Chapter 7

I hadn't slept. I stayed awake in that tree, quietly crying and watching time pass. I couldn't go back to Skyloft, I couldn't go to the one person on the surface who let me have a place to stay. I didn't know what to do. I was not going to survive out here for long.

I climbed down from my tree and collected my bag, bow, and arrows. I began to trudge through the forest down any path I could find. If I got off the path, I'd find another, then rinse and repeat. I walked for a couple of hours. It was a bad time of year. The fruits were all dried up and spoiled from the sun. Bugs ate at my face. I was back to feeling how I did three days ago. Except this time, instead of feeling free and renewed I felt lonely and pathetic.

I paid no attention to any animal or creature that spotted me. I kept my head down, my hair now getting knotted by the humid breeze. I could hear some of those dumb pig-guys squeaking at each other, but instead of attacking me, they looked like they didn't want to be around me either. Guess I'm too much of a freak for them too.

Because I hadn't lifted my head for a while, I had no clue where I was going. My stomach growled and my mouth was chapped. I was way too in my head to have had a destination in mind. Regardless, I finally looked up when I thought I saw a dead-end in front of me. It wasn't a dead-end though, it was a big ancient door. I reached out my hand and push them open. They were heavy but felt like they were used recently.

Inside was dim. The ceiling was cracked and let in some speckled sunlight. In the middle of the building, there was a large gear turning slowly. It gave off a very old feeling yet it glowed like it was new. In front of the gear was a platform and a person sat meditative with a cloak draped over them. I walked behind them. They were facing a room with a sword in a pedestal. I focused and I realized it was the legendary Master Sword. I gasped in awe.

"Ya' like what ya' see?" A low, quirky, voice spoke from the person in front of me. They began to stand up. They were a lot taller than I was expecting. The hood of the cloak fell back and a bright red pompadour popped out. They turned around and it was a man I had never seen or heard of before. My mind gave him a strong rusty-trombone theme just from looking at him.

"Ummm," I didn't know how to respond to that.

"It ain't er'yday someone from your generation gets to meet a legendary hero." He posed perilously. I smiled awkwardly at him. What was he doing down here? How did Link never mention this guy? Was he just a poser?

"I'm sorry, what is your name?" I asked politely. His face went pale with shock, his face exaggerated every expression he made. He began to tear up but went into a fake coughing fit to pull himself together.

"The Glorious Groose?" He said as though it would ring some sort of bell for me. "The great inventor of the groosenator?" I shook my head, "the keeper of the sacred grounds?" I knew there was someone who kept the sacred grounds, so I nodded as if I knew who he was. "Thank heavens!" He laughed in relief. "I almost thought ol' Linky forgot to mention me when telling people our story up there!" I nodded and laughed to play along.

"Yeah, I must have just forgotten. My bad." I shrugged.

"Well, settle down! Humans rarely come down here except for knighting ceremonies, I'd be happy to host ya'!" He slicked back his hair, but it just popped straight back up. He walked over to a pot in the corner and reached in to pull out a loaf of bread. He grabbed another pot and brought it over to where I was. He sat on the steps to the giant gear. He took a huge bite from the loaf of bread and then motioned for me to sit next to him. I did. He handed me the bread, I took a bite from the other end. It tasted dusty. He handed me the large pot of water and I drank as much as I could.

"Thank you." I smiled at him.

"Of course! Nothing an old human can't do for another human or whatever ya' are." He laughed and took another bite from the loaf of bread. I was confused, he noticed I was different but didn't care?

"You're not scared?" I asked him. He looked at me and busted out laughing. He had the deepest loudest chuckle I've ever heard. I started to think, I don't think anyone has ever laughed that genuine around me.

"No offense, sweat-pea, but why should I be scared of you?" He handed to loaf back to me. I took another big bite. After I finished chewing and looked at him. I pushed my hair back behind my ears.

"Because I'm different," I emphasized, pointing at my ears. I was a bit annoyed with him acting like nothing was wrong with me. He just kept laughing.

"Listen sweat-pea, I've been down here over seventeen years. I've seen rock-guys, fish-gals, dragon-peeps, floating-chicks, and a giant-ass black thumb of a monster. So what if you look a little funky?" He took the pot and drank some water, but he spilled a lot on his clothes, which just made him laugh some more. "Besides, you ain't the only girl with roundy ears. I had that girl come through way-back-when when I first gots here." My head shot up and looked at him.

"W-what?" I asked in shock.

"Yeah, she was real messy. She looked like she had just went to hell and back again. It was funny, the only other time I hads seen her was a few days before when she stopped by after coming's back from Skyloft. She gave me some lumpy pumpkin soup she had bought. She was real pregnant too!" He started to have another laughing fit but I stared at him anxiously for him to keep talking. He calmed himself down. "Well, she came by again and like I said, she did not look well. She wasn't pregnant no more. I asked her where the baby was and she told me somewhere safe. So I was all like 'oh okay miss.' Then she asked to go in my groosenator. She wanted to be shot far far away. I told her that with how she looked that it might as well be suicide. Especially with where she wanted to go."

"Where did she go?!" I blurted out loudly.

"She wanted to go west. She said she needed to be shot as far west as she could. The only thing west is desert though."

"Who was she?!"

"Hold on, hold on" He tried to calm me down. "I gotta think!" He hummed. He handed me the remaining bread and I ate it quickly while waiting for him to remember.

"You know, I can't remember." He huffed. I groaned and leaned back on the steps annoyed. We both sat quietly. But then Groose snapped his finger. I looked around expecting something to have appeared or disappeared, but then I realized that he probably didn't have that power. "Capno!" He said in recollection. My eyes widened.

"Catto?!" I corrected him excitedly. He shook his head disagreeing.

"Nah, Capno." I rolled my eyes. I knew what he meant.

"Can you send me the same direction you sent her?" I asked.

"Well, sweat-pea, you aren't looking too hot and as I told her, it's a suicide mission to go towards the desert without proper equipment, especially water. You're already dehydrated as it is." He explained.

"I just ate and drank-"

"Not enough for the desert!"

"You have to send me over there, please!" I begged. He took a deep breath, thought for a second, and the looked at me.

"Alright." He stood up and set the pot of water down. We walked outside a different set of doors. The goddess statue stood high and elegant. We walked around and Groose brought me to a large catapult that was on a track around the statue. He helped me climb up and I got into the catapult.

"You have a sailcloth right?" He asked. I shooked my head. "You're definitely going to die." I laughed at his comment. I'd survived falling from the sky once, I could do it again. Right?

I balled myself up and felt him begin to crank back the machine. I closed my eyes and began to brace myself. Whoever Catto was, she had answers. I tried to think distracting thoughts, but unfortunately, there's no thought distracting enough to keep you from screaming as you feel all the force of the universe shoot you into the sky. I shot so far up that I could see Skyloft and I could make out images of loftwings weaving themselves through the sky. The upward motion made my stomach churn, but I forgot how much worse going down was.

I finished the top of my arc and began my descent. I quickly saw Skyloft disappear and the bright desert yellow glow beneath me. I could feel it getting warmer the closer I got to the ground. I only had one chance to get this right. I caught a glimpse of the loose sand I got stuck in before. I angled my feet towards it and hoped that I would land there. I closed my eyes and held my breath. When I landed it felt like a million hot needles stabbing me everywhere. I felt sand cover my whole body including my head. I was completely engulfed.

I stopped moving and sat there. I couldn't open my eyes. I didn't know how deep I was, I just knew I was hot and I need to get out. I slowly reached my arm as far up as I could. I felt my breath getting harder to hold. I kept reaching and hoping for one thing… air. My hand was above the sand, I could feel the warm breeze. I waved frantically, trying to get attention or feel for anything to grab onto. There was no ledge. I kept shaking my hand around. My breath got weaker. I could hear my heart pounding in my head. I felt sand in every crevice of my body. The more I tried to get out the further I knew I would sink. All I could hope is for someone to see me.

After what felt like an eternity of painful breath-holding, I finally let it go. My body gasped for air but was just greeted with sharp sand. I was losing energy from my hand waving. Maybe this was going to be it. I tried to hold my breath again but there was nothing to hold but a mouthful of sand. I felt my hand collapse on the burning sand. Then, I felt two sharp knives dig into my arm. It ripped me out of the sand and I coughed up so much sand. I was in immense pain. My arm was covered in blood. I looked up and the talons of a large bird were gripping tight. I took an arrow with my other hand and stabbed its leg. The talons release me and I fell twenty feet onto my back on a landing. As much as it hurt, I was relieved for solid land.

I stood up and shook off as much sand as I could. My arm was pouring blood. Two deep divots pooled up with blood. I held my arm close to my stomach and tried to compress it. It was hot, very hot, very sweaty, very sandy. I looked around. There was a large temple behind me, but there was a sign in the distance that I quickly hobbled towards. It read "Gorge" and pointed towards the left. I looked left and in the distance saw another large sand waterfall. I began to walk as fast as I could but I was still very slow. I was losing blood and losing a lot of water from the heat. I noticed a door within the waterfall, and there were stepping stones in front of it.

Once I made it to the stepping stones it took all my energy to build up the strength to jump each one. I made it underneath the door but I had no way of getting up there. I jumped back to the ledge and noticed some of the time-shift crystal next to a robot. I tapped the crystal and a small area around the robot shifted. He had a little propeller on his head.

"Can you take me up there?" I pointed to the door.

"Zrrt. What business do you have seeing Master Thunder Dragon while he is unwell?" He asked me. I rolled my eyes.

"I need his help, please let me up there!" I demanded.

"Negative."

"Please, it is about the Tree of Life," I said. The little robot looked at me.

"I will- zzttttrrttt- help you up there. You have valuable information for Master Thunder Dragon. Hold my hand." He beeped and buzzed, I held his hand and he lifted me about a foot, but as soon as we left the field of the crystal he fell to the ground. I groaned and grabbed an arrow and picked a large chunk of crystal off. I held it in my wounded arm and grab the robot's hand again. He lifted back to life and the crystal field surrounded us. He lifted me again, but instead of bringing me to the door, he lifted me higher and over the large mountain in my way. It was tiring holding my weight by one arm. I didn't know how much longer I could hold out. My vision was going in and out. There was a loud ringing in my head. I soon saw in the distance the dinky old hut and a large skeleton. The robot slowly brought me down and I immediately dropped the crystal and sat on the ground for a second.

I had stopped sweating, goosebumps and cold chills went down my spine. My clock was about to run out of time. I stood up on my feet and took a few steps, my vision was spotty and blurry. I saw a figure open the door to the small hut, but before I could move towards it, I fell on my side. I stared up at the sun and passed out.

"You promised me a whole lot more, so I figured this was a fair bargain." An eerie female voice laughed evilly.

"I'll give you power, I'll give you money! Just don't hurt them!" A familiar male voice begged.

"I don't negotiate!" She screeched.

"Ghirahim." Catto's voice spoke in the distance. "Goodbye."

"Catto, no!" The male voice was in fact Ghirahim's. The soft sound of a snap was heard.