Grandmother:
I know many legends.
I've heard them all. From the dawn of the world, to the far future when the tides will roll forward like scrolls and take the land back to the depths. Shall I tell you the stories? I know how the islands were formed from the primal deeps of the sea, hardened masses of deep water raised up to the surface. Yes, didn't you know Aryll? The ground you walk on is actually of the deepest ocean. All beneath your feet was once, and will be again, the ever-enduring ocean. The ocean which holds all legends equally silent, equally sure. Once, this Great Sea we live on was pure water, not a speck of dust or dirt on the still waters. Because there obviously were no waves, since there was no shore. Until the gods saw fit to raise up from the deepest parts of the sea the dark dark masses of water, crushed under the depths, formed into solid stone, and these emerged from below, becoming the islands we walk upon.
Link, you never liked that story did you? The thought of walking on the raised depths frightens you. It is that weight of eternity, isn't it? You do not like to think of something so long lasting, so ever present and unchangeable as the sea. I know my boy. Very well, let me tell you a different legend.
I did not come from Outset Island. I came from far away in the north, from Windfall Island. Haven't I told you about it? How the island got its name? It is said that the first settlers of Windfall arrived there through a terrible accident. They were travelers, on a large vessel from far, far out beyond the Great Sea, searching for new lands. But everywhere they went, they found islands teeming with monsters. They were in despair, running low of food and water. Then, one night, a storm came. The ship was swamped. Many were thrown into the endless sea, consumed (do not cringe children; I am only being dramatic). The main brace of the ship was torn apart. A family of the travelers, determined not to be separated even in death, grabbed the ropes of the main sail as it was loosed from the ship's frame. The heavy winds carried the family into the dark sky. They watched their ship sink beneath the waves, but never let go. They held onto one another through the storm, until at last their weight carried the sail down, miles away, onto an island so stricken with calm, that the wind seemed to die against its shoreline. For this reason, and for the way in which they fell to the island, blown by the wind, they called their new settlement Windfall.
Do you believe the legends Link? It is that Sturgeon I see in your eye whenever you smile at the old stories. You have a critical eye. You question, though you never reject. You will be wise, even if you do not yet know it. That intellectual buffoon has granted you his curiosity and his cutting knowledge, but you have been wise enough not to accept his cynicism.
Where was I? Ah yes, I was telling you a legend you would enjoy. Do you know how life began on the islands, for there was none there to begin with? The raised lands of the sea were barren and dull, all like the rocky reef north of us. This was unpleasing to the gods, so they sowed life among the islands, letting each grow as it would. Some raised only scant grasses, brush, insects, and monsters. Others brought forward all manner of animal and beast. But the luckiest were inhabited by creatures of mind. The Ruto, the fairies, us.
You've always such questions Aryll! You know I'll come to it in time, but you are always so impatient. To have such curious minds and be expected to fill them is beyond my power. But it does please me to know under this roof there is mind and thought. That you will not go the way of your grandfather, so unfeeling and closed off.
I was coming to your favorite story Aryll, yes. The legend of the kingdom lost to winds.
Before the raising of the lands of the Great Sea, far, far away there was a mighty kingdom, established upon a mass of land that was wider even than the sea. The people there were happy, living under the watch of the gods, who flooded the land in golden light. You always smile at that thought Aryll, of land farther than sea. I wish you could see it, a place unbound by shores or ocean. Where you can run as far north as your legs will carry you and never catch the horizon. Then turn and run twice as far south and find it still leading you on. I see you, sometimes, traipsing from our door step, up the side of the mountain, up your tower. It worries me, at times, that you feel caged in. Does this place stifle you Aryll? I always hoped that the legends would give you two a joy for your simple home, a place where you can be free of the troubles that always haunt legends. But that is not the way of children, I suppose.
One day, a great darkness choked the land, smothering the towns and people. The people prayed that the gods would drive back the darkness. In response, the gods sent a hero, clad in green, bearing a sword of golden light. The hero faced many dangers, overcame many obstacles, and ultimately, struck down the darkness, driving it from the land.
How you always look so bothered by that story Link. As if some part of it troubles you. To think of you my boy, so soon to inherit those garbs of legend. With Sturgeon's mind in you. With Orca's grace in your arm. And that concern on your face. Do you know what you make me think of? That I am seeing the hero of the legend, having his own story read to him, suffering from the weight of it. I believe you feel the same as I do Link, that we both look forward more to the end of your birthday, when you remove your hero's clothes and instead put on the simple ones of an island boy, the boy I have raised. I do not want a hero, who will go across the ocean, leaving me and your sister alone. I am content with the boy I've always known.
Didn't I tell you I came from Windfall? You've never seen that place have you? If anywhere is the capital of this Great Sea, it is that island. A writhing mass of people always fill its streets; sailors clog the ports with trading vessels, cargo ships, sometimes even pirate boats. It is the crossing point of the Sea, home to dozens of accents, hundreds of goods, thousands of legends. I grew up amid them all. I heard all the stories, saw the many travelers that told them. I was as eager as you for more, always curious. I wanted to travel the world. I even tried to sneak aboard the vessels in the harbor. I was always caught.
On that island, I met your grandfather, a fisherman. He was an older man, to be sure, but he had the longevity of the sea in him. Perhaps my girlish attraction to him was simply from him having come from across the sea. His body did not age so much as harden, toughened by the winds and the rain. He was quiet, like you Link. Something solemn stayed over him, something heavy. I tried to help him lift it, but he would not let me.
We only had one child, your mother, before he went out to sea and never came back. To this day, I feel certain that he did not drown or sink. After your mother was born, there were times when something came over your grandfather, a haunted look. As if he were trying to flee some great failure. It had come when I spoke of having children as well, and then after your mother came, a deep gloom followed. I tried to find what was hurting him so, but he would never tell me. He spoke once of a beast, I believe a monster of the sea that must have attacked his boat. There are old sailors who suffer such terrors and relive them nightly. Some are so desperate for peace, they sail back out into the storm, hunting their nightmare to the end of the sea. Whatever it was made it impossible for him to raise your mother with me. Don't look so fraught Aryll. I hold no grudge against him. Do I look like I need some man to keep me propped up? Bah! Never believe it my child! I am a strong woman, just as you shall be one day! Quit that grinning Link!
Your grandfather mentioned that he had come from Outset Island, so I decided I would come here, at least once, to see if he'd returned home. I did not intend on staying. But when I arrived, I knew that my travels had both begun and ended. This place, it is the opposite of Windfall. There is such a silence here, such a weight of time. No bustle, no change. Only the calm wind, the call of the gulls, the heat of the sun. Windfall was a melting pot of legends and people, but this place is the source of such legends. A timeless land. So I stayed, without meaning to, simply falling into this land and never leaving.
Have you ever considered how people came to Outset Island? I'll bet you never have. It was long ago, long after the loss of the great kingdom. Oh, did I forget that part? I suppose I simply do not like sad endings. After the hero in green drove back the darkness, he went on a journey to a far away land. There, the legends of the hero end, for he vanished from history's pages, as if he had simply slipped out of this legend and into a different one, of a different place, a different world. But what remained behind was the darkness, beaten but not dead, growing, waiting. One day, the darkness returned, and there was no hero. The gods did not answer the people's prayers. The darkness swept over the land, unchecked, unstopped. And the history ends, with only the legend of the great kingdom remaining.
That is why you will wear the hero's clothes Link (only for a day!) In memory of the hero and his lost kingdom, whose legend survives on the wind. Because, the darkness might have overcome that lost land, but did it overcome its legacy? No. The kingdom still lives on, doesn't it, in this very story. We keep it alive. We keep the darkness from winning. Just think, in that way children, you are heroes, heroes of knowledge rather than power.
Do not fret Aryll, I'm getting to that! You are always so eager. Don't you know the best stories are built slowly? You will see all in time. Long after the kingdom was lost and the gods founded new lands here in the Great Sea, Outset was a broken crag of grassy rock in the midst of the ocean. However, it is said that Outset is the island closest to where the great kingdom once was, and that is why only Outset continues to garb its boys in green when they come of age. And it is believed that, perhaps, not all of the people from the great kingdom were lost. Some fled to the sea and, eventually, found the raised land that would become Outset Island. There they built a fishing community, the start of our own home.
Just think! Your wandering grandfather had the blood of the people of the lost kingdom in him. You are part legend my dears! I am not, having come from Windfall, but you are both made from the same things legends are made of. The shield on our wall is even supposed to be the very shield of the hero himself. Doesn't that excite you Link? That even here, on this tiny island, history can be found. The people of the great kingdom refuse to be forgotten.
I know all the legends. I've learned them well. And now, the time is coming for you, Link, when you will no longer be a boy. You will become a man, garbed in the green of the hero. And when that comes, I feel this island will not hold you long.
Children, I will not hold you back like my mother held me. The sea is wide, but your mind is wider. Even now I feel I hear the flapping of great wings, as if some great bird is coming to carry you off on the winds to an adventure, to a legend. And the laughter of my children will go with it, and the needful crying I tended will go, and the wicked grin of the mischief I taught will go. But not now, not so soon. Your old granny still needs you children. Let your legends rest. They can wait.
You'll enter a legend that I do not know. But do not forget home. Do not be like the hero of legend. Gone, with only darkness remaining.
The flapping is growing louder. I almost believe it is real.
