long as you're determined to face him." He punctuated this statement by pounding a fist into his palm.
"But, Link? The thing is..." He turned to look Link straight in the eye. "You're not gonna find the things you need to save Zelda by wasting energy on throwing pots. You're gonna find it by preparing yourself here-" he tapped Link's traveling pack of bottles and items, which had been discarded on the floor- "...and here." He poked Link in the chest.
Link stared. When did Groose get so wise? "I...I don't know what to say, Groose. But... you're right. Enough time has been wasted already."He glanced around the temple, then stood and put his pack and his sword on his back.
"Let's go kick Ghirahim off his fancy-feathers, and get Demise while we're at it."
Author's Note:
I feel like the tone of this fic is a bit back-and-forth like it can't decide if it wants to be silly, serious, or somewhere in-between...
There's a reason for that. It's called "I wrote some of the scenes as silly scenes when I first started this fic, and then the fic grew a plot and the tone of the scenes I wrote later was way different." LOL
But I hope this fic was still enjoyable, anyway. :)
